Trump’s Threats Force Canadians to Hold Early Elections in Ontario

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, 2025. X/ @BloombergAsia

January 24, 2025 Hour: 12:14 pm

‘With a strong mandate, we’ll be able to stand up to Donald Trump to ensure we stop the tariffs, Premier Ford said.

On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced early elections in his province, which is Canada’s most populous and industrialized territory. The elections will be held on February 27, more than a year ahead of the originally scheduled date.

He stated that he needs a “strong mandate” from the population to fight against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and attacks on Ontario’s “families, businesses, and communities.”

“With a strong mandate, we’ll be able to stand up to Donald Trump to ensure we stop the tariffs,” the Conservative leader stressed, explaining that he needs the electorate’s approval to allocate “tens of billions of dollars” from the public treasury to counter the impact of potential tariffs.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada. Such tariffs would be “devastating” for the Canadian economy, which relies heavily on trade with the U.S. One of the provinces most affected would be Ontario, where Canada’s entire automotive sector is concentrated.

Trump shows his failure to understand how tariffs on imported goods affect prices for consumers and insists that extremely high tariffs would incentivize companies to build factories in the US (they would not).

The Bloomberg interview proved Trump is a terrible businessman. pic.twitter.com/g2ZGUFSlKM
— Leia (@TheSWPrincess) October 15, 2024

However, the opposition has accused Ford of using Trump’s threats to his advantage by calling early elections at a time that is most convenient for his Conservative Party, which currently holds a majority in the provincial parliament.

Canada is scheduled to hold national elections in April. All polls indicate that the Conservative Party will win those elections by a wide margin, given the low popularity of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberal Party.

Traditionally, Ontario voters prefer to elect a government from a party different from the one controlling the national Parliament. By moving up the provincial elections, Ford removes an obstacle to staying in power.