{"id":644968,"date":"2026-05-03T11:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644968\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:31:15","slug":"ontario-premier-doug-ford-receives-honorary-degree-from-u-s-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644968\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Doug Ford receives honorary degree from U.S. university"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Doug Ford, shown on April 20, received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> received an honorary doctorate from a U.S. university on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ford wore a black cap and gown as he took to the stage at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan to receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.<\/p>\n

In a commencement speech that touched on Canada\u2019s ongoing trade dispute with the U.S., Ford acknowledged that the assembled graduates may be wondering why a Canadian politician was appearing before them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The premier told the Michigan students he spent years living and working in the U.S. helping build his family\u2019s printing company and lauded \u201cmore than 200 years\u201d of co-operation between Canada and the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After speaking about his career in business and politics, which included mention of his time on Toronto city council with his brother Rob, and also saw the premier, once again, give out his phone number, Ford turned to the topic of trade.<\/p>\n

He praised the close ties between Ontario and Michigan in the auto manufacturing industry but said that partnership has been tested by \u201ctariffs and trade wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Ford says he\u2019s hearing love for Canada on trip to Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

The premier repeated a quote from former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, which featured in an anti-tariff ad Ontario ran in U.S. markets late last year that was blamed for halting Canada-U.S. trade talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarkets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs,\u201d Ford said, echoing Reagan, in a critique of protectionist policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we risk with the U.S. and Canada if we don\u2019t get back to working together,\u201d the premier said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ford ended with a message to the graduates to never forget the importance of teamwork, relationships and loyalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the attributes that will make you succeed, just as they made our two great countries succeed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s president, George Grant Jr., called the premier a friend and thanked him for fostering strong relations in the Great Lakes region, on both sides of the border.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canadian manufacturers hit hard by changes to U.S. metal tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n

Ford has positioned himself as a strong advocate against American tariffs and critic of U.S. President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some journalists and pundits dubbed him \u201cCaptain Canada\u201d as he took aim at the U.S. with retaliatory policies and made his case for Canada-U.S. co-operation in a series of interviews on American news networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The premier famously pulled American liquor off LCBO shelves days after U.S. tariffs took effect and wore a \u201cCanada Is Not For Sale\u201d hat during a meeting in Ottawa amid Trump\u2019s threats to annex Canada.<\/p>\n

Ford\u2019s anti-tariff policies also targeted Michigan, home of the university now honouring him with a degree, when he imposed a 25-per-cent tariff on all electricity exports to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tariff was suspended a day later, with Ontario collecting $260,000 from the tariff it said would impact 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, Minnesota and New York.<\/p>\n

Saginaw Valley State University is a public university in University Centre, Michigan founded in 1963.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Doug Ford, shown on April 20, received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-644968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}