Ontario Premier Doug Ford reacted to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on cars and trucks next year, saying he can “kiss my ass.”
Trump responded later in the day, saying it was “lots of bluster” from Ford, adding he is “better known as the less charismatic, intelligent and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford.”
The U.S.-Canada trade dispute turned into a war of words between Ford and Trump on Monday, after Trump said in Truth Social post that he would increase tariffs on “all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and Steel” to 50 per cent on New Year’s Day.
- READ MORE: Trump threatens 50% tariffs on all cars, trucks by New Year’s Day. Follow for live updates.
Canada walked away from trade negotiations on Friday ahead of a deadline by the United States to increase tariffs on a variety of Canadian goods.
Speaking with Ottawa’s Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll shortly after Trump’s post, Ford said, “We’re going to go at him full steam, and we buy 400 per cent more cars than anyone in the world.”
The comment was an immediate reaction as Carroll informed Ford of Trump’s social media post for the first time.
Ford also suggested getting Alberta Premier Danielle Smith “on board, so the cars that they’re manufacturing won’t be able to fill up because we’ll be controlling the oil and gas going down there.”
“Maybe what we should be doing is charging him triple on the oil, triple on the potash, on the uranium, on our, you know, metals and our rare earth metals,” Ford said Monday morning.
“We need to throw everything in the kitchen sink at him. He’s arrogant, he’s cocky, and you know, as Ronald Reagan said, if you come to a draw with a bully, what stops that bully from coming after you the next day and the next day. And that’s all Donald Trump is-is a bully. Well, he’s going to have a rude awakening.”
Trump responds
The U.S. president responded to Ford’s comments on his Truth Social platform just after 2 p.m., saying “America has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer!”
“Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive – it’s where they get all of their money and, because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney, and his fluky, Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States,” Trump said.
“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far worse.”
Ford responded to Trump’s social media post, saying “I don’t respond to a dictator like President Trump.”
“I’m not going to take any advice off a guy that’s the king of bankruptcies,” Ford said while speaking to reporters in Hamilton.
Ford said “he’s not going to “take the bait” in a back-and-forth with Trump.
“This guy’s a loser, he’s going to a loser – it’s as simple as that,” Ford said. “We’re going to fight with everything we have. You know something, I have more courage, more brains in my baby toe than he has in his whole body.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced over the weekend that Canada would impose “dollar for dollar” tariffs on the U.S. in response to new American tariffs, with the retaliatory tariffs coming into effect on Sept. 8.
Carney accused the Trump administration of introducing unacceptable measures in trade talks, including restrictions on Canada’s ability to sign deals with other countries.
“It was a terrible deal,” Ford told CFRA.
“After speaking to the CEOs of the auto sector, the auto part manufacturers, CEOs of the steel sector…everyone was saying it was a terrible deal. He would bleed out our steel sector, our auto sector, parts sector, manufacturing sector, and all the other reciprocal jobs that are connected, which would be hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
The premier said he will be appearing on U.S. media to remind “the U.S. people that a tariff on Canada is a tax on the American people.”
“Donald Trump is attacking his own people, and we we’ve seen that.”
Ford says he told Carney, “we have to hit them hard.”
“The first stage is to charge them a lot more, put a put a tariff, an export tariff on their electricity, but I can’t be standing alone on this,” Ford said.
“I need every single premier to be doing the same as what we would do. We need Quebec. We need all the provinces out west to start jumping into the fight, if I can say that, and that’s what we need to do because every single province or majority of them deliver electricity down to the U.S.”
With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press
