Ontario Premier Doug Ford Says Canada Should Consider Cutting Electricity, Critical Minerals to US

Ontario Premier Doug Ford attends a media availability in Toronto on Feb. 18, 2026. The Canadian Press/Chris YoungOntario Premier Doug Ford is threatening to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the United States if Canada’s trade war with its southern neighbour worsens.Ford told The Associated Press this week that “everything is on the table” after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from trade talks with the White House late last week.“I’ll cut them off,” Ford said during the Aug. 24 interview, while discussing critical minerals. “You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario.”Ford also said the late Ronald Reagan would be upset by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies.“He’d be throwing up on him from the picture if he knew what was going on,” Ford said, referring to the portrait Trump keeps of the former president near his desk.Ford’s remarks come after trade talks between Canada and the United States collapsed on Aug. 21, with new 50 percent U.S. tariffs on a range of Canadian products including dairy and alcohol coming into force on Aug. 22. Canada has said it will respond to those tariffs with “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs starting on Sept. 8.Trump said on Aug. 24 that he will impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian autos starting in 2027.“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.  “Canada will be treated like a State no longer. On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!”The negotiations between the two countries broke down in Washington when Carney called his negotiators back to Canada on Aug. 21. Both countries have since traded blame over last-minute demands.Ford told reporters on Aug. 22 that Canada “never started this fight,” but that Ontario would “use every single tool we have” to help Canada come out on top.The premier has made similar threats in the past. Ford’s government put a 25 percent tax on electricity supplied to New York, Michigan, and Minnesota in 2025, in response to U.S. tariffs.The export tax on the energy Ontario sends to the three states went into force last March, and was set to net the province an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 per day, Ford told reporters during the March 10, 2025 press conference in Toronto, noting that the tariff would add roughly $100 per month to Americans’ power bills.In response, Trump threatened to double steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada from 25 percent to 50 percent. Ford agreed shortly after to suspend Ontario’s electricity surcharge after being promised a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.The Trump administration responded by retracting the proposed 50 percent increase to maintain the baseline metal tariffs at 25 percent, but that lasted only a few months. The White House ultimately raised it to 50 percent last June, a hike that Trump said would “even further secure the steel industry in the United States.”The Associated Press contributed to this report.