A Canadian Premier Sends A Message To Americans Following His Warning That He Will Cut Off Power To 1,500,000 Customers
Premier of Ontario Doug Ford has apologized “to the American people” while reiterating his threat to “cut off” the US’ electricity.
Following his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, US President Donald Trump did not spend any time in approving a number of executive orders.
In one order, ‘catastrophic’ tariffs were imposed to ‘hold China, Mexico and Canada accountable for their promises to halt the flood of poisonous drugs into the US’. These tariffs were set at 20% on Chinese goods and 25% on goods imported from Canada and Mexico. The order went into effect on March 4 following a 30-day pause.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to Trump’s suggestion that the only way for Canada to escape the tariffs would be to become the US’ “Cherished 51st state” by announcing counter-tariffs of “25 percent tariffs against CA $155 billion of American goods,” starting with “tariffs on CA $30 billion worth of goods immediately, and tariffs on the remaining CA $125 billion on American products in 21 days’ time.”
Canada is “in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures,” Trudeau added in his warning.
Since then, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, Canada, has threatened to cut off electricity to 1.5 million people in the United States.
According to the Toronto Sun, Ford previously told reporters, “I will do everything in my power to stop them from trying to destroy Ontario, including cutting off their energy while grinning.”
“They rely on our energy, they need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard.”
He’s since taken a slightly more sympathetic approach—to the US public at least—apologizing to ‘the American people’ and clarifying it’s ‘unnecessary,’ but Canada does ‘have to retaliate,’ emphasizing to CNN: “It’s not you; it’s your president that’s causing this problem.”
He said, “We’re the number one customer in the world in the United States. we had a great relationship, and want to continue on with that relationship, but I will use every tool in our toolbox to send a message to President Trump that this is the wrong thing to do.”
“The provinces have a big say in it, but it’s the federal government that’s leading the charge, and we’re going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder no matter who’s in the federal government.”
“I didn’t start this tariff war, but we’re going to win this tariff war.”
Ford has also shattered the province’s agreement with Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary and Elon Musk’s satellite internet startup, accusing Trump of prioritizing “chaos” over prosperity for all.
He argued: “We won’t award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country.”
