Other premiers weigh in after Ford’s foolish blunder. Pictured: Canada’s premiers, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford chairing the meeting. Photo Credit: Doug Ford/X.
President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose significant tariffs on Canada have certainly gotten the attention of Canadian politicians – as they should. But despite talk about a “Team Canada” approach to Trump’s latest gambit, there has been an unfortunate lack of consistency which shows that Canada really doesn’t have its act together. Not a good look for us.
Last week was a classic example of this lack of coordination among the provinces. Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is the current Chair of the Premiers’ group called the Council of the Federation, seemingly decided to take a leadership role but flubbed it badly. Ford decided to try to play tough guy and threaten the U.S. with cutting off energy exports (electricity) from Ontario to three U.S. states – Michigan, New York and Wisconsin – as retribution for any U.S.-imposed tariffs. But whoops! Turns out Ontario doesn’t export any electricity to Wisconsin, but does to Minnesota.
That was Ford’s first mistake, and a minor one compared to what was yet to come. Ford went on to imply that he would be protecting Ontarians by cutting off these exports. He clearly did not understand the way Ontario’s electricity system works and why cutting off exports to the U.S. would punish Ontarians more than U.S. customers.
The facts are that Ontario exports electricity to the U.S. at bargain-basement prices because of the ongoing mismanagement of Ontario’s electrical grid. Poor planning and foolish policies such as the Green Energy Act of 2009 brought in by the previous Liberal government led to an over-supply of unreliable, intermittent and expensive wind and solar power. This means Ontario often overproduces electricity it can’t use or store. As a result of the long-term contracts signed with wind energy providers, Ontario must pay for any power produced whether it is needed or not. To recoup at least some of the costs of this generation, the province sends the excess to some U.S. states such as Michigan or New York at rock-bottom prices and well below the contracted price. The prospect of Ford cutting off these exports means that electricity prices, already uncompetitively high in Ontario, would be even higher.
Ford’s threat to cut these exports would hurt Ontario households and businesses already reeling from high electricity costs. Ford initially ran for election on a promise to reduce these costs, but in his six years in government he has failed to fix the problem and has merely continued former premier Kathleen Wynne’s policy of subsidizing electricity rates from general revenues by over $6 billion annually. In making his threat, Ford claimed his “number 1 job was to protect Ontario, Ontarians and Canada as a whole.” Instead, his threat revealed his lack of understanding of the issue and its implications for Canadians.
Upon hearing Ford’s foolish statement, other premiers weighed in to offset the potential damage. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith made it clear that Alberta will not be cutting off oil and gas exports, which are an enormous and valuable export for that province and Canada. Smith also noted she did not support the notion of retaliatory tariffs, which have a history of hurting all partners in a trading relationship. Smith has been very proactive in recent weeks meeting with various state governors and other U.S. officials to promote her case that Canadian oil and gas is a key part of the solution to energy affordability and security.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault also said he would not threaten to cut off electricity to the U.S., and commented that Trudeau’s best response to Trump would be to present a sensible plan to deal with serious border concerns that should have been addressed by the Canadian government long before they were mentioned by Trump. One commentator joked that there had been more action to resolve border problems in the last two weeks than there had been in the last five years.
Unfortunately, at a time when we need serious action on a number of Canada-U.S. issues, a meltdown of the federal Liberals appears to be taking place, triggered by Chrystia Freeland’s surprise resignation as Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister this week. The Trudeau Liberals have the tendency to be navel-gazers even at the best of times, putting partisan party interests ahead of those of the country. Instead of our federal political leaders being focussed on devising the best ways to respond to the U.S. sabre-rattling, they will likely instead be looking inward at their own internecine chaos.
The premiers are meeting as this author writes this to determine a plan to respond to the Trump tariff threat. Hopefully it does not involve any one premier going off half-cocked with incorrect information and making matters worse as happened last week.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
