Western Standard - August 30, 2026


Doug Ford Wants to TAKE ON Trump. Canada Could Pay the Price


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

153.69

Word count

1,070

Sentence count

88


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Donald Trump can hurt Canada far more easily than Canada can hurt Donald Trump.
00:00:05.160 That's not anti-Canadian, that's math.
00:00:08.140 The United States has more people, more capital, more domestic demand, more industrial capacity, more military power, and more bargaining leverage.
00:00:19.840 Canada's great economic advantage has never been our ability to overpower the United States.
00:00:26.040 It has been privileged access to the United States.
00:00:30.000 And if your government's strategy is to jeopardize that advantage
00:00:33.140 because you think Canadians will applaud you for standing up to Trump,
00:00:36.080 you had better have one hell of a plan B.
00:00:39.420 And then there's Doug Ford.
00:00:40.800 He gets angry.
00:00:42.040 He starts yelling.
00:00:43.160 He says something outrageous.
00:00:45.020 Everybody cheers.
00:00:46.180 The cameras show up.
00:00:47.640 Doug Ford becomes Captain Canada for another afternoon.
00:00:51.120 Great television.
00:00:52.500 Terrible economics.
00:00:53.960 Because this week, Doug Ford has decided that apparently the trade war isn't escalating quickly enough.
00:00:59.220 Ford says that Canada can put, quote-unquote, massive pain on the United States.
00:01:04.880 He says Donald Trump is making a mistake by underestimating Canadians.
00:01:08.960 He says everything is on the table.
00:01:11.080 Electricity, critical minerals, oil, uranium, potash, fuel.
00:01:15.360 He says the premier should get together and throw everything and the kitchen sink at the Americans.
00:01:20.900 And that brings us to perhaps my favorite line.
00:01:24.300 Donald Trump can kiss Ford's ass.
00:01:26.700 That's the premier of Ontario.
00:01:28.180 the province with the largest manufacturing sector in canada the center of the canadian
00:01:34.020 automotive industry the province whose economic fortunes are perhaps more closely connected to
00:01:38.980 the american economy than anywhere else in the country and doug ford is standing there essentially
00:01:45.080 saying economic war bring it on what could possibly go wrong well doug quite a lot because
00:01:52.980 there is something deeply unserious about a politician talking about inflicting massive pain
00:01:58.300 on your largest customer as though international trade were a bar fight. This isn't roadhouse. You
00:02:04.780 don't win because you're louder. You don't win because you swear more. You don't win because
00:02:08.700 you wear a hat that says, buy Canadian. You win because you have leverage. And once again,
00:02:15.620 apparently nobody wants to discuss the leverage. Doug Ford says Donald Trump is underestimating
00:02:22.020 canada no doug ford is dramatically overestimating canada those are two very different things canada
00:02:29.300 matters to the united states absolutely we sell them oil uranium potash electricity aluminum steel
00:02:35.860 and auto parts we have deeply integrated supply chains that would be extremely expensive and
00:02:40.740 disruptive for the united states to replace doug ford apparently wants to take every strategic
00:02:46.180 economic relationship canada has with the united states pile them onto the middle of the floor
00:02:50.580 Pour gasoline over them and stand there holding a match.
00:02:54.640 That's not negotiating.
00:02:56.240 That's mutually assured stupidity.
00:02:59.160 Take electricity.
00:03:00.580 Ford says Ontario could cut off electricity exports to the United States.
00:03:04.660 Sounds tough until you ask the obvious question.
00:03:08.780 Then what?
00:03:09.900 Canada exported about $3.3 billion worth of electricity to the United States last year.
00:03:14.380 More than 20 states import some Canadian electricity.
00:03:17.560 and new york and michigan are the major customers for ontario power so yes ontario can hurt them
00:03:23.640 of course it can prices would increase in some markets utilities would have to adjust alternative
