Doug Ford’s hostile turnaround on USMCA no surprise
No one should be terribly surprised, or concerned, that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has turned nasty on the new USMCA — otherwise known as NAFTA2.0 — trade agreement.
After all, Ford made it known early on after his election that he would be a thorn in Justin Trudeau’s side whenever possible. The centrepiece of that strategy is Ford’s plan to spend $30 million on a court battle — which legal experts agree he will lose — to keep Ottawa from imposing a carbon tax.
To his credit, the premier set that aside during NAFTA negotiations and stood in solidarity with the government. Now the deal is done, and there’s no political reason for Ford to continue that front. So he’s gone from being supportive to being a critic of the agreement, especially around its impact on dairy farmers, along with the steel and aluminum sectors which are still stuck with Trump tariffs on their U.S. exports.
Adding fuel to the partisan fire is growing speculation, including from Ford’s inner circle, that he’s considering taking a run at the federal Conservative leadership should Andrew Scheer fall after failing to win next year’s election. Ford himself has fanned those flames by saying that he hopes his attempt to fight the carbon tax doesn’t come too soon because he’d like to fight a federal election on that central issue.
But let’s reality check all this. First, Ford’s shock and dismay about concessions made in the negotiations is fake. When he journeyed to Washington late in the negotiations, he had a full briefing about what was on the table. He knew about the concessions on dairy, and he knew steel and aluminum tariffs were going to be solved in separate negotiations. Now he’s claiming Trudeau threw workers in those sectors under the bus. That’s called partisan melodrama.
But for all that, Ford isn’t wrong to raise the issue. Steel, aluminum and dairy are all important sectors in Ontario’s economy and the truth is they’re all adversely affected by Canada’s relationship with the Trump administration. It’s a fact that Canada had to give U.S. producers more access to the Canadian market in order to secure a deal. And it’s a fact that negotiators tried to include removal of steel and aluminum tariffs in the deal, but couldn’t get the Americans to agree to that. Overall, USMCA isn’t a spectacular win, but it is much better than the worst-case scenarios, including crippling tariffs on Canadian-made automotive products. Ultimately, there are sectors that didn’t fare as well in the deal and it’s hard to criticize Ford for standing up for them, or for using that to his political advantage.
The federal government reacted with thin skin to Ford’s criticism. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc took the unusual step of publicly reminding the premier of his position during the contentious trade talks. “Premier Ford fully supported Canada’s NAFTA negotiating position, both in public and in private,” LeBlanc said.
Fair enough, but Ottawa should avoid taking Ford’s bait. Instead, the government should repeat its pledge to compensate dairy farmers for the loss of market share, and spell out specifically what the government is doing to try and have steel and aluminum tariffs lifted. Rather than watching Ottawa and Ford trade punches, that’s what Canadians would like to see.
Ford’s shock and dismay about concessions made in the negotiations is fake. When he journeyed to Washington late in negotiations, he had a full briefing about what was on the table.