Ontario Premier Doug Ford in response to President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on Tuesday said he has “ripped up” the province's Starlink agreement with the US.
Ontario’s $100 million contract with satellite internet company Starlink is a direct blow to Trump’s senior advisor and Starlink owner Elon Musk. Canadian politics have targetted Musk before, with Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland calling for 100% tariffs on Musk's’ Tesla electric vehicles.
Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all Canadian gods, effective Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. ET. He also levied a 10% tariff on energy and critical minerals. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau retaliated with $30 billion in tariffs on US products, rising to $155 billion in 21 days.
Ford at a press conference Tuesday morning admitted over the last few decades Canada has “taken the US for granted as our number one trading partner.”
“We need to look in the mirror,” he said, urging Ottawa to “speed up approvals on critical minerals that the world wants” and to “no longer take 10 years to get shovels in the ground.”
“This is what we need to do in many areas. We need to move quickly. We need to move quickly on infrastructure projects across Ontario. The federal government, they need to move quickly on making sure that when they go for procurement, they're Canadian companies,” said Ford, adding American companies will be barred from bidding on roughly $30 billion in annual procurement contracts in Ontario.
Ford also threatened to impose a tax on American electricity customers if tariffs “persist” — yet on Monday, hours before the tariffs went into effect, Ford promised to “shut down” power going to 1.5 million US customers altogether, which would impact New York, Michigan and Minnesota.
It wouldn’t be a Ford presser on tariffs if alcohol wasn’t mentioned. Ford on Tuesday also said the LCBO will halt purchases of American alcohol and the province will ban procurement contracts in this sector too.
More ammunition in the US trade war includes banning exports of high-grade nickel, which is a mineral widely used in manufacturing.
