This summary was produced using artificial intelligence and reviewed by an editor for accuracy and clarity.
Premier Doug Ford is taking his crusade against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the road this summer.
Against the backdrop of the mandatory review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), Ford will be lobbying state governors at regional meetings in South Carolina and Utah in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections in November.
“I’m going to be on the phone full steam, and later on, do a U.S. trip,” the premier told reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday.
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“As everyone knows, President Trump could wake up and … we move forward and we get a deal or (he) might blow up the CUSMA deal, but we have to have plans for everything,” said Ford, who has worked closely with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the other premiers in dealing with the mercurial president.
“I’ve said this to the federal government: hope is not a strategy,” he said, noting Americans “are feeling the crunch” of Trump’s tariffs on foreign products, including Ontario steel and auto parts, that are contributing to inflation stateside.
Ford, who makes frequent appearances on U.S. cable news channels to denounce Trump’s tariffs as a tax on American consumers, will take that same pointed message to two conferences of state governors in June and July.
From June 21-23, he is to be in Greenville, South Carolina for the Southeastern United States-Canadian Provinces Conference with the premiers of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, as well as the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The following week, Ford will travel to the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting in Deer Valley, Utah, which runs from June 30 until July 2.
That influential group is made up of the governors of 22 states and U.S. territories, including the economic powerhouses of California, Texas, Washington and Arizona.
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The premier is also firming up details for an upcoming visit to Texas. Ontario has a trade office in Dallas.
Ford’s summer tour comes as Trump has mused about possibly withdrawing from CUSMA, the trade pact he signed with former prime minister Justin Trudeau and former Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019.
“No deal is better than a bad deal,” the premier stressed, emphasizing a renewal of the accord formerly known as NAFTA is “in the best interest of the American people” as well as Canadians.
“I always remind (Trump) that nine million Americans wake up every single day to build a product, a widget or service for Ontario alone.”
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