Ontario Premier Doug Ford proposes plan to supply energy to both nations to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, positioning himself as protector of the country amid ‘lack of leadership’ in Ottawa in the face of threats of American customs tariffs.
Mr. Ford wants to see the province’s grid expand to allow more energy to be sent south of the border.
The premier is particularly touting Ontario’s nuclear energy expertise to build more large and small modular nuclear reactors, in partnership with the United States.
“It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight, but we owe it to the workers of Ontario, Canada and the United States to act now,” Doug Ford said Wednesday.
“Many of these initiatives will require the federal government to step up its efforts to ensure that energy, trade and security policies serve the best interests of Canadians and Americans,” he added.
Donald Trump threatens to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian products on his first day in office, January 20, unless Canada strengthens border security, with a focus on drug trafficking. fentanyl and the passage of irregular migrants.
Canada will “never be for sale,” says Ford
On Tuesday, the next U.S. president said the United States doesn’t need anything from Canada and talked about using “economic force” to annex the country to make it America’s 51st state.
For Doug Ford, the country “will never be for sale”. The Ontario leader also made the rounds of American news channels, extolling the advantages of collaboration between the two countries.
-The prime ministers are scheduled to meet virtually late Wednesday afternoon to discuss the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the prorogation of Parliament, the threat of tariffs and a trip by the premiers to Washington in FEBRUARY.
“There is a lack of leadership in the federal government right now, and someone has to stand up for Ontario, someone has to stand up for Canada, and I want to congratulate all the premiers because they are doing exactly that. the same as what I do in their jurisdictions,” Mr. Ford said.
He also dismissed Donald Trump’s comments on the annexation of Canada.
“Let’s stop the waste of time and ridiculous ideas about merger and instead focus on efforts to restore pride in ‘made in Canada’ and ‘made in the USA,’” he said.
Doug Ford had already threatened to cut the energy that the province sells to four states if the tariffs were implemented, but indicated that he did not want to come to that.
It’s another proposal from Premier Ford in response to tariff threats, after he announced a plan Tuesday to step up patrols along Ontario’s 14 border crossings.
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