TORONTO — Ontario Premier Doug Ford praised Prime Minister Mark Carney following his high-stakes first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, expressing his optimism that Tuesday was the start of the two countries rebuilding their fractured relationship brought on by the trade war.
“I thought he did really well,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park. “He held his own.”
Ford said he thought the meeting between the two leaders was “very productive” and that Trump appeared to prefer Carney over his predecessor.
“It’s all about building a relationship, and I think this is a first step to something productive,” the premier said.
“I think we’re in a much better position now than we were before this meeting.”
Ford brushed off Trump’s comments during the meeting that the U.S. doesn’t need Canada and pointed out that “we’re his largest customer.”
The premier said that Tuesday’s meeting marks the beginning of a return to strong U.S.-Canada relations.
“I thought they both were respectful to each other, and I thought it was a warm greeting…It’s a good start to a long relationship.”
The premiers are expected to meet on Wednesday and hear from Carney about the meeting.
Ford hopes Alberta separation is ‘never going to happen’
When asked about the growing talks of a possible Alberta separation, Ford said he does not support that.
“We need to stay united. We’re so much stronger when we’re all sticking together. So hopefully that’s never going to happen,” the premier said.
Earlier on Tuesday, ahead of the Carney-Trump meeting, Ford went off script while speaking at the Skills Ontario Competition in Etobicoke and touched on the ongoing trade war and the need for a united front.
“This guy drives me nuts. I just get wound up…Here I go. Off my speech,” Ford said with a laugh. “You see this guy on TV, ‘We don’t need Canada.’ Really?” the premier went on, noting how dependent the U.S. is on, among other things, Ontario’s power and critical minerals.
“We have a prime minister down there, and he’s going to be sitting down, and he’s going to give it everything he can. This is a time to unite the country. Not people saying, ‘Oh, I’m leaving the country’…we have to be a united Canada together to fight President Trump’s tariffs.”
On Monday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters that she would hold a referendum on provincial separation next year if citizens collect the required number of signatures to trigger the vote.
Asked about Ford’s remarks on Tuesday at a news conference, Smith said she has a great friendship with Ford but that they have different jurisdictions to govern.
“I don’t tell him how he should run his province, and I would hope that he doesn’t tell me how I should run mine,” Smith said.
Carney: Canada ‘won’t be for sale, ever’
Carney, who led the Liberals to form a minority government following last week’s federal election, spoke to reporters alongside Trump from inside the Oval Office Tuesday.
During the news conference, Trump was asked if he was still serious about his suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state, to which he said there would be “a lot of advantages.”
“It’s also a beautiful (place). You know as a real estate developer… when you get rid of that artificial line…I said, “that’s the way it was meant to be,’” Trump said.
For Carney’s part, he countered the president’s suggestion by saying that, as in real estate, “there are some places that are never for sale.”
“It’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale, ever,” Carney said.
Although the president appeared to agree with the sentiment, he swiped back by saying, “never say never.”
After the meeting at a news conference, a reporter asked Carney if he explicitly told Trump to stop making 51st state remarks, the prime minister said, “yes.”
“I told him there is no need to repeat that idea,” he said in French. “But the president is going to say whatever he wants.”
Carney shared that he and Trump had “very comprehensive and tangible discussions.”
“We did make progress,” the prime minister said.
Trump hit Canada with a blanket 25 per cent tariff on all imports in March, but provided an exemption days later for goods compliant with the existing North American trade pact. Canada is also facing tariffs on aluminum and automobiles and has since responded with its own reciprocal levies.
Ford has been vocal during the trade dispute, appearing frequently on the airwaves south of the border to tout the importance of American-Canadian commerce.
His Progressive Conservatives won their third straight majority government in February. In calling the snap election, Ford warned that the trade war could cost 500,000 jobs and underscored that his government needed a new mandate if it was forced to spend billions of dollars in stimulus.
“Our government has a plan to protect Ontario and I’ve always said we’re going to protect our workers, we’re going to protect their jobs, we’re going to protect communities and families and I will not spare a penny to do it,” he said, while announcing the government was adding an additional $1 billion to the province’s existing skills development fund.
The province is set to unveil their budget on May 15 and although it remains to be seen what sector specific funding will be announced in the face of Trump’s tariffs, the government has already announced a tax credit for manufacturers and tax deferrals for businesses.
Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles called Smith’s comments “very concerning” and said that while she agreed with the premier’s pitch for a unified approach as Carney visits the White House, she said the provincial government should be doing more.
“I differ with the premier when it comes to his kind of ‘wait-and-see’ approach to things right now, which is what we keep hearing,” she said, as she accused the government of not taking a harder stance in response to Trump’s most recent threatened tax – a 100 per cent tariff on films made outside of the U.S.
“We need this premier on the job actually protecting those jobs,” she said.
Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said although she doesn’t expect any “immediate wins” out of the White House meeting today, she believes it serves as a a “relationship-building exercise” between Canada and the United States.
With files from CTVNews.ca breaking digital assignment editor Luca Caruso-Moro and The Canadian Press
