Ontario Premier Doug Ford came out swinging on NBC News today in the wake of the latest news that U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canada as early as Tuesday March 4th.
Ford blamed the impending economic ‘disaster’ squarely on Trump and predicted U.S. workers and consumers would ‘feel the pain’, that assembly plants in Michigan would close and there would be layoffs in the manufacturing sector.
Ford also suggested the U.S. stock market would “go downhill faster than the American bobsled team.”
The Ontario response will be strong, said Ford, and include the province imposing restrictions on critical minerals, halting sales of U.S. alcohol products and shutting down “electricity going down to the U.S.”
U.S. markets are already tanking. American plants and assembly lines will close. Americans will pay more for everything.
For the sake of the American people, President Trump needs to pull back his tariffs. pic.twitter.com/FAy0ctvujF
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) March 3, 2025
“They’re going to feel a pain like they’ve never felt before,” said Ford.
Here’s the full transcript from Ford’s interview on NBC News
NBC: We’re joined now by Doug Ford. He is the Premier of Ontario, Canada, Mr. Premier, we appreciate you making some time for us today. We know that President Trump delayed these tariffs a month ago, and now we’re hearing today that this will happen for Canada. Do you have any indication that he might delay them again, anything that’s giving you any hope at this point?
Ford: Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me on Aaron. For the sake of the American people in the Canadian people, he needs to pull back, I’m going to tell you exactly what’s going to happen here.
You know, President Trump ran on the mandate to create more jobs, keep inflation low and lower cost and it’s going to work totally opposite. Plants will close down within a week. Assembly plants in Michigan, which is a red state, manufacturing will stop and the people of the U.S., which I absolutely love the American people, they’re going to be paying more.
The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team. It’s going to be an absolute disaster for both countries. We’re your largest trading partner. I don’t want to respond, but we will respond like they’ve never seen before. You need our uranium. You need our potash. You need our high grade nickel.
I will stockpile our high grade nickel at 50 per cent of your military and manufacturing needs, your aluminum, the steel, the lumber, it will be an absolute disaster. And this is all due to one person and it’s President Trump.
I have talked to endless governors, Republican governors and Democrats, senators and Congress people. I love the U.S.. I lived there for 20 years. They’re all saying this is the craziest thing that someone could ever do. So it’s going to create massive problems.
NBC: Let me ask you. You said a couple of things I want to ask you about. First of all, you said that you will respond. Help me understand, what is it? What you expect the Canadian Prime Minister might do, and what you yourself might do as the leader of the province there in Canada?
Ford: We’ll respond strongly and we don’t want to. On the critical metals, I will stop sending minerals going into the U.S. for nickel. That will shut down manufacturing, because 50 per cent of the nickel you use is coming out of Ontario.
I’ve ordered our bureaucrats to cut off tens of billions of dollars in contracts that we have with the U.S.. We are the largest purchaser of alcohol in the world. We buy over 3,600 products from 35 states. I talked to the governor of Kentucky and Mitch McConnell ‘don’t touch our bourbon’.
I’m going after absolutely everything, and I don’t want to. We keep the lights on 1.5 million homes, in manufacturing, in New York, in Michigan and in Minnesota. If he wants to destroy our economy and our families, I will shut down the electricity going down to the U.S.. And I’m telling you, we will do it. It’s unfortunate.
I would rather ship you more electricity. Ship you more critical minerals. I want to ship you more energy, more potash to keep your farmers going, and uranium that you use for your nuclear power. It comes through from Saskatchewan over to Ontario, and it’s going to be a massive, massive problem.
I’m telling you, we love the Americans. Candians love Americans. I love the U.S.. Everyone does, and not one American friend. I’ve been there for 20 years. I’ve talked to all of them. Hardcore Republicans are saying, this is the biggest mistake President Trump has done, and we’re dead against.
NBC: So if I’m hearing you correctly, you are ready to go to war, to go to a trade war with the United States, with the Trump administration.
Ford: It’s the last thing we want to do. It’s one person that’s coming to attack us economically, your closest friend, your treasured ally, that will stand over your shoulder with you in every situation you face. And he’s attacking the person his number one customer.
There’s no country in the world that buys more products off the U.S. than we do. We’re the number one trading customer to 28 states, and a lot of them are red states. They’re going to feel a pain like they’ve never felt before. We’re going to feel a pain, but I’ll tell you, Canadians are resilient. We’re strong, we’re proud, and we’re going to fight back like they’ve never seen before.
And I’m sorry to the American people that your president has decided to do this. I apologize, but he’s giving us no choice. There’s nothing wrong with our trading. He keeps saying, ‘Oh, they’re taking money’. No, that’s not accurate.
Matter of fact, if you take out our oil and you take 4.3 million barrels a day, and we keep things going outside of that, take the energy to the side and we have a $55 billion surplus, which is good, that’s fine.
America has 55 billion more in trade. And God bless them. We want to expand the trade. We want to create an AMCAN fortress the two greatest countries in the world. We have what you need. We want to share more what you need. And I’ll be very frank, you’re gonna see nothing like this there in the history of the U.S..
NBC: Obviously, you have taken a very strong stance here today. Have you had conversations about your perspective, your action plan, with the Prime Minister, with the folks in the capital?
Ford: Numerous times I’ve talked to the Prime Minister up here a couple days ago, whith the chair of the Federation, being the chair of all the premiers, talked to him on a daily basis. We all feel the same way. We do not want to do this. We love the American people. We love the U.S..
But when one person attacks our country, unprovoked, then we’re going to respond, and we’re going to respond like the U.S. has never seen before.We do $1.3 trillion of two way trade. We’re like a big family between U.S. and Canada.
NBC: So we’re almost out of time here, but we know that President Trump posted on social media that drugs are pouring into the U.S. from both Canada and Mexico, despite no evidence really to back that up. If this is his pretense for imposing tariffs, what should Canada do in response? How do you start to right the ship here in this relationship?
Ford: Well, first of all, Secretary Lutnick came out and said, ‘Yes, we’re moving forward’ and I agree. Let’s tighten up the borders on both sides. We put 10,000 personnel along our borders. And it works both ways. We’re working with the DEA. We’re working with U.S. Border Patrol, with our Canadian Border Patrol.
We’re ramping it up because we’re seeing so far the last couple of weeks, we’ve busted 624, kilos of cocaine coming from the southern border, endless amounts of guns. Illegals are coming across. I agree with President Trump. Let’s both tighten up the borders, and we’re doing it.
You know, your borders are holding. He seems to be satisfied because we’re showing results. We’re listening and we’re agreeing with the administration. We need to tighten up both sides of the border, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
