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Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unleashed his own tirade on Trump. Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, he said Trump had underestimated Canadians\u2019 willingness to endure economic pain rather than give in to U.S. pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all in,\u201d Ford said. \u201cUp here, we\u2019re at a fever pitch, everyone\u2019s in for an economic war. They know they\u2019re going to have to sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump responded in a social media post by attacking Ford personally, calling him \u201cthe less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford,\u201d and once again referring to Canada\u2019s prime minister as \u201cGovernor Carney.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ford dismissed the insults: \u201cIf you think an insult from him hurts me? Well, bring it on, buddy, I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford is a Progressive Conservative whose party is different than that of Carney, a Liberal, but the two underscore the broad political unity in Canada over the trade fight with Trump.<\/p>\n
Ford threatens critical minerals and electricity<\/p>\n
Ford said \u201ceverything is on the table\u201d if the dispute worsens, including cutting off electricity and critical minerals from Ontario. <\/p>\n
Critical minerals are increasingly important to U.S. national security and manufacturing. The Pentagon has sought more secure supplies of minerals used in military aircraft, missiles, munitions and electronics as Washington tries to reduce reliance on China, which dominates the mining or processing of several strategically important minerals.<\/p>\n
Ford said Canada should also consider increasingly severe retaliation if Trump continues targeting Canadian industries, including oil and potash, while Ontario could raise electricity prices or stop sending power south.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe power 1.5 million homes and businesses,\u201d Ford said. \u201cEverything\u2019s on the table. I\u2019ll do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford has used electricity as leverage before. During an earlier phase of the dispute, Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Trump responded by threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum before both sides backed away.<\/p>\n
Auto industry becomes a central battleground<\/p>\n
Ford accused Trump of not simply seeking a better trade deal but aiming to hollow out Canadian industries and move production south.<\/p>\n
Ford said Trump wants to make Canada a vassal state. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to bleed out every single sector and bring them down to the U.S.,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n
The auto sector is especially important to Ontario, the center of Canada\u2019s vehicle manufacturing industry. Plants and suppliers in Ontario are tightly integrated with factories in Michigan and other U.S. states, with parts routinely crossing the border multiple times during production.<\/p>\n
Automakers including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis operate major assembly plants in Ontario, and the wider supply chain supports tens of thousands of jobs. Trump\u2019s new threat of a 50% tariff on Canadian vehicles and parts puts that sector directly at the center of the escalating dispute.<\/p>\n
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Monday that \u201cthe only reason Canada has auto production in the first place\u201d was because of the 1960s Auto Pact, under which Canada used access to its market to encourage vehicle production north of the border.<\/p>\n
Ford says he opposed preliminary deal<\/p>\n
Ford also disclosed that he had opposed the preliminary agreement Carney was considering before Canada walked away from the negotiations, and that he was unwilling to restore American liquor to Ontario store shelves as part of an agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t going to put the booze back on the shelves,\u201d Ford said. \u201cI was ready to go out there and call a press conference … and say I\u2019m not buckling over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford said he understood Washington had sought language late in the negotiations that would have restricted Canada\u2019s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries without U.S. approval. Carney has called that demand unacceptable and a question of Canadian sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho does he think he is?\u201d Ford said of Trump. \u201cYou gotta be kidding.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed from Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump told Canadian leaders on Monday to \u201cfall in line\u201d or face consequences…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22323,45,49,48,13192,8930,1376,13743,25082,7172,2841,24744,1687,2659,26252,44,714,176788,11851,10428,8116,8615,883],"class_list":["post-870085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-auto-industry","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-government","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-ford","tag-ford-motor-co","tag-general-motors-co","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-international-trade","tag-mark-carney","tag-metals-and-mining","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-rob-ford","tag-stellantis-nv","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-united-states-government","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870085","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=870085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}