Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the province’s retaliatory moves against the U.S. were on hold after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Donald Trump had put off his threatened 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods.Peter Power/The Canadian Press
Some premiers paused their plans to strip U.S. booze out of their province’s liquor stores after President Donald Trump offered a last-minute reprieve from his threatened tariffs, and Ontario’s Doug Ford walked back his move to scrap a $100-millon deal with Trump ally Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet provider.
The 30-day delay in the threatened 25-per-cent U.S. tariffs, announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday after speaking with Mr. Trump, prompted Mr. Ford to reverse course just hours after he issued a statement cancelling the province’s deal with Starlink, which is owned by Mr. Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and a key member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle.
Mr. Ford had also said he would ban U.S firms from bidding on the $30-billion the Ontario spends on government contracts each year and from the $200-billion it plans to spend over the next decade on infrastructure projects. But late Monday, he said both moves, and his order to toss all U.S. booze off the shelves off the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, were on hold.
“With the U.S. pausing tariffs, Ontario will also pause our retaliatory measures,” Mr. Ford said in a statement. “If President Trump proceeds with tariffs, we won’t hesitate to remove American products off LCBO shelves or ban American companies from provincial procurement.”
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew also announced he was pausing his plan to remove American alcohol from his province’s liquor stores. New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said American alcohol would remain in her province’s liquor stores for now but that no new supplies would be purchased for the time being. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said he too is standing down on his province’s retaliatory measures, which included a U.S. booze ban and a doubling of tolls for America commercial vehicles on a key route.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who broke from her counterparts across the country by eschewing retaliatory measures and instead focused on lobbying American policy-makers, welcomed the deal reached Monday between Canada and the U.S. to crack down on fentanyl trafficking at the border.
“Diplomacy has won the day,” Ms. Smith said. “I once again call on our federal government officials and fellow premiers to de-escalate rhetoric, abandon any non-tariff measures for the time being, and turn our efforts entirely to advocacy and good faith negotiation.”
Quebec Premier François Legault said U.S. products would be put back on the shelves of the provincial public liquor store chain. And at news conference in Montreal, he said Quebec is reviewing its own deal with Starlink.
“We would like to get out of this contract,” Mr. Legault said, but he added that he wanted to avoid paying hefty penalty fees or cutting internet access for remote homes that rely on it.
Earlier on Monday, when Mr. Ford announced his plan to kill Ontario’s Starlink deal – signed in November to provide internet service to rural and remote areas – he said Mr. Musk was “hell-bent on destroying our economy.”
Mr. Musk took to his social-media site X with a muted response to Mr. Ford’s initial scrapping of the Starlink deal, saying only, “Oh well.”
Mr. Ford has in the past offered full-throated support of Mr. Trump. As recently as 2020, during Mr. Trump’s unsuccessful re-election campaign, Mr. Ford publicly suggested he still supported the U.S. President. Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said has turned against Mr. Trump for good.
“I’m sure there’s millions of Canadians that thought, ‘Okay, this might be a good change down in the U.S.,’ ” he said. “It’s been disaster. I’d never support the guy in my entire life. He goes up and just stabs you right in the heart? Forget that.”
However, in footage captured by a pool TV camera away from the podium at Monday’s event, Mr. Ford can be heard saying he was happy when Mr. Trump won last fall. “On election night, was I happy the guy won? One hundred per cent I was,” he said. “Then the guy pulled out the knife and … yanked it into me,” he continued, using an expletive.
Just last week, Mr. Ford had defended the Starlink contact, saying it had been awarded competitively. Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie had demanded he rescind the deal with Mr. Musk’s firm. Ms. Crombie, in a statement on X, pointed out that the billionaire’s support for Mr. Trump was well known before the deal was signed last November.
Mr. Musk, who performed a gesture that looked like a Nazi salute at Mr. Trump’s post-inauguration event last month, has also vocally supported Germany’s leading far-right Alternative for Germany political party. He has also allowed the increased spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories on his X social-media platform – including from his own account.
Mr. Trump appointed him to head a cost-cutting organization called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that suddenly shut down the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development on the weekend.
The move to scrap the Starlink deal did not appear to affect the company’s normal operations, which have expanded rapidly across areas without cable broadband access and now serve hundreds of thousands of Canadians.
Alberta set up a pilot project to subsidize Starlink use in remote areas, but it finished last year.
B.C. Premier David Eby said Monday afternoon that his province would also pause its retaliatory measures, which included ceasing alcohol purchases from red states and directing government and Crown corporations to buy goods and services from Canadian companies over American.
However, the Premier said the unilateral actions by Mr. Trump had changed the two jurisdictions’ relationship for the foreseeable future. The province will continue its work preparing for non-tariff measures and diversifying its relationships with trading partners.
“What’s going to happen between now and 30 days from now is Crown corporations, our government, will be identifying substitute suppliers from Canada, from around the world that we can turn to quickly in the event that we are back into the trade war,” he said.
Newfoundland and Labrador is also reversing its plan to pull American liquor products off shelves
In a statement posted to social media Monday night, NL Premier Andrew Furey said the province will continue to stand strong with Canadians and be prepared for what’s to come. He also countered misinformation from President Trump about Canada’s role in the U.S. fentanyl crisis.
“Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and Canadians believe in a well-informed, rational, united approach to any issue we face,” Dr. Furey wrote. “Less than 1 per cent of fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada, and our country will stop it.”
With files from Irene Galea, Andrea Woo, Lindsay Jones, Temur Durrani, Carrie Tait and Frédérik-Xavier D. Plante
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