TORONTO (AP) — The prime minister of Canada’s most populous province said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to impose sweeping 25% tariffs on all Canadian products would be a “disaster” that would hurt U.S. stock markets.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also said in an interview with The Associated Press that he is “extremely concerned” about Trump’s plan to launch a mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Ford said he has a plan to send hundreds of police officers to the border as they come north.
Ford said tariffs won’t work given how integrated the U.S. and Canadian economies are. He noted that in the automotive sector alone, parts travel back and forth between the Canada and U.S. border seven to eight times before being assembled in Ontario or Michigan.
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“It’s so integrated. I don’t even know how you separate that in the supply chain. It would be a disaster,” Ford told AP. “It will affect the market. The market will go down and every CEO says this is not the way to go.”
Ford said the market impact will get Trump’s attention.
“I know he has a lot of scorecards, but one of them is the stock market. It will affect the market, the market will go down,” Ford said.
Ford said he is also deeply concerned about Trump’s mass deportation plan. Trump has spoken of launching “the largest mass deportation program in history,” calling for the deployment of the National Guard and mobilizing domestic police forces.
“I am extremely concerned,” Ford said. “We have a plan in place. We have hundreds of provincial police officers ready to enter the borders within hours, if not immediately.”
Ford said a combination of local police, provincial police and the federal government will all work together. “We will make sure we tighten that border like we’ve never seen before,” he said.
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods if Canada and Mexico don’t stop the flow of migrants and fentanyl from entering the U.S. border — even though far fewer of both enter the U.S. from Canada than from Mexico.
Ford made the comments shortly after Canada’s federal government announced some more details about a billion-dollar border plan designed to stave off the tariffs. Canada’s National Police plans to create a new aerial intelligence task force to monitor the Canadian border 24 hours a day using helicopters, drones and surveillance towers.
Canada will also propose to the United States the creation of a North American “joint strike force” to target organized crime groups operating across borders.
“We are doing our best to keep our border strong and secure: by deploying new helicopters, drones and surveillance tools. By adding new scanners and sniffer dog teams to stop and seize fentanyl. By cracking down on money laundering that funds transnational crime,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a post on X.
Trudeau is under pressure from some of his own lawmakers to resign after his finance minister left cabinet. Ford said it is up to Trudeau to resign and said Canada’s provincial premiers are united in telling Americans how important U.S.-Canada trade is.
Ford reiterated that he would restrict electricity exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota if the sweeping tariffs are imposed.
“I want to sell them more energy and more critical minerals, but I will always keep all the tools in our toolbox available,” Ford said. ‘That’s the last thing I want to do. We have the energy. They need the energy.”
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports come from Canada, as do 85% of U.S. electricity imports.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the US and has 34 crucial minerals and metals coveted by the Pentagon.
Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border every day. Canada is the main export destination for 36 US states.
Ford said he has spoken to the governors of Michigan and New York and they “completely understand.” Michigan is Ontario’s most important trading partner.
“We want to sit down and explain to Trump and inform him that we are not the enemy,” Ford said. “And as for Mexico, I want to enter into a bilateral trade agreement directly with the US.”
Migrant flows and drug seizures at the two countries’ borders are vastly different. U.S. Customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared to 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl that reaches the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On the immigration front, U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwestern border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.
