Trump, Ford’s back-and-forth economic battle put on pause after heated day

It was another day of back-and-forth tariffs in the broadening trade war between Canada and the United States.

President Donald Trump started by doubling the tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, which were originally set to come into effect today at 25 per cent.

He says this escalation was in response to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to roll out his electricity surcharge on certain states.

In a series of strongly-worded posts online, Trump warned Canada would pay a “financial price for this so big that it will be read about in history books,” but later in the afternoon, both Ford and Trump did a 180, pausing the measures.

Trump has also upped the ante on his warning of annexation, once again saying Canada should avoid the economic blow by becoming “our cherished fifty-first state” but by the time the day came to an end, most of that had changed.