Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday that he hopes Republicans lose control of both the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections, arguing that American voters should hold President Donald Trump accountable for escalating the trade war with Canada.
“Hopefully, he’s going to lose the Senate. He’s going to lose Congress. I hope so, and hold him accountable,” Ford said. “But we’ll see how that goes. We aren’t going to interfere in the U.S. election,” he added.
Ford has emerged as one of Trump’s sharpest critics in Canada, accusing the president of trying to lure Ontario businesses and jobs across the border.
“He’s not reliable at all,” Ford said. “He could make a deal today and then change his mind. And we’ve seen that over and over again.”
Despite the criticism, Ford said he still believes Trump wants an agreement before the midterms and that Canada should return to negotiations soon. “I truly believe President Trump wants a deal before the midterms,” Ford said. “I could be wrong, but I think it’s best that we sit down and get a deal.”
Escalating Trade Measures
Ford’s remarks came days after the United States escalated the dispute by banning some Canadian dairy products, motorcycles and most alcoholic beverages, following Canadian retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion in U.S. goods. The Trump administration also moved to exclude Canadian products from large, long-term U.S. government contracts.
Trade talks broke down abruptly last year after Ontario aired a U.S. television ad using quotes from former Republican President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Trump and Ford have since traded personal jabs. Ford told The Associated Press that Reagan would be “throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on,” referring to Trump keeping a Reagan portrait near his desk. Trump, in turn, has called Ford “the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford.”
Tensions deepened further after Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” a change Canada does not recognize and that carries no binding force on Canadian territory or other jurisdictions.
“Woke Us Up”
Ford argued that Trump has inadvertently helped Canada by pushing it to reduce reliance on the United States. “The only two good things Donald Trump has ever done for Canada” were that “he woke us up” and “he united the country like I’ve never seen before,” Ford said.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signaled Thursday that Canada may hold off on further retaliation for now, calling the latest U.S. measures “relatively modest” compared with earlier actions. Speaking at a cabinet retreat in Banff, Alberta, Carney said his government was still reviewing the measures and acknowledged they could hurt certain companies and industries, but noted some of the new tariffs simply replaced ones the Trump administration had previously lifted.
“We also recognize that, in the context of other things that the U.S. administration has done … that these are relatively modest measures,” Carney said.
