Juno News - October 28, 2025Ford BLAMES Carney as TRADE TALKS IMPLODE
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Summary
While the blame game has begun over the disastrous anti-tariff TV ad that aired in the United States on the weekend, and led to the termination of a new trade deal between Canada and the US, a deal believed to be all-but done, but after seeing the ads, President Trump canceled trade talks and announced an additional 10% tariff on Canada.
Transcript
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While the blame game has begun over the disastrous anti-tariff TV ad, which aired in the United
00:00:11.960
States on the weekend, and led to the termination of a new trade deal between Canada and the United
00:00:17.360
States, a deal believed to have been all but done. But after seeing the ads, U.S. President
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Trump canceled trade talks and announced an additional 10% tariff on Canada. He says it'll
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be a while before talks begin again. Now, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra confirmed
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that a trade deal was imminent before the ads were released.
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Canada burnt the bridges with America. Donald Trump did not slam the door. Canada slammed
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that door shut all by itself. Anyway, Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared
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to be throwing each other under the bus over the fiasco. Carney said it was Doug Ford's
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decision to run the ads, not something the government of Canada would do during critical
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President Trump says he's canceled these trade talks because he's upset about the Ontario government
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ad. We've heard from the Business Council of Canada and even some of President Trump's
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own advisers who suggest the frustration with Canada runs deeper. So is this about the ads
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or is this about something else? I would suggest you take the president at his word for his
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reason. Our relations with the Prime Minister, are things strained now because of what's happened?
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No, not at all. He saw the ad before I put it out. So did his chief of staff. They both
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saw it and we move forward on it. But again, we achieved our goal. You know, as we say, mission
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accomplished, it was done. Anyway, Carney would not confirm or deny that he saw the ads ahead
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of time as Ford states. Conservative Party leader Pierre Paglia said it was Carney who approved
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the ads and should accept the blame for the collapse of negotiations.
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Mark Carney approved the ad. And then he claimed after the ad started running that the ad was
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the reason why no deal happened. So it's time for Mark Carney to come clean. He claims he was
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on the verge, once again, claims that he was on the verge of getting a deal. Then he approved
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the ad. And then he blamed the ad for the fact that there is no deal. So the reality is that
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premiers are stepping up to fill the void left behind by Mark Carney's broken promise. He said
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he would negotiate a win. He said he would have a deal by July 21st. Still no deal. Still no win.
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Still no elbows. Still no jobs. If I could, if I could, if I could. And now Mark Carney is looking
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for someone to blame for his broken promises. And he's blaming an ad that he approved. So it's time
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for Mark Carney to stop blaming others and start keeping his promises. His promise being that he
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would get a deal, that he would lower the tariffs, and then he would get the job done. He has not done
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that. Meantime, Ford insists that the ads did exactly what they are intended to do. When asked if
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he owed Ontarians an apology for a double down. The Prime Minister was explicit today in saying
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that it was the ad that derailed negotiations which were moving ahead. With that in mind,
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why don't you feel you owe Ontarians an apology? For sticking up for Ontarians? Well, let's talk
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about a so-called imminent deal. I've been hearing this for month after month after month. And if there
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was, there was no mention about auto. It's about steel. As you heard him there say, I mean,
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he'd rather have no deal than a deal that excluded the auto sector. Now, those who watched the opening
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ceremonies of the World Series were treated to this woke rendition of O Canada. No wonder the Blue Jays lost.
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O Canada, our home on native land. True patriot love, in all of us command.
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Jocelyn Bamford is founder of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada.
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And she joins us to talk a little bit about this whole anti-tariff ad fiasco. Welcome, Jocelyn.
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Well, you heard the various arguments. Now we've got Mark Kearney and Doug Ford appearing to be at odds here
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with the blame game and the finger pointing with Kearney saying, look, this was an ad that was taken out
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and paid for by the province of Ontario. We would never do a thing like that, especially with
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negotiations going on. Ford says Kearney saw the ads in the beginning, you know, before they ran.
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So what's he talking about? I mean, is the bromance over between these two?
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Now, you know what? I knew it right from the start. Doug Ford tweeted out that Mark Kearney came to his
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house for dinner. This was the Friday before the ads, the week before the ads came out. He tweeted out
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about how they had a lovely dinner and talked about a whole bunch of variety of topics. And as soon as
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those ads came out, I was like, there's no way that they met for dinner and had a conversation of a
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variety of topics and a $75 million ad buy right in the middle of negotiations would not have come up.
