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Ontario Premier Doug Ford, pictured here in July, had said ‘everything is on the table’ after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade talks late Friday.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press that Ronald Reagan would be “throwing up” over President Donald Trump’s trade policies and threatened to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States if the Canada-U.S. trade fight worsens.
“He’d be throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on,” Ford said, noting that Trump keeps a portrait of Reagan near his desk. Ford said Reagan would be “disgusted with President Trump.”
Ford said “everything is on the table” after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade talks late Friday.
“I’ll cut them off,” Ford said of critical minerals. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”
His comments came on the same day as Trump vowed more tariffs.
Trade talks collapsed at last minute after U.S. commerce chief pressed for harsher terms, sources say
Trump on Monday threatened to impose a 50-per-cent tariff on Canadian automobiles, car parts and steel starting next year as the trade rift with Ottawa continued to deepen.
The announcement comes after trade talks between otherwise allies and reliable trading partners collapsed last week. Long-planned U.S. tariffs on various Canadian goods went into effect after the talks broke off, and Canada has vowed to retaliate.
“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” Trump wrote on social media Monday morning. Criticizing Canada’s “ridiculously high tariffs” on American farmers, Trump wrote: “Not sustainable, and NOT ANYMORE!”