Read the full transcript of a conversation with Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford on moving ahead with tariffs on the U.S. on March 9, 2025.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
[INTERVIEWER:] Premier Ford, thank you for spending a few minutes with us, we appreciate it.
[DOUG FORD:] Well, thank you so much, Ed, for coming to our great city, Toronto.
[INTERVIEWER:] What is your understanding of where things stand with this new tariff war?
[DOUG FORD:] Well, there’s uncertainty right now. You know, nothing’s worse than uncertainty for investors, for people, for the market. And all I believe is we should sit down and re-look at the USMCA deal, that by the way President Trump created, and he said it was the greatest deal ever. So let’s fix it, and let’s grow our economy together. Let’s build an Amcan Fortress, and two greatest countries in the world to be stronger and richer and wealthier and more prosperous. That’s what we need to do.
Canada-U.S. Relations Under Strain
[DOUG FORD:] And they’re two greatest friends, greatest allies. I always start every interview, I love the Americans, I’ve spent 20 years of my life in the US in Chicago and New Jersey, and I know all Canadians love Americans. I know Americans love Canadians.
I’ve talked to many people, governors, senators, congressmen and women, and even Republicans behind closed doors are telling me this is the craziest thing they’ve ever seen. And they don’t know which is the next move for President Trump. The only person that knows is President Trump.
There’s talk, and by the time this interview is over, for all we know, he may announce that there’ll be a one-month reprieve for anything that’s manufactured and moved around under USMCA.
[INTERVIEWER:] That’s virtually everything in Ontario, right?
[DOUG FORD:] For the most part, there are a few items, but again, he said that before, and he switched his mind a few days later, or a week later. So once I touch a stove and I get burnt once, I don’t touch that stove again. He needs to drop all tariffs, we need to sit down, all three countries, and work out the USMCA deal.
[INTERVIEWER:] And somehow, all Mexican goods, for now at least, are exempt, so Mexico’s getting out of this.
[DOUG FORD:] Yes.
[INTERVIEWER:] Canada isn’t. Why do you think he’s, what’s he got against Canada?
[DOUG FORD:] I’m not too sure you’d have to ask President Trump this, but I’ll tell you, we’re the number one customer. We buy more goods than anyone in the world, more than Mexico. We buy over 400% more cars off the US than Mexico, 200% more than any other country in the world. We’re two of the greatest nations in the world. Let’s build. I always say, when it comes to the auto sector, you can’t unscramble an egg that’s been around since 1960, the auto pack. Let’s create a larger omelet. That’s what we need to do.
Discussions with U.S. Commerce Secretary
[INTERVIEWER:] You had a conversation this week with the Commerce Secretary of the United States, Howard Lutnick.
[DOUG FORD:] Yes.
[INTERVIEWER:] Our understanding is he got a little salty.
[DOUG FORD:] Well, I don’t call it salty. First of all, you know, Secretary Lutnick is an extremely smart individual. And I just, you know, asked him, you’ve seen the markets stumble, that’s his area of expertise. We have to put an end to this. This is mass chaos right now around North America, and actually around the world. Everyone’s watching. The two closest friends and allies, you know, how about a trade war? It’s unacceptable. So we need to get down to the brass tacks, sit down, and start hammering out this deal.
[INTERVIEWER:] He asked you to basically call off all the retaliatory tariffs on the United States?
[DOUG FORD:] To a certain degree.
[INTERVIEWER:] And you told him?
[DOUG FORD:] No.
[INTERVIEWER:] He didn’t like that?
[DOUG FORD:] Well, I can’t really answer if he didn’t like it. I’m sure he didn’t. But you know something? I feel we can make a deal with the President and Secretary Lutnick. And the thing that’s ironic, and we may disagree on many things with President Trump, there’s no doubt this guy’s a hard negotiator. He’s obviously a smart business person, and so is Secretary Lutnick. But he underestimated the resilience and the strength of the Canadian people.
And the American people, which I absolutely love, they just kind of didn’t wake up. That’s the wrong word. But really, it came to their attention three days ago, when all heck was breaking loose. The market dropped $3 trillion, and their assembly lines would close. He ran on a mandate to create jobs and lower inflation, and it’s worked totally opposite. So he needs to straighten this out, and it’s one person, that’s President Trump.
An Economic War
[INTERVIEWER:] I heard you use the word war. You think this is a war?
[DOUG FORD:] It’s an economic war, and that he’s declared on his closest friends. And for what reason?
[INTERVIEWER:] Well, that’s what we need to know.
[DOUG FORD:] I have an idea what the reason is. He needs the $4.5 trillion for his tax cuts, and that’s fine. But I believe you get more revenue by having a stronger economy, employing more people, more companies coming, that will create strength and more dollars up to the coffers of Washington.