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It would be inexplicable. That just doesn't pass the smell test. So right from the start, when the
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liberal media was running with, Oh, you know, Doug Ford is gone rogue. I was like, there's no way this
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was planned between the two of them. Kearney would say he has plausible deniability and he would make
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Ford look like he's gone rogue. And I never bought it from the start. I don't buy it now. Now,
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Ford is saying, yes, of course, Kearney knew about it. And I believe that to be true. And so you hear
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from a variety of sources from the US administration that a deal was eminent. They were coming out just
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T's and C's. And it looks like the Canadians take their own trade deal. So, you know, why we should,
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who benefits from the US Canadian trade deal falling apart. It's certainly not Canadians.
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That's for sure. It's not our, the average Canadian. And we should be asking some pretty
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serious questions. Where did the $75 million come from? How was it funded? Did the federal
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government kick in any money? We should be looking for freedom of information on the funding of that deal.
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Yeah. And Ford has come out recently and said, well, it's not going to cost quite 75
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million because he paused the ads. I would ask, well, if the ads are so successful,
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as successful as you say they are, why pause the campaign? You know, but he claims that no,
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the ads did exactly what they were intended to do. In the meantime, Kearney has not confirmed or
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denied that he saw the ads in the, you know, ahead of time. I think he's looking for a way to kind of
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weasel his way out of this. I agree with you. There's no way he didn't see the ads, him and his chief
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of staff. They saw the ads and probably said, well, you know, go ahead. And it's all, it's blown up in
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the face of not only Ford, but Kearney himself, because you have Pierre Polyev who says, you know,
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you got to come clean here, prime minister. You know, you knew about it. And if you did know about it,
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then you should accept the blame for the collapse of those talks. And we'll have to just see how this
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plays out. But none of this looks good on any of the main players, either Ford or Kearney. What
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do you think? Yeah, absolutely. And so why would they do it? Why would they take a deal
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in the dying hours? And so, you know, two things come to mind. One, we should ask ourselves,
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does Kearney really just want to cozy up to Xi Jinping, the communist leader, and have a deal with
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him and say, oh, it wasn't my fault. It was Trump. Trump did it and he broke off negotiations. And
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then the timing of these ads is suspect. There are two governorial races going on, one in New Jersey,
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one in Virginia. Were they trying to influence the outcome of those two very tight races right now,
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two traditionally blue states, although Virginia is Republican, but has traditionally been Democrat.
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So were they trying to influence the outcome of those elections? And these are all very concerning
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issues that we ought to see the light of day. We should discuss the reasons why, because
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who wants to cozy up with the regime that has dumped steel on time and time again on Canadian borders,
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has hurt Canadian manufacturers, and has held our Canadian citizens hostage? Who thinks that they're
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a better partner than the United States, who's our longest ally, friend and neighbor?
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Yeah. I mean, interfering in another country's affairs, internal affairs, is not a good look for
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Canada. We would certainly be outraged if the Americans were trying to do it to us in Canada. And yet here
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we are trying to influence possibly those two gubernatorial races, but also the Supreme Court decision, which
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is coming out shortly on the legitimacy and the legality of the use of these tariffs to begin with. And so,
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you know, and I'm not the only one saying that. I mean, even John Manley, the former
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deputy leader of the Liberals, you know, back in the day, we're going back a few years before Trudeau,
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but he came out and said, look, we wouldn't appreciate it if the Americans did it to us,
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took out those ads and ran them in our country. And so why would we expect them to appreciate it?
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I mean, but Ford is just, it seems like a bull in a china shop. And I'm not sure what his intentions are here.
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I think it's quite possible to your point about Carney playing a duplicitous game here,
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trying to cozy up with Xi of China, and then using his flunky Doug Ford to do the heavy lifting,
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putting out these ads, you know, pretending like, now saying, pretending like he didn't,
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he might not have seen them. He's not saying yay or nay, kind of subtly trying to distance himself from
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all that. Meantime, he was probably all in when he saw the ads, knowing full well the impact they
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might have. Yeah. And the hypocrisy of Doug Ford, who whilst pouring out the Crown Royal,
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told the cameras, the LCBO is Crown Royal's largest customer. And is this how you treat your largest
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customer? Meanwhile, the United States is far ahead in terms of being our Ontario's largest customer.
