Ford says 35% increase on tariffs concerning, reiterates calls for 50% tariff on U.S. steel, aluminum

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is reiterating his call to “not roll over” in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump officially increasing tariffs on Canadian goods to 35 per cent.

In a post on social media Thursday evening, Ford said Canada “shouldn’t settle for anything less than the right deal. Now is not the time to roll over. We need to stand our ground.”

“The increase in U.S. tariffs to 35 per cent is concerning, especially with tariffs still in place on steel, aluminum, autos, forestry and now copper,” the premier continued.

He also called for Prime Minister Mark Carney to enact a 50 per cent tariff on U.S. steel and aluminum.

“Canada has what the United States needs: oil and gas, critical minerals, steel and aluminum, electricity, potash and uranium,” said Ford.

“We’re America’s number one customer and keep millions of Americans working. The federal government needs to maximize our leverage and stand strong in the face of President Trump’s tariffs.”

The premier’s post echoed the comments he made at a news conference in Thunder Bay, Ont., this morning.

“I wouldn’t roll over, and I told the prime minister: ‘Do not roll over.’ Hit that guy back as hard as we possibly can. And that’s what we need to do and we can do it,” Ford said Thursday when speaking about the threat of U.S. tariffs increasing by 35 per cent.

“We can build anything here in Canada, absolutely anything from the beautiful trains that we build here to the planes to automobiles to satellites to jet engines and the list goes on and on and on.”

Both Carney and Ford were elected this year on the promise of standing up to Trump’s economic threats against Canada.

But despite meetings between Canadian and U.S. officials since Carney was elected in April, Trump has signalled in recent weeks that a new trade deal with Canada may be more slippery to pin down than hoped.

Trump has threatened to impose 35 per cent tariffs on Canada if a trade deal is not reached by Friday, though goods covered under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) would be exempt.

Trump also posted on social media Thursday that Carney’s announcement that Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state “will make it very hard for us to make a trade deal with them.”

The U.S. has been demanding concessions from trading partners around the world, aggressively renegotiating trade deals to be more favourable to it.

Ford said Thursday that Carney was trying to get a deal, but Trump is impossible to predict.

“You know, Prime Minister Carney is trying his best, but this guy (Trump) will say something one day, and he’ll wake up and the cheese slips off the cracker, and then all of a sudden he goes the other way. And you’re thinking, ‘how do you deal with a guy like this?’” Ford said.

“Are we hoping that we can get a deal with zero tariffs, yes, but I always say, how can we kick back.”

For his part, Ford said he is continuing to bolster Ontario’s economy in the face of the trade threats by spending some $200 billion on infrastructure, as well as onshoring as many industries as possible, such as aluminum can manufacturing, in order to make Ontario less reliant on trade with the U.S.

“Now we’re going to be making aluminum cans. They (U.S. manufacturers) are going to lose a billion dollars of the business in the U.S., and same with tin cans,” Ford said.

He urged people to continue buying Canadian products whenever possible.

Speaking to the Thunder Bay, Ont. crowd, Ford also reiterated that he is pushing the City of Toronto to go with Alstom for a deal to acquire 55 new subway cars for Line 2, a project the province is kicking in $758 million for.

Alstom has a local manufacturing facility and Ford said that would mean bolstering Ontario’s economy.

“I’m urging the City of Toronto and the federal government to reach a deal with Alstom. There’s no way we’re building them anywhere else,” Ford said.

With files from The Canadian Press