Unite against U.S. tariffs, Wynne says

‘Donald Trump is a bully,’ Liberal leader says, calls for PC, NDP support

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne is taking aim at Donald Trump as she fights for survival with Ontario’s June 7 election campaign in its final week.

She called on rivals Doug Ford and Andrea Horwath to join her in a “united front” to push for “the toughest set of retaliatory measures possible” after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum Thursday.

“The time for talk is done. Donald Trump is a bully,” Wynne, who in the past has compared Ford to the contro- versial U.S. president, said at a Franco-Ontarian community centre in this Ottawa suburb.

The trade penalties of 25 per cent for steel and 10 per cent for aluminum will make the products more expensive to American manufacturers, such as automakers, hurting Canadian producers and their workers and raising prices for U.S. consumers.

Wynne said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government should make a “swift and sharp response” to the move by Washington a day before a tariff exemption for steel and aluminum was to expire.

Later in the day, Trudeau did just that, hitting the U.S. with $16.6 billion in proposed tariffs on its exports of goods from soup to toilet paper and boats — equivalent to the amount of Ca- nadian steel and aluminum exports to America — effective July 1.

“I have to believe that these trade barriers will be repealed but until that point we must make it clear that it is unacceptable … we have to send a signal to Donald Trump … Ontario will not be your doormat,” Wynne said. “I’m calling on (PC Leader) Doug Ford and (NDP Leader) Andrea Horwath to join with me given that we’re in an election campaign. Ontario has to show a united front.”

Horwath said the tariffs are “devastating” and will put jobs at risk at steel plants in her hometown of Hamilton, at Alcan in Kingston and other companies in Nanticoke, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

“Whatever Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau have been doing isn’t working and the consequences are unthinkable,” she added in a statement.

Ford pledged to “work with the federal government to resolve these trade issues and make Ontario open for business again.”

“We must work domestically to make Ontario and Canada more competitive,” he added in a statement.

Wynne also said the federal government should help Ontario with measures to “protect, support and sustain the steelmaking jobs in our province until these ridiculous and unwarranted trade actions are repealed.”

The new tariffs came a day after Wynne made a campaign stop at Stelco in Hamilton — in the riding Horwath represents — suggesting the NDP leader’s ties to unions mean she doesn’t have the chops to deal with major trade issues. Wynne acknowledged her tough talk about the NDP’s labour ties, and raising concerns about Horwath’s refusal to consider back-to-work legislation in garbage and teacher strikes, for example, has some unions accusing her of an all-out attack on organized labour.

“I know that’s the position some of the labour unions are taking,” she said, referring to a decision of the public high school teachers’ union to pull front-line support for her.

Wynne maintained she is not out to denigrate unions, but insisted Horwath’s position against back-to-work legislation if public sector strikes drag on is “irrational” and shows she is “blindly beholden” to unions.