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And yet Doug Ford has seen fit to call the U.S. President all kinds of names and continues to treat
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him terribly. And so Doug Ford should look in the mirror and follow his own advice and start treating
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his largest customer with some respect and try to get a deal. But I'm going to argue they don't want
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a deal because none of their behavior supports the fact that they want a deal.
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Doug Ford Well, there's a whole thing about what kind of deal. And that's one thing that Ford was
00:12:10.780
talking about because he said, and it's probably true. And I don't know if that came out during that
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discussion with Pete Huckstra when he was talking because he's the U.S. ambassador to Canada. You know,
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that deal that had been negotiated did not include autos. It was really about steel, aluminum, and
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I believe it was energy were the big three. And that was part of the negotiated agreement. I'm going
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to suggest that Ford got wind of what was in that deal. He may not have seen it, but he got wind of
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what it dealt with and then upended the chessboard when he found out that cars were not going to be
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part of it. So do you think that that's a possibility here? And what's the wisdom of, say, refusing to
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accept half a loaf in this case, knowing that maybe you can negotiate an auto deal down the road. But
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in the meantime, hey, let's get some relief in manufacturing of steel. Let's get some, you know,
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relief in energy, you know, aluminum. That doesn't make any sense to me. But that seems to be his
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attitude here. You know, without auto, if I can't protect the auto sector and the auto jobs, well, then
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to hell with the steel jobs as well. The whole thing is inexplicable. It makes no sense the way
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that they've been behaving right from the get go. If your largest customer is upset with you,
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any business person would hop on a plane and go visit with their largest customer and find out what's
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fussing them and trying to negotiate a way forward. But that's not what our prime minister did. His
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first trip abroad was to Europe. And you can continue to see them put trial balloons of maybe we should
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get a little cozier with communist China. And the liberals have a clear pattern. They have somebody
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write an op-ed in the media. They put out a trial balloon and then they roll out policy. And then
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you can look at it on a number of contentious issues. That's how they roll and that's what
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they've been doing. So, I mean, as a mother, I do not want to cozy up with China. Everybody should be
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aware of the Davidson window, which is when the United States believes that Xi Jinping is going to invade
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Taiwan. If you want to be really afraid and stay up at night, look at how many warships the communist
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Chinese party is rolling out. We in North America just can't compete with the level of shipbuilding
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and warships that they're rolling out. So, to cozy up with a regime that has again and again
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stole our intellectual property, dumped steel and aluminum onto our shores, haven't followed our
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our trade rulings and continue to be a threat to our democracy, influence our elections. It makes no
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sense. Why would you want to cozy up to them versus getting a deal with our largest trading partner? It
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makes no sense to me. Unless you're a complete radical yourself and just putting out this idea
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that, no, you're a moderate. I think these guys are not what they purport to be. I think they've
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got their own little agenda. And to your point, these guys break things and then use the breakage
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that they created to push their own agenda. And all you have to do is look at the crime,
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you know, which they created. Their policies created an explosion in crime. And what did they do?
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They used that as an excuse to go after legal firearms ownership in Canada. You know, this is
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the way these guys think. You know, let's create a problem and then we'll propose the solution,
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even though that solution has, you know, no relationship to the problem that they created.
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I don't trust these people. As far as I'm concerned, Carney's a snake in the grass.
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And we'll just have to see how this whole plays out. Now, of course, he is in China or in Asia,
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rather, for this conference in Korea, South Korea. And so we'll have to see what he comes out of there,
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because I've heard that Trump has made a number of announcements and partnerships, including one
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involving rare earth minerals with Japan. And so, I mean, that's an agreement he should be signing with
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Canada. You know, rather than going to Asia to get rare earth minerals, we've got them in Canada.
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And yet, rather than signing a deal with Trump on rare earth minerals, he goes over there and signs
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it. So that should show you what kind of attitude he has about Canada right now. But I want to also
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ask you about a graph that you've produced, some series of numbers about investment related to
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outflows of capital from Canada by the billions and, you know, to the United States. And in a way,
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you're part of that because, of course, you expanded your plant in the United States. It made sense for
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you, considering your clients. But many of your colleagues at the Coalition of Concern,
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Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, same deal. They're looking and going, this makes no sense
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staying here. You know, we tried, we really have tried, we'd love to grow in Canada, but we can't.