And let’s focus on the real problem. The real problem right now is China. They want to take American and Canadian jobs. So that’s what we have to focus on. As we’re going back and forth, China’s just growing and growing, creating more opportunities in critical minerals. We have all the critical minerals. We have the largest critical mineral deposits in the world, right across the border. And who do I want to give them to? I want to give them to our closest neighbors, the United States.
[INTERVIEWER:] In response to what started earlier this week, you threatened to cut off electricity to a big chunk of the United States.
[DOUG FORD:] Yes.
Well, you know something? I have a great relationship with the governors of New York and Michigan and Minnesota. I just got off the phone yesterday with Governor Walz, and what a gentleman he is. And I’m going to put a 25 percent tariff on electricity, the 1.5 million homes and businesses, as of Monday, until President Trump drops these tariffs. That’s the last thing I want to do. It’s the last thing. But he has to understand that he can’t attack our country economically and expect us to roll over.
[INTERVIEWER:] So 25 percent tariff starts Monday, unless this war ends before then.
[DOUG FORD:] That’s right. Yes.
[INTERVIEWER:] Which means American electric bills in the upper Midwest and the Northeast and the Middle Atlantic are going up.
[DOUG FORD:] That’s right. We’re paying already with gas prices in the Northeast. Gas prices are going to go up again. People eventually, the assembly lines, if he continues April 2nd, will shut down within five days. Auto parts go back and forth across the border up to eight times before it gets assembled in Ontario or Michigan or other states. And for what? He’s created an absolute mess, and we need to clean it up and stop it immediately and move forward.
Ford’s Assessment of Trump’s Approach
[INTERVIEWER:] Is the President of the United States bullying Canada?
[DOUG FORD:] Well, I don’t know if it’s calling him bullying. There’s one rule I have. I never get personal with someone. Do I think his policies are backwards right now? One hundred percent. He’s created more turmoil than we’ve seen ever, even more than the pandemic. At least the pandemic, the whole world was involved. Now he’s just targeting country after country. It’s unfortunate. So let’s sit down and get this deal done, and let’s go back to having two great nations.
See, Canadians look at Americans as part of the family. They’ve been part of the family for over 200 years. And let’s continue that great relationship of working together and standing shoulder to shoulder in crisis.
[INTERVIEWER:] Now, last I checked, you’re a conservative.
[DOUG FORD:] Yes, I am.
[INTERVIEWER:] You celebrated President Trump’s victory in November.
[DOUG FORD:] I thought, you know, I thought he’d do a great job. Man, was I wrong. And I’m the first to admit, I was wrong. Even though I don’t play a role in the U.S. elections, but I thought, okay, someone that believes in cutting taxes like I do, looking for waste, reducing the size and cost for government, I thought that was good. But then what happened? Oh, then he stabbed us. That’s it. That’s the word. I hate to use it, but that’s exactly what happened.
You know, there’s a lot of people, and in the U.S. as well, by the way, not in Canada, he feels, they feel like they, he let them down. He really let them down. And it’s unfortunate. But let’s, let’s repair this relationship and let’s move forward. And I always say, I don’t care about political stripes. You mentioned I’m a conservative, but, you know, I work with liberals, I work with the New Democratic Party, I have incredible relationships across the aisle. So I look at, I’m more for the party of the people than I am, per se, a conservative.
[INTERVIEWER:] Does, you know, one of the things the President has suggested that one of the reasons he’s doing this
INTERVIEWER: Is because of his concerns with illegal drugs flowing into the United States and Canada perhaps not stopping it from getting in there. Does Canada have a fentanyl problem?
DOUG FORD: Well, I think one gram of fentanyl is too much. I hate, hate drugs. And so when he said tighten up the border, we listened to him. We put 10,000 people along the borders, including state, I call it state police, it’s provincial police, and now I think the report last week, there was a half an ounce of fentanyl, in my opinion, it’s too much, but you compare it to the Mexican border, night and day.
But they also gave me a report showing me that hundreds of kilos of cocaine they caught coming to the northern border and guns and illegals and all sorts of fentanyl and pills and opioids.
INTERVIEWER: Going north as opposed to going south.
DOUG FORD: That’s right. I agree we have to tighten up the border. I’ve met with the DEA in my office here, along with the Canadian Border Patrol, with the RCMP, OPP, we’ve met with everyone and I’ve asked them, let’s work together, which we do by the way, and let’s tighten up the border because one gram of any drug is unacceptable. So we’ve done that.
INTERVIEWER: But if I’m hearing you, you’re saying cocaine, illegal guns and fentanyls going north, maybe that the American border needs sealing.
