Ford wants Canada to ‘fight like hell’ against Trump while Carney takes calmer stance

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has not backed away from saying he wants Canada to stand up more to U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs, but Prime Minister Mark Carney says now is the time to talk, not hit back.

Just in the last two weeks, Ford has said that Trump “drives him crazy” and that he wasn’t going to let the U.S. president “roll over Ontario.”

The premier also told a crowd that he wanted the prime minister to “fight like hell” in a meeting with Trump, but Carney is taking a calmer approach.

“You better fight like hell – don’t roll over and keep fighting,” said Ford.

You can’t question Ford’s passion when it comes to U.S. tariffs.

He was riled up, because Stellantis announced this week it would move planned production of its Jeep Compass from Brampton, Ont., to Illinois.

Carney says the CEO of Stellantis assured him the company would consider other vehicles for the plant.

“Well Premier Ford and I are both interested in results, in my case for workers and families across Canada, and in his case for the province of Ontario,” said Carney. “We’re looking to work to those ends, as constructively as possible.”

WATCH MORE: Stellantis shifting Brampton, Ont., Jeep production to Illinois

While Ford is calling for retaliatory tariffs, the prime minister says now is the time to talk, not hit back against the U.S. on trade.

“I think Premier Ford wants to keep up his ‘Captain Canada’ routine and yell ‘fight back, fight back hard’, but I think Prime Minister Carney who’s, let’s face it, is the one in charge of negotiations on Canada’s behalf, says it’s not the time to hit back with retaliatory tariffs once again,” said political expert Keith Leslie.

“We saw it before when we put them in, it just angered Trump, so when we’re trying to get a new deal with the United States, adding in retaliatory tariffs now would just anger Trump again and send him who knows where he’d go with the tariffs on that.”

That could be a problem, as Ottawa is in negotiations right now with the U.S. on several tariffed sectors, including energy, aluminum and steel.

“We are engaged in deep negotiations — intense negotiations — on several sectors of the Canadian economy: energy, aluminum and the steel sector across Canada, with the bulk of the steel sector in Ontario,” said Carney. “And we want to make progress in those negotiations. I’ll be briefing the premier on the status of those negotiations.”

Ford isn’t the only premier showing frustration over Canada’s response to U.S. tariffs.

“I think we’re starting to see come cracks in the ‘United Canada’ front and Premier Ford and Carney are clearly on the different side of the issue on retaliatory tariffs right now,” said Leslie, “and we’re also seeing other premiers talk thinks like lifting 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese EVs, which would of course be the death knell for the Ontario automotive industry.”

Ford and Carney are also expected to talk about the levies affecting the auto, forestry and manufacturing sectors, and the coming review of Canada’s continental trade agreement.

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