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And so we start looking south, and they move to states like Ohio and Virginia and whatever,
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Pennsylvania or any other state. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the outflow of capital.
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Yeah, so you know, this, you can get this on any website, you know, I always encourage people to do
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your own research. But this is the outflow of capital from Canada to the United States,
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and starting to ramp up in 2015 and 17, and then just hockey sticking as we're going up. So what
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drives that? I'm going to argue there's, unaffordable energy is one of the reasons that people have
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sought to either move or to move growth into the United States. So what goes into unaffordable energy,
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unaffordable electricity. Doug Ford was elected for a mandate to fix the electricity, which the cost
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was driven up by wind and solar contracts to make it unaffordable for not only people in their homes,
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but running manufacturing plants. So unaffordable electricity on the federal government is carbon
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tax, clean fuel standards, industrial carbon tax, all of those things, there are not in the United
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States. And when you look at Canada, contributing less than 1.5% of greenhouse gases, you have to ask
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yourself, why? Why would they do this to Canadians? And then what happened with all that carbon tax money,
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it went into the Sustainable Development Technology Corporation. And the auditor general went in
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there and said there was waste, fraud and abuse. And that's why the government was prorogued. And we
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still don't have answers. Where's our carbon tax money? Because we paid over $600,000 in carbon taxes,
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and we want our money back. If that money went to friends and people that did not do anything to
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contribute to lowering greenhouse gases or making the environment any better, it was just money extorted
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from us and fraudulently used. And I want my money back. That is money I could have given a bigger bonus
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to our people. We could have hired more people. We could have bought equipment. And the fact that Canadians
00:20:10.780
are so apathetic, they don't care about anything, how much waste, fraud and abuse are Canadians going to
00:20:21.980
stand up for? They are taking food from your kids' mouths and ruining your children's future. And the apathy of
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Canadians is stunning. So why do people move? Unaffordable energy, red tape. They just keep
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adding the red tape both federally and provincially onto us. The inability to get any projects done,
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expansion, the amount of red tape and studies and consultant fees you have to pay, it just makes it
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unaffordable. And instead of somebody sitting down and going, you know, Houston, we have a problem.
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Capital's fleeing to the United States. There seems to be no appetite to look at and do some analysis
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and ask people why they're leaving. Doug Ford's response to companies moving growth or packing up
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and leaving is to demand that everyone boycotts them instead of sitting around and asking them what's
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going on. And they will continue to go in this direction until there is a politician that wants
00:21:36.780
to sit down and listen to why capital's fleeing. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, all we hear from Ford is
00:21:43.580
Trump this and Trump that. I mean, I understand he wants to blame the United States. There's this strong
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sense of righteous indignation on the part of the premier and many other people that somehow, you know,
00:21:54.700
we're being betrayed, that Trump wants to destroy Canada. I don't think he wants to destroy Canada.
00:21:59.340
I think he wants to repatriate, you know, millions of jobs that left the United States over the course
00:22:06.940
of decades. And I understand that. But I think I would tell my fellow Canadians, it's not Trump's
00:22:15.020
responsibility to prop up our economy. You know, it's not his job is to take care of his people. You know,
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I wish our government here was as committed to improving the lives of Canadians as Trump is
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committed to improving the lives of Americans. You know, again, somehow we think that they owe us.
00:22:34.700
They don't owe us anything. Yeah, it's the total attitude of entitlement. The liberal government's been
00:22:43.100
in power for almost 10 years. The Ford government has been, you know, over eight. What have those two
00:22:52.060
governments done to bring back manufacturing, have a manufacturing strategy, get affordable energy?
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What have they done to improve the lives of Canadians, especially the middle class, bring back
00:23:05.500
high paying, high skilled manufacturing jobs? And what have they done to protect our freedoms and
00:23:10.220
liberties? Because I'm going to argue that that flight of capital has just as much to do with
00:23:16.620
people being concerned that the government's going to encroach their rights, their liberties,
00:23:21.980
and the money that they have spent their lives working towards as it is for anything else. So people
00:23:30.940
are leery of the government. They saw what happened during the lockdowns. They saw what happened when
00:23:37.980
the bank accounts were frozen. And if anybody values freedom and liberty, that's a scary prospect. So
00:23:45.660
in talking to some business owners, I've seen that that was also a concern that they have worked
00:23:54.620
and spent many hours. If you know any entrepreneur, it's not a nine to five job. It's a seven by 24 job,
00:24:03.340
and they have worked hard. A lot of them have intellectual property that they've invested in,
00:24:10.860
new inventions, and they're concerned with the encroachment of their freedom. So it's death by a
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thousand cuts. And people just throw up their hands finally and say, there's not going to be prosperity.
