Ontario Election Day 6: Candidates respond to Trump tariffs

A composite image made from four file photographs show, from left to right, Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles, Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner. THE CANADIAN PRESS

It’s Day 6 of the provincial election campaign and candidates are responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.

The tariffs are set to go into effect on Tuesday and could have sweeping repercussions for Ontario’s economy.

Here’s what the candidates are saying.

3 p.m.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has unveiled a plan to “tariff-proof Ontario” in the face of new U.S. tariffs.

“An NDP government will work with local industries to help them find new Canadian and international markets. We’re going to reduce internal trade barriers here in Canada, and we’re going to redouble our efforts to promote Ontario-made goods,” Stiles said during a campaign stop in Oshawa.

“If you lose your job and you want to work, we’re going to put you to work. (We will) identify infrastructure projects that can be accelerated; fixing schools, building more homes, building transit. We can keep people working in the province of Ontario.”

In a statement, Stiles also said her plan would include specific supports for the auto sector, a “buy Ontario” campaign, a pitch to create a joint federal-provincial income assistance program to support people whose livelihoods are impacted by tariffs, and other measures.

In her statement, Stiles also took aim at Ford, saying he has left Ontario vulnerable.

“Doug Ford didn’t create this crisis, Donald Trump did. But Ford’s failures and bad deals have left Ontario’s economy weaker, and the families who live here vulnerable,” she said.

2 p.m.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie was in the Kitchener-Waterloo area Monday morning, touring a health care facility and speaking at the Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

“We, as Canadians, as the people of Ontario, have to fight like hell to protect our economy from Trump, from tariffs, from the economic earthquake about to shake our province,” Crombie said in her talk. “We are united 100 per cent with every bit of patriotic love in our bodies behind Team Canada, because the only way to stand up to a bully is with strength.”

The comments marked a departure for Crombie, who spent the first few days of the campaign saying that that the election is not about tariffs, but rather about health care.

In a statement Monday, she seemed to marry to the two issues.

“Ontario needs a premier who will stand up to Trump,” Crombie said in the statement.” Who will fight for our jobs, our industry, our small business owners and our workers. And it needs a premier who will also fix health care. Who will make certain that everyone in this province has a family doctor.”

Crombie said if elected premier, she would create a Fight Tariffs Fund (FTF), that would allow Ontario businesses to borrow at lower rates.

“We will give Ontario businesses an important backstop; the Fight Tariffs Fund, FTF,” Crombie said. “I like to call it the F-Trump Fund. That’s just between us. This will provide Ontario businesses with access to cheaper interest rates for operational costs or capital investment so that they can borrow government rates to help them keep workers or hire new ones as they grow.”

Crombie questioned whether Ford’s order to remove U.S. products from the LCBO will be effective and said he should have started measures to handle the tariffs sooner.

“What’s the plan? Okay, we’re going to remove beer and wine from the LCBO. Great. What are you going to do for stimulus for our industries, to protect them, at least we have a fund so that our companies can borrow as needed,” she said.

Ford did say Monday that his cabinet approved a stimulus plan prior to the election call, but details have not been released yet.

Crombie also said Monday that she would include money in her first budget to build a hospital in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region.

11:30 a.m.

PC candidate Doug Ford started his day with a media appearance on Fox News, blasting Trump for targeting his “closest friend, his treasured ally since 1867.”

Ford added “there’s more problems in the world than attacking your closest friend.”

In a statement sent from his campaign, Ford said that as premier, he is banning U.S. companies from provincial contracts in response to the tariffs.

“Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts,” Ford said in a statement.

He pointed out that Ontario spends $30 billion a year on procurement and added that Ontario will be “ripping up” a $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service.

“That’s a small, small drop in the bucket, the 100 million dollars. It sends a message to President Trump,” Ford said at a campaign stop later in the morning.

He said the province will instead go with a Canadian company that will take two years longer to deliver the contract.

Asked whether he would also rip up a contract to put Service Ontario kiosks in Staples locations, Ford said that’s different because Staples employs “thousands” of people in Canada.

Ford also said during his campaign stop that he supports the federal government’s retaliatory tariffs, which are set to roll out in phases, starting Tuesday.

“Canada has no choice but to hit back and hit back hard,” Ford said. “As Premier of Ontario, the federal government has my full support for a strong and forceful response, tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar. If Canada is going to win this fight, we need to respond together. Everything needs to be on the table. Everyone needs to share in the burden.”

Opposition parties have charged that some of Ford’s actions on tariffs amount to a violation of a longstanding “caretaker convention” which prohibits blurring the line between government and candidate actions.

Asked whether he was using announcements as premier to boost his standing in the election, which he called on the basis of tariff threats, Ford said “not at all.”