Opposition parties at Queen’s Park are calling on Doug Ford to recall the Ontario legislature to debate and pass tariff relief measures, a request the premier dismissed as “gutter politics.”
The trade war between Canada and the United States intensified over the weekend, after talks to secure an agreement fell apart and Prime Minister Mark Carney recalled negotiators to Ottawa.
That meant 50 per cent tariffs came into effect Saturday on billions of dollars in Canadian goods, with United States President Donald Trump threatening more and Canada announcing a “dollar-for-dollar” response.
Premier Ford appeared with steel workers on Monday to reassure businesses he would “spare no expense” protecting workers from the effects of tariffs.
He also said the province is expanding eligibility for its “Protect Ontario” financing program to workers and businesses affected by the new tariffs.
The premier, however, offered few substantive new policy measures and his opponents are arguing politicians should be back in the chamber debating the best response.
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“Ontario is looking for its leaders to step up for them,” said Stiles. “To protect their livelihoods and their families. We must stand strong and united from coast to coast to coast.
“It is our duty as elected officials to immediately get to work in the fight against Donald Trump’s inexcusable and dangerous tariffs,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said in a statement.
Her party is advocating for the government to review and cancel any contracts with United States businesses, prohibit data centres with links to U.S. companies and to prioritize made-in-Ontario vehicles for the government’s fleet.
“These times call for a strong and decisive response,” added Stiles. “Doug Ford and his government must take these steps to defend Ontario in the face of Donald Trump’s belligerent attacks on our workers and our economy.”
Asked about the call on Monday, Ford was dismissive.
“I have been in this game a long time. They want to play gutter politics,” Ford said, instead suggesting opposition parties should reach out to him personally.
“Call me up, give me suggestions,” he added. “But make sure when we go back in the legislature, because we will be going back in our time frame, that they actually support things that we put forward.”
Ontario Liberal interim leader John Fraser said the premier wanted to bypass legitimate policy scrutiny.
“There’s something that’s called debate — it’s open, it is public. Doug Ford’s texts aren’t public. His phone and cell phone records aren’t public,” he told reporters Monday.
“This place is here for a reason, and it’s worked for centuries. But now we’re in a situation where we have a premier who believes it doesn’t have a function and it’s not needed. He’s doing the bare minimum.”
Politicians were originally scheduled to be back in the legislature after Labour Day, before the government delayed their return until late October.
— with files from The Canadian Press
Trump knows how to trigger Liberal’s with TDS.
Thanks to the Liberal funded media, Canada has a worse TDS pandemic than the US.
Just start charging the Americans more for electricity and limit how much they can buy each month
All Ford keeps doing is shutting the Legislature 80% of the year. During that time, he does press conferences about nothing, does nothing worthwhile for the people and is proving to be a useless Premier. Standard operating procedure for today’s Conservatives.
Get a job Vinny!
Trump lite the Ford is quick to say trump is a problem then shoots Canada in the foot. At least he understands his politics is in the gutter. Projecting Ford? Thanks
The hyp0crisy knows no bounds. I guess they don’t remember when Justin prorogued parliament, for no reason other than to save the LPC from oblivion, and it was Ford as head of the association of premiers as the only person negotiating with the then incoming Trump administration about his intent to tariff the world. We had no federal negotiators. Ministers, the ones who hadn’t announced they weren’t running again, were busy campaigning in their ridings.
A few months earlier to those events the country saw a record 100k people emigrate away from Canada due to the economic impact of the Lost Liberal Decade. Yet parliament was shut and the opposition was not able to question the government.
Where was the media attention then?