DOUG FORD: Yeah, well, I think we work together and they do, the Canadian Border Patrol, U.S. Border Patrol, the federal government, federal police, RCMP, state police or provincial police, OPP. Everyone’s working together. We’ve sent teams down there to coordinate. So we’ve spent over $1.5 billion as a country. We’re buying everything from helicopters to fixed wing aircraft, boats, boots on the ground. And our provincial police are doing the exact same thing. We call it Operation Deterrence and it’s working. But that aside, because we are getting a handle on that, let’s focus on people’s livelihoods.
Canada’s Critical Exports to the United States
INTERVIEWER: Let me have you level set with the American people because the economies are so integrated, they may not realize what’s coming from up here and heading south. What is it that Canada has that the U.S. can’t get on its own?
DOUG FORD: Well, I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t say it can’t get on its own, but I’ll tell you some of the major ones. I’d be here till tomorrow listing everything. But let’s start from the west, the British Columbia. They have critical minerals that no one has except them. And then Alberta ships 4.3 million barrels a day. That’s over 1.2 billion barrels a year to support the U.S. economy. If the Prime Minister put a 25% tariff on top of his 10%, the cost of gas would go up over a dollar a gallon. People lose their minds.
And if you move over to Saskatchewan, uranium, they’re the largest supplier of uranium in the world, next to Russia. And I don’t know, well, maybe you might get it off Russia now, he’s closing up with Putin. But in saying that, the uranium goes over to Port Hope, Ontario here and gets refined. Then it goes to the U.S. to get enriched. Not for your weapons, but for your nuclear power.
And then they have potash in Saskatchewan, 87% of potash, and people don’t know potash, it’s basically fertilizer. It all goes down to the U.S. farmers to help the farmers. You cut any of these three items off, it’d be a disaster.
Then we come to Ontario, we have the largest deposit of nickel in the world, but it’s high-grade nickel. China has cornered the market on nickel. You have two choices. You deal with China, that’s cut the U.S. off on any critical mineral that they’re going to use on their military or on their aerospace. So over 50%, actually, they gave me an update, probably 60% of high-grade nickel, we ship down to the U.S. I spoke to the CEO of that company, I said, we’re going to stockpile this.
And then we have just the sheer economic power of Ontario. If we were a stand-alone country, we’d be the third largest trading partner in the world, Ontario alone, to the U.S. We do over 500 billion Canadian in two-way trade, split equally down the center. We buy as many cars as we ship in, and the ones that we ship down, 50% of them are U.S. parts. And we have the largest critical mineral deposit in the entire world. So let’s ship that down.
Then you have Quebec, and I have a whole list of Ontario, but let’s move to Quebec. Aluminum. The U.S. needs aluminum to keep manufacturing going. Well, they only produce 16%, a massive chunk, over 67% comes from Quebec. Steel as well, here in Ontario. Lumber across the country. He wants to put a tariff. Guess what? His businesses are going up in cost because he’s putting a tariff on Canadian lumber.
And Quebec sends electricity down to the U.S. British Columbia sends electricity. My good friends in Manitoba, they send electricity and they have nickel as well.
And also alcohol. In Ontario, we’re the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. We have something called the Liquor Control Board, the LCBO, they’re the largest purchaser in the world. We have 35 states, 3,600 products. We’re the largest customer to California wines, to Kentucky bourbon, and Texas, all over the place. And you cut it all off. We pull them all off the shelves. I don’t want to do this.
And when I talk to the great governor of Kentucky, he says, said, “Premier, please do not take my bourbon off the shelves.” I said, “I have no choice. Talk to your president. I want to buy more bourbon. But they’re coming off the shelves.” And this is affecting everyone. They’re going to have layoffs. It’s unfortunate. For what? Right? And the list just continues to go on.
Potential Impacts of Tariffs on American Consumers
INTERVIEWER: So if I hear you, you’re turning off the lights and you’re running the bourbon dry in response to what the United States is doing.
DOUG FORD: The last thing I want to do is turn out the lights. I’ll put a tariff. But let’s straighten this out.
INTERVIEWER: And to the American homeowner in Minnesota or New York or somewhere else that gets its power from electricity.
DOUG FORD: Yes. They’re going to see the electric bill in a month and they’re going to realize, whoa, yes, a lot more expensive than it was. That’s what you tell them. And there’s one person to be blamed, and that’s President Trump. And I sincerely apologize to the American people. I really, truly do. But again, contact your senator, your congressperson, your governor, and they should be standing on the steps of Capitol Hill screaming up and down because this is totally unnecessary. I want to ship them more electricity, more critical minerals.
Ontario’s Media Strategy
INTERVIEWER: Now, you know how President Trump works. And I’ve noticed two things you’ve been doing that are going to get to him. One, you did a lot of advertising for Ontario on channels he watches.
DOUG FORD: That’s right.
INTERVIEWER: On the Super Bowl.
DOUG FORD: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: In train stations.
