Donald Trump may be drunk on power after a commanding victory on election night, but Ontarians won’t be getting drunk on alcohol from the United States if he follows through on his threats to slap a sobering 25 per cent tariff on Canadian products.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday that if Trump does impose the devastating tariffs, he’ll see to it that all U.S. alcohol is pulled from LCBO shelves.
“I’ve sent a direction to the LCBO that if these tariffs come, to clear every bit of U.S. alcohol off the shelves,” Ford said at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association’s annual general meeting and conference in Toronto. “Let’s start promoting more Ontario-made wines, and the vodkas, the spirits. That’s what we need to do.”
Ford’s comments come just hours before Trump’s inauguration.
Once officially in power, Trump says he’ll sign more than 100 day-one executive orders.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal report that the Canadian tariff won’t be among the items signed.
That doesn’t mean the threat has evaporated.
According to published reports, Trump will instead sign an executive order on Monday to investigate alleged unfair trade and currency practices by Canada, Mexico, and China.
Trump initially said that the tariff would be in response to inaction on drugs and migrants crossing the shared border.
Since then, the federal government has promised to spend $1.3 billion on beefing up border security. It remains to be seen if that move has appeased the soon-to-be president.
Ford said if Trump does slap on the tariffs, he’ll try to convince other Canadian premiers to follow his lead in pulling U.S. alcohol.
“We are the largest purchaser of alcohol in the entire world. They will feel the pain. I will make sure I communicate this to our other premiers that they should be following suit.”
Ford previously threatened to cut off Canadian energy supplies to the United States as a retaliatory measure should the tariffs come to fruition.
“We will go to the full extent, depending on how far this goes,” he said in December. “We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin.”
He’s since toned things down a bit, appearing on several U.S. news stations to pitch a reinvigorated economic alliance with the United States. The initiative is part of what the Ford government has called “Fortress Am-Can,” which the province is touting as a “renewed strategic alliance between Canada and America.”
“Fortress Am-Can will leverage Ontario’s unique advantages to help America bring jobs back home as it decouples from China, including by enhancing and building out the integrated Am-Can energy and electricity grid to encourage more exports of Canadian energy and electricity to the U.S.,” Ford’s government said in a previous release.
With files from The Canadian Press