00:24:27.900
There's poor policies by not only the federal liberals, but the Ontario conservatives.
00:24:35.580
And they finally get to the point where they have to move their growth because their business
00:24:47.260
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they treat businesses like garbage. And then they turn around and throw
00:24:54.860
billions of dollars at massive corporations who don't really need the corporate welfare. But they
00:25:01.260
say, here you go, take this money and build EV plants. And what do we get to show for it? You know,
00:25:06.940
as a result of this tariff war, you know, Stellantis has moved. GM is moving. You know,
00:25:12.460
that truck plant out in Quebec, downsizing, you know, ultimately, these companies are going to
00:25:17.980
look after their own interests. And if the economic environment changes, away they go. And part of
00:25:25.260
that, of course, when you're talking about subsidies, as soon as the government money runs out, what do
00:25:28.940
these people do? It's just like, see you later. You know, because I mean, you've got the same problems
00:25:34.780
that add to costs for the corporations that add to costs of companies like yourself. You know what I
00:25:40.140
mean? It's just ridiculous. We've spent years, you know, our first choice is to grow in Canada. We're
00:25:49.980
Canadians, we're proud Canadians. But eventually, you have to make sure that the company is going to be
00:26:00.860
strong. And sometimes you need to grow in another area. If all things were equal, I'm sure every single
00:26:07.020
one of those companies that have either moved or moved growth to the United States would rather just
00:26:13.020
stay here. It's difficult running multiple plants, you have to travel a lot. Most people would just
00:26:20.220
rather stay home. But we are being pushed out by bad government policies. And that's not good for Canadians.
00:26:27.340
Absolutely not. Last question. Just I want you to maybe mention some of that something about that
00:26:33.260
billboard campaign that you've got going on? Yeah, so the coalition has taken out a billboard
00:26:39.820
campaign in Ontario, simply stating Ottawa is more detrimental to Canadians than Washington, D.C.
00:26:49.260
To get Canadians to wake up from their slumber and understand that the poor government policies are
00:26:55.260
causing the pain, not President Trump. It's Prime Minister Carney, and it's some of the premiers that
00:27:01.740
have poor policy that are hurting ordinary Canadians. But interestingly enough on that, those ads ran on
00:27:09.740
a private billboard company, some of which were in the city of Peterborough's arenas. And the city of
00:27:18.060
Peterborough, for that benign ad just saying that Ottawa is more detrimental than Washington, D.C.,
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that billboard company was forced to take those billboards down in Peterborough city properties because
00:27:34.700
they said they were divisive politically. I mean, it's stunning. It's stunning, folks. They are coming after
00:27:44.380
your ability to speak freely and to view your opinion. And they are taking over, you know, our media.
00:27:53.900
They're taking over billboard companies. It's alarming what's happening. And Canadians need to be aware,
00:28:01.740
because once your freedoms are gone, they're not coming back. And that is horrifying. Canada was proud.
00:28:09.340
Canada did their part to make sure that we had freedoms in the First and Second World War,
00:28:17.420
and we're allowing our government to take those freedoms away. And we're not even putting up a
00:28:23.420
fight. So, you know, another reason why a lot of Canadians are looking at opportunities after the
00:28:30.940
border is they're just saying, I can't stay. If people are going to fight, I'll stay, I'll entrench,
00:28:37.900
I'll fight. But when people have such apathy to losing their freedoms and losing their liberties,
00:28:45.420
then a lot of people just finally say, you know, I want to go where people value those things. I want
00:28:51.500
to go and make sure that my kids have those things that our forefathers fought for. And so Canadians need to
00:29:03.500
wake up and smell the coffee because it's not getting better, folks.
00:29:07.100
No. Yeah, it's long overdue in the waking up department. Thank you so much for coming on the
00:29:12.860
show, Jocelyn. My pleasure, Mark. It always great to spend some time with you and your listeners.
00:29:19.260
Jocelyn Bamford. And that is it for this edition of Straight Up with Mark Petroni. Appreciate you
00:29:24.620
tuning in, my friends. Let's do it again real soon, shall we? Bye-bye for now.