DOUG FORD: Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: And second, you’re doing just about every interview that comes from the United States asking for you.
DOUG FORD: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Because you know he watches a lot of TV.
DOUG FORD: Oh, I want to inform the American people on what’s going on because they aren’t being informed properly and the numbers are not accurate what they’re going out there. And again, we’re going to ramp up the ads. We spent tens of millions of dollars, but now the ads are going to be a little different. They’re going to show, you know, before he was elected and then when these tariffs come and if we don’t get a tariff deal, they’re going to be assembly line shut down, jobs are going to be lost, unemployment is going up and inflation is going up. As a matter of fact, inflation is going up right now because of the uncertainty. Again, I don’t want to do this. We didn’t start this fight and neither did the Americans. The President started this fight.
INTERVIEWER: So if I’m hearing you’re saying you’re going to run attack ads basically against what he’s doing in the States.
DOUG FORD: Well, I wouldn’t call them attack ads. I’m going to call them information ads. And they’re going to inform the great people of the United States, you know, how it could be and having two great nations and how it might be if these tariffs continue to go through. As far as I’m concerned, it’s unacceptable. So let’s avoid these tariffs. Let’s sit down and let’s toss out a deal and let’s put this behind us. There’s more problems around the world all over the place than worrying about Canada.
INTERVIEWER: You’re not Prime Minister of Canada. You are Premier, though, as you said, of one of its largest customers. So it’s not…
INTERVIEWER: Necessarily on you to speak directly to the President. But let’s say he called you or let’s say you got so angry that you said, screw it, I’m calling the White House. I want to talk to him directly. What would you tell him?
DOUG FORD: I’d tell him exactly what I told you. We’re very disappointed. Canadians are very disappointed. In times of crisis, no matter if they got, when they got attacked on 9-11, whose soldiers died? Canadian soldiers died because one of their family members got attacked. And we do exactly the same.
When the hurricanes just came through a few months ago, who sent the hydro linemen, the electrical linemen down? Ontario sent them down. When the fires were happening in California, we sent water bombers on our way over. We stopped in British Columbia and we had 300 urban firefighters ready to go. There was over a thousand urban firefighters ready to go. We had to cut it off at 300. We love our American neighbours and we will do anything to help them, to protect them. And that’s what Canada does.
So, again, to the President, stop this craziness. Just stop. He’s a smart guy. He’s a business guy. You don’t become President by not being a smart guy. But man, maybe his handlers or someone just misguided him. I think there was a few people that believe in protectionism.
And if you go online, I think it was May 1988 with Ronald Reagan talking about free trade. You know, you don’t create an economic war against your closest friends and allies. You work together and grow the pie or grow the omelette, as I always say. So, hopefully we’ll get through this. We will get through it. I’m very, very confident. People will come to their senses and let’s move forward united, strong. So, that’s what I believe.
The “Canada Is Not For Sale” Hat
INTERVIEWER: Real quick before we go for a walk. This hat here, Canada does not…
DOUG FORD: I’m going to grab it here. I’ll show it to you.
INTERVIEWER: Sure. Where did this come from?
DOUG FORD: Well, I’m the Chair of the Federation, meaning the Chair of the Premiers. They rotate every single year and it fell on my lap this year. And I was going to visit the Prime Minister with all the Premiers of the country. And my staff ran up before I hopped out of the car and said, put this hat on. And I said, I don’t wear baseball caps. I got a big noggin, you know, so it won’t look good. Put it on.
So, I put it on and it went viral. And it was a great story. A young entrepreneur named Liam, just starting a company and all of a sudden, he printed this up because when I was on a network, I said, “Canada is not for sale.” And so, he printed that up and it has gone wild, like literally viral. He can’t keep up. So, he went from zero sales into millions of dollars of sales. And he’s, someone told me, it’s eight weeks behind on orders.
So, good for Liam and his fiance. So, gave them a little start in life. But this is a clear message. Canada is not for sale and will never be the 51st state. And that’s not disrespecting America because as far as I’m concerned, two greatest countries in the world. And I couldn’t ask for a better neighbor than the United States of America. And I say, God bless America and God bless Canada.
Responding to the “51st State” Comment
INTERVIEWER: When he talked about making you guys the 51st state, what did you think?
DOUG FORD: That’s not going to happen. At first, I thought it was a joke. You know, I joked around and said, yeah, he’s upset because we burnt the White House down in 1812. And he’s holding a 200-year grudge on us. But then I thought, boy, he’s serious.
And then I thought, you know, maybe it’s a compliment because we are a great country. He’s not saying that to anywhere else. He’s not saying anywhere in South America. He’s not saying Mexico will become a 51st state. He knows how great Canada is. And we share the same values. Americans and Canadians share the same values. We have the same democracy. And so we’re two great countries. Let’s continue working together.
