OTTAWA – Canada’s premiers are set for two days of huddling in the nation’s capital with the economy, affordability and trade expected to be high on the agenda.
The premiers meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, and will want to show a united “Team Canada” front as trade tensions rise again with Canada’s largest trading partner.
The meetings come a year after U.S. President Donald Trump assumed office and hit Canada with blistering tariffs, and just ahead of negotiations to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement, due for its first formal review this summer.
Trump threatened Canada in recent days with 100 per cent across-the-board tariffs on exports, which would land on top of the sectors already hit by steep U.S. tariffs, such as steel, softwood lumber and vehicles. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the premiers will show they stand united as the whole Canadian economy remains under attack.
“We’re going to speak from one song sheet, because we’re under attack now by President Trump, and I’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure that we protect everyone,” Ford said Tuesday in Brantford, Ont.
“We’re going to agree to disagree on a lot of things. We’re a big family. Make no mistake about it, it’s Team Canada 100 per cent. You have squabbles with your family, but we come out united.”
Interprovincial tensions have bubbled to the fore this past year.
Ford recently expressed frustration with Carney’s new trade deal with Beijing to create a new quota for Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural exports, which benefits prairie provinces such as Saskatchewan, a major canola exporter.
B.C. and Alberta have in the meantime been at odds over Carney signalling that he supports a new coastal pipeline, winning over Premier Danielle Smith but raising the ire of B.C. Premier David Eby.
Premier Wab Kinew and Ford have butted heads over Ontario pulling Crown Royal whisky, produced in Gimli, Man., from provincially run liquor store shelves for closing down a bottling factory.
Kinew also said at a news conference on Friday he wants to see Carney produce an “off ramp” for Chinese tariffs on Manitoba pork products.
Ford has a news conference scheduled mid day with New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt and Craig Bell Estabrooks, the head of Port Saint John.
Ford had said on Monday when he met with the prime minister at a Toronto pizza shop that his current priorities include energy, developing critical minerals such as those in the Ring of Fire in northern Ontario, and shoring up his province’s battered automotive sector.
Carney met with Nunavut Premier John Main on Tuesday afternoon in Ottawa and said the two have a lot to work together on, including housing, energy and getting major projects started.
Main said his cabinet was in Ottawa this week to meet with federal partners and that they “very much appreciate the support and the strong focus on Arctic security and sovereignty.”
Provinces and territories are also expected to talk about shared priorities such as infrastructure development and energy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2026.
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