Ontario Premier Doug Ford arrives for a first ministers meeting in Ottawa on Jan. 15.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford once again did not rule out calling an early provincial election if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump enacts tariffs against Canada, arguing he’ll need a new mandate from voters to spend billions in response.
Mr. Ford on Thursday replied “stay tuned” when asked if he would seek a new mandate in the event that Mr. Trump imposes his threatened 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods next week.
The Premier has been considering an early election since at least last spring, long before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would be stepping down when his party chooses a successor in March.
But with the federal government likely to fall upon Mr. Trudeau’s departure and with Mr. Trump’s tariff threat on the immediate horizon, Mr. Ford has raised the idea of going to the ballot box before the legislated June, 2026, election date more frequently.
Speaking at a Mississauga Board of Trade event, the Premier said the response to economically devastating tariffs could cost the province tens of billions of dollars in aid for workers and businesses, which he likened to the COVID-19 pandemic spending.
“We may have to put tens of billions of dollars into the economy to keep people moving, keep people afloat,” Mr. Ford said during a question-and-answer session with board of trade president and CEO Trevor McPherson.
“And to be very frank, I do not have the mandate to spend tens of billions of dollars right now.”
Bailout plan in response to Trump tariffs on the agenda for premiers’ meeting with Trudeau
Mr. Ford said he has to see what happens when Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20 and if he imposes the tariffs as promised.
“I think he’s going to come out of the gate real quick and start hitting us with tariffs and he’s going to try pay for his debt with it and everything else. But it’s not working. It will not work,” Mr. Ford said.
The Ontario Premier has been leading the charge on Canada’s response to the tariff threat, arguing the country needs to retaliate strongly with its own tariffs or other moves.
Mr. Ford has even threatened to cut off energy exports to the United States, a move that put him offside with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who broke with the other premiers because they would not rule out using oil embargoes or extra levies on energy exports to retaliate.
Published opinion polls have consistently shown the Progressive Conservative Leader with a handy lead, well ahead of his Liberal and NDP rivals – making an election now an enticing prospect.
A vote now would allow Mr. Ford to get in front of any cuts from a future Conservative government in Ottawa, any criminal charges that result from the RCMP probe of his botched attempt to convert protected Greenbelt lands to housing, or the impending economic damage expected from U.S. tariffs.
Smith is fighting Ottawa rather than Trump’s tariff. This will cost us all
Mr. Ford, who has warned that Mr. Trump’s tariffs could cost Ontario 500,000 jobs, has previously argued he needed an election because – unlike the consensus achieved on a similar cash infusion during the COVID-19 pandemic – the opposition would not support a multibillion-dollar bailout plan.
But both NDP Leader Marit Stiles, who heads the Official Opposition, and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, say they would work with the Premier on any such move to ease the pain of the tariffs – and that an early election call would be needless and self-serving.
“What we don’t need right now is more insecurity and instability in this country and in this province,” Ms. Stiles said on Thursday, speaking to reporters in Timmins, Ont. She said Mr. Ford should recall the legislature now to prepare for the tariff threat. “If he goes to the polls, it’s 100 per cent about saving his job.”
All parties have been scrambling to nominate candidates, raise funds and put campaign teams in place for months, but still have scores of candidates left to formally credential in order to be ready for a snap vote.
According to Elections Ontario rules, the election must be called on a Wednesday, with the vote taking place the fifth Thursday from that date.
With any talk of an early election in Ontario, the spectre of then-Liberal-premier David Peterson’s 1990 defeat looms large. He called an early election to seek a mandate ahead of what he believed would be a national unity crisis after the failure of the Meech Lake accord, but the move was also designed to get out ahead of a crushing recession. Voters punished the Liberals for their opportunism and Bob Rae formed Ontario’s first and so far only NDP government.
One early election call more recently paid off for a conservative premier: In November, Nova Scotia’s Tim Houston won a majority in a snap vote.