Focus less on Trump and more on building Canada, Ford says as Carney meet
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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is going an “incredible job” dealing with the ongoing U.S. trade war, Ontario’s premier told reporters on Monday.
Speaking to reporters outside of the government cabinet room in West Block on Parliament Hill, Doug Ford had nothing but praise for the work the Carney Liberals are doing in trade talks with the White House, despite Canada seeing no deal anywhere on the horizon.
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“(Carney’s) doing an incredible job, he’s working collaboratively with 12 other premiers and myself, working as ‘Team Canada,'” Ford said after his Monday morning meeting with the PM.
“He’s doing a very good job in my opinion, put in this position dealing with Donald Trump — let’s stop worrying about Donald Trump and start focusing on Ontario and Canada and all of the other provinces and territories.”
Ford brought a message of reducing taxes and regulatory red tape to Ottawa on Monday, saying that while no deal came out of his meeting with Carney, good ground was covered.
“We had a great discussion,” Ford told reporters.
“Nothing happens immediately in that room, but we’re all on the same page. We have a great partnership, and we’re going to work jointly together to make sure that we’re competitive.”
Ford declined to speculate on how likely a deal would be, but said the real sticking point will be the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA,) the continent-wide free trade agreement that goes up for review next year.
“In the meantime, we have to hold firm and we have to create the environment,” Ford said, referring to Canada’s planned nation-building infrastructure projects promised under the Carney Liberals’ One Canadian Economy act.
“We’re united on the message of let’s start worrying about how we can be competitive here — Donald Trump is so unpredictable, I don’t even know if he knows what he’s doing tomorrow morning, so let’s start focusing on building that.”
Ford didn’t answer when asked if officials were resigned to the fact that Canada would have to endure U.S. trade tariffs, saying the PM would be a better person to ask — and again mentioned how unpredictable Trump is.
“(Trump) will come up with some cockamamie thing tomorrow that we don’t even know about,” he said
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