‘I need a clear mandate’: Ford suggests election needed amid Trump tariff threats

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a news conference at Queen's Park Legislature in Toronto on Thursday December 12, 2024. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

Premier Doug Ford is again ramping up his rhetoric about a potential early election in Ontario, telling reporters that he needs a “clear” mandate to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats.

Ford made the comment just hours after Trump was officially sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America.

Trump didn’t mention Canada specifically in his inaugural address, but did announce that he was creating a new agency to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”

“Make no mistake about it. He’s coming for us,” Ford said.

“I need a clear mandate from the people of Ontario to fight against these tariffs to make sure that we have a loud voice.”

Trump had previously said that he would introduce a blanket 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods on day one of his administration, but multiple reports now say he will instead sign an executive order to investigate U.S. trade policies with those countries and China.

Despite the change, Ford said the tariffs “are coming” and that he needs a new mandate if his government is required to spend tens of billions of dollars to save jobs.

“Is it tomorrow or is it a month down the road? But it’s very concerning what I heard today, and I think all countries around the world should be concerned on what he’s saying,” Ford said.

Ford had suggested last week that an early election might be necessary if the tariffs are imposed and Ontario has to go ahead with economic stimulus spending but on Monday his remarks seemed to be more declarative.

The premier also seemed to suggest that a strong mandate was needed to help his government deal with a Trump presidency that he predicted would be “massively different” from the last one.

“We need a clear mandate. Not for tomorrow, not for the next day but for four years of dealing with our American friends,” he said.

The premier previously said U.S. tariffs could cost 500,000 Ontario jobs.

Ontario’s next scheduled election is set for June 2026 and Ford has not yet committed to that timeline. The province’s opposition parties have said they would support the government if stimulus spending is required, but Ford said it’s “the people” who have the power to grant a mandate, not politicians.

“My opposition, I’m glad they have confidence in our government, but when you go out there and you’re gonna spend billions of dollars, it’s the people, it’s not about the politicians. Politicians don’t give other politicians a mandate. The people who give a mandate are the people of Ontario,” he said.

‘They will feel the pain’: Ford threatens to clear U.S. alcohol from LCBO shelves if Trump imposes tariffs

Earlier in the day, Ford said that he had directed the LCBO to “clear off every bit of U.S. alcohol off the shelves” if Trump does make good on his tariff threat.

“They will feel the pain. I will make sure I communicate this to our other premiers that they should be following suit,” he said.

Last week, sources confirmed to CTV News that Canada is ready to impose retaliatory tariffs on consumer goods, like Kentucky bourbon and Florida orange juice, if Trump follows through on the tax.

Ford has said his government will support those measures and others, along with what he described Sunday as “additional retaliatory measures” at a provincial level, should they be required. It’s unclear what those additional measures include, but the province has previously mused taxing American-made alcohol and cutting off Ontario power to 1.5 million homes south of the border.

Canada previously imposed a tariff on U.S. bourbon and other goods in 2018 in response to Trump’s tax on Canadian steel and aluminum. The then president lifted that tariff in 2019, only to reimpose it briefly, and lift it again in 2020.

Ford recalled that exchange while delivering his remarks on Monday at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association Conference in Toronto.

“I talked to the great governor of Kentucky. And I remember in the last tariffs, we threw on the bourbon. First thing out of his mouth is ‘don’t touch my bourbon,’” Ford said.

“And I said, ‘Governor’ – and that’s a serious business down there, when you [mess] with their bourbon. It’s like messing with our LCBO – I said, ‘You know governor, you’ve gotta talk to your president, because the first thing we’re doing: we’re getting your bourbon.”

Ford’s PCs leading Crombie’s Liberals by nine points: poll

Ontario’s next scheduled election is still more than a year away, but new polling shows Ford’s Progressive Conservatives maintain a nine-point lead over Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals.

Liaison Strategies released the findings of its poll on Monday. It found that if a provincial election were held today 41 per cent of decided and leaning voters would cast their ballot for the PCs.

Meanwhile, the Liberals’ support climbed to 32 per cent, a level the polling company says it hasn’t seen since it started the outreach in 2024.

“This marks a 2-point increase from last week and a 5-point rise since the start of the year,” David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies, said in a news release. ”Interestingly, this growth isn’t coming at the expense of the PCs but rather from the smaller parties and the Ontario NDP.”

Support for the Ontario NDP currently sits at 19 per cent, a two-point drop week-over-week.

The undecided voter rate, according to the poll, is at 26 per cent, which Valentin said is likely to drop if and when an election call is made.

The poll surveyed close to 1,200 Ontario voters between Jan. 15 and 16. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.83 per cent, 19 times out of 20.