00:03:28.440 generation would have to come online there would be disruption but they're not going to turn manhattan
00:03:34.120 off they're not going to shut detroit down the united states produces vastly more electricity
00:03:39.320 than the canada exports to it the americans adjust eventually they replace what we sell them and
00:03:44.680 then congratulations, Premier Ford, you have transformed a reliable Canadian export market
00:03:49.360 into an American national security vulnerability.
00:03:52.880 What do you think Washington does next?
00:03:55.300 Do you think they say, boy, those Canadians sure showed us
00:03:59.240 we'd better become even more dependent on Ontario electricity?
00:04:04.100 Of course not.
00:04:04.780 They build around us.
00:04:06.100 They develop alternatives.
00:04:07.300 They change regulations.
00:04:08.520 They increase domestic production.
00:04:10.260 They build generation.
00:04:11.720 They build transmission.
00:04:12.780 mission. They find another supplier wherever possible. And the temporary leverage you had
00:04:19.660 becomes permanently less valuable. That's the danger of weaponizing trade. Once you demonstrate
00:04:25.020 that you are willing to shut the tap off, the customer has an enormous incentive to make sure
00:04:29.380 you can never threaten them with that tap again. The same applies to critical minerals, uranium,
00:04:34.580 and it certainly applies to oil. There are certain strategic advantages. They should be used to
00:04:41.920 create long-term commercial relationships that make Canada indispensable. Instead, our political
00:04:47.560 class increasingly talks about them like they are artillery shells. Fire this one. Fire that one.
00:04:54.440 Maybe we'll shut off electricity. Maybe we'll restrict oil. Maybe we'll withhold minerals.
00:04:59.740 Maybe we'll tax exports. And after we've fired every weapon we have, what then? The American
00:05:05.540 domestic market is considerably larger than ours, and that means that there is a fundamental problem
00:05:11.780 with the entire elbows-up mentality.
00:05:15.200 It treats economic pain as evidence of patriotism.
00:05:19.280 Ford actually told the Associated Press
00:05:21.620 that Canadians understand that they're going to have to sacrifice.
00:05:25.320 Think about that sentence.
00:05:27.440 They're going to have to sacrifice.
00:05:29.740 Who's they?
00:05:30.700 Doug Ford? Mark Carney?
00:05:32.460 The people standing behind the podiums?
00:05:34.660 No.
00:05:35.660 A guy working at an auto plant in Windsor.
00:05:38.220 A woman running a small manufacturer in Kitchener.
00:05:41.440 a trucking company, a farmer, a steel worker, a parts supplier, a family whose grocery bill goes
00:05:47.080 up because somebody in Ottawa decided tariffs demonstrated national resolve. Those are the
00:05:52.240 people who sacrifice. Politicians declare economic wars. Ordinary people fight them.
00:05:59.020 And I am getting extremely tired of wealthy politicians talking about the sacrifices we
00:06:03.700 need to make so those politicians can demonstrate how tough they are. Doug Ford wants an economic
00:06:08.980 war? Okay. What's the victory
00:06:11.020 condition? I asked this about Mark Carney
00:06:13.040 and I'll ask it again about Doug Ford.
00:06:15.360 What does winning look like? Donald
00:06:16.940 Trump capitulates? The United States
00:06:19.060 removes every tariff? Americans
00:06:20.860 decide they're more afraid of losing Canadian
00:06:23.160 electricity than Canadians
00:06:24.980 are of losing access to the U.S.
00:06:27.260 market? What's the theory?
00:06:29.520 Because we'll hurt them too
00:06:31.020 is not a strategy.
00:06:32.880 It's an emotion.
00:06:35.460 Suppose somebody punches
00:06:36.880 you in the face. You can punch him back. Maybe he deserves it. But if he's six foot seven, 280
00:06:42.960 pounds and standing there asking if you'd like another round, you might want a little bit more
00:06:47.620 of a sophisticated plan than I'm Canadian and I've got elbows. This is what drives me nuts
00:06:53.820 about Doug Ford. He should understand this better than anybody.