Doug Ford has become Canada’s unlikely champion against Trump’s tariff pledge

Open this photo in gallery:

The dispute with the incoming U.S. president over tariffs and trade comes at an awkward time for Canada. Earlier this month, our Prime Minister announced his intention to step down, automatically making him a lame duck. Fortunately, there are other leaders. Fortunately, there is Doug Ford.

The Ontario Premier has been far and away the most effective champion for this country in its looming confrontation with Donald Trump’s Washington. From the start, he has been saying all the right things.

Back in November, when Mr. Trump began threatening to slap a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian imports the first day he takes office, Mr. Ford said that it was “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.”

So true. Canada and the United States have been best friends for generations. Partners in continental defence. Neighbours on either side of the world’s longest undefended border. Co-signatories to a trade pact allowing the free flow of many goods and services from country to country.

Now this. Mr. Ford said it is “the biggest threat we’ve ever seen” and “it’s very, very hurtful.”

Since then, Mr. Ford has been banging the drum for Canada at every opportunity. He reminds Mr. Trump that (as a cap he has started wearing puts it) “Canada is not for sale.” He reminds Americans that their economy relies on Canada for oil, electricity and critical minerals. He tells U.S. interviewers that it is far better for the two countries to work in tandem to protect North American jobs than to get into a cross-border trade war. “I just think we are stronger together,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press as part of an ongoing media blitz.

But if things go another way, watch out. Mr. Ford says that though (as someone who ran a business in Chicago for years) he loves the United States, Canada will fight for its rights and respond with vigour if Washington insists on putting up a ruinous and self-defeating tariff wall.

“You can’t let someone hit you over the head with a sledgehammer without hitting them back twice as hard, in my opinion,” he said.

He has a message for Canadians, too: stick together. He took a well-deserved shot at Alberta Premier Danielle Smith when she refused to join a common federal-provincial front against the American threat because the other leaders refused to rule out a ban or tax on our energy exports to the States.

He reminded Ms. Smith, fresh off a visit to Mr. Trump’s Florida estate, that the president-elect is not taking on individual parts of Canada, “he’s going full tilt at Canadians as a whole. We need to be united. United we stand, divided we fall.” Right on again. Though every province must defend its interests, Mr. Ford said, “country comes first.”

Some will say that he is simply grandstanding, hoping that posing as Captain Canada will carry him to victory in a provincial election that he is hinting he might call soon. Perhaps. The Premier is already saying he might need a renewed mandate from voters to do all the spending that will be required to keep the provincial economy afloat if the tariffs come. That is nonsense. He has a majority in the legislature and he will have a chance to face voters in just a year and half anyway.

Others will say that his starring role in the conflict with Washington does not wipe away the memory of everything else he has done as premier, from making plans to rip out some Toronto bike lanes to trying to bribe voters with a $200 cheque to attempting to take land out of Southern Ontario’s Greenbelt.

Quite right. This is only one side of Doug Ford. But it is the best side. Plain-spoken, direct, combative when necessary, but willing to make a deal in the common interest.

Canada desperately needs leadership right now. Mr. Ford is providing it. Good for him.