Scott Stinson: Where have you gone, Captain Canada?
Ontario Premier Doug Ford once wrapped himself in the Maple Leaf in the face of Donald Trump's tariff and annexation threats. But he's Ontario First now
By: Scott Stinson
Around this time last year, Ontario Premier Doug Ford fell into a role for which he was particularly well-suited.
As Donald Trump started making tariff and annexation threats against his neighbour, Ford donned a MAGA-style “Canada Is Not For Sale” hat — this is not a metaphor — and started fighting back as much as he could.
He whipped American liquor off of Ontario shelves, he went on American news networks to plead for the U.S. president to come to his senses, he even at one point briefly stopped electricity exports to neighbouring states before reversing course after Trump flipped out.
He might have got a little out over his skis on that last one, but the Captain Canada schtick fit Ford’s personality. He’s always been a politician who tends to see issues in black and white. Jobs good, taxes bad. Cars good, bike lanes bad.
Loudly defending Canada against U.S. bullying, full stop, also happened to be a good look for a premier at a time when Canadians were feeling particularly aggrieved.
Alas, Ford’s pure, maple-tinged intentions have run into the cold reality of provincial politics in recent weeks. Captain Canada has become Captain Ontario. Perhaps it was always bound to become thus.
The trouble began with the Crown Royal Affair, one of the stranger stories in the Ford ouevre. Diageo, the U.K.-based booze giant, decided to close a bottling plant for the Canadian whisky in southwestern Ontario, preferring to move some operations to a U.S. facility for cost-saving reasons.
This is, of course, the kind of thing that big companies sometimes do. It is lousy for the workers, but it’s hardly unusual.
Ford, though, having already used the LCBO’s buying power to push back against Trump’s tariffs, promptly said he would prohibit the sale of Crown Royal in the province unless those Diageo jerks reconsidered the closure of the Ontario plant and the loss of 200 jobs.
This was an odd move. While one can understand the motivation behind banning the sale of American booze in response to Trump’s ridiculous tariffs and even more ridiculous annexation talk, the Crown Royal situation isn’t that at all. It’s a company making a typical cost-cutting decision — and Ford taking punitive against them for doing that is a curious look for Premier Open For Business. If a company opens a factory here, do they have to keep it operating … forever?
Ford was undaunted (as was Diageo), and the premier has said he “can’t wait” to stop the sale of Crown Royal once the Amherstberg plant is shuttered. (He also encouraged Ontarians to “stock up” on Crown Royal ahead of time, which is a bit of mixed messaging.)
Awkwardly, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew pointed out that Ford’s revenge-ban could impact the Crown Royal facility in Gimli, Man., and he encouraged his Ontario counterpart to take a more pan-Canadian approach to his decisions, especially at this uncertain time.
“I’m asking you to reconsider because this is about sticking together as Team Canada,” Kinew said. “We know that we’re standing together against the U.S. But a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Hitting Ford right in the feels with that one, I suspect.
Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard said much the same on Tuesday. In a statement that asked Ford to reconsider his planned ban, and noting the continued production of Crown Royal at a facility in Valleyfield, Que., he said “now is not the time to implement measures that risk further weakening Canadian supply chains.”
On Monday, Ford told reporters that his “number one job” is to “protect Ontario workers.”
To that end, the Ontario premier has also been grousing quite a bit about the federal deal with China to allow a limited number of Chinese-made electric vehicles into the country in exchange for renewed canola and seafood exports to the communist nation.
When news broke of the Canada-China agreement on Friday, Ford called it a “terrible, terrible, misguided decision.” Those vehicles will compete with Ontario’s beleaguered auto industry, you see. Ford had softened his tone somewhat by Monday, mostly lamenting that Prime Minister Mark Carney hadn’t given him much of a heads-up.
“I’m disappointed, because we had such a great relationship,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park. And, also: “Well, at least I know where I stand now.”
Ouch. Couldn’t the PM have shot him a little text? Even just something with a China flag and car emoji?
Ford now finds himself offside with not just Manitoba and Quebec on Crown Royal, but against Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces on the China deal, as those provinces are glad to have access to that market for their canola and seafood exports.
Even Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who Ford once derided as being too selfish about oil exports that he thought Canada should withhold, has said positive things about the deal that Carney struck with China.
“Trade tariffs are harmful and only serve to raise consumer prices, limit choice and innovation and damage businesses and producers,” Smith said.
That’s the kind of thing Doug Ford used to say in his appearances on CNN and Fox News.
Back when the Captain Canada act was a lot more believable.
Scott Stinson writes from suburban Toronto.
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Where's my inter-provincial trade agreement? Oh - that was then.
Maybe Alberta and Saskatchewan should run ads in Ontario quoting Ronald Reagan's views on tariffs?