Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continue to disagree on whether to use energy as leverage in trade negotiations with the United States, but are united in a push for more oil to flow within Canada.
Ford says he and Smith spoke on Monday, after he called on all provinces to take a “Team Canada” approach to the latest tariff developments and use their resources such as oil to “put pain on the U.S.”
Smith strongly disagrees, saying in a statement Monday after their call that cutting off Alberta’s energy exports to the United States would be extremely harmful to Canadians and is not a viable option.
Ford says the two premiers disagree on some items, but are working well together to advance a proposed oil pipeline from Alberta to refineries in Sarnia, Ont., routed through Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
He says he will be going to Alberta to meet with Smith in person in a few weeks.
Ford also says that while he has toned down language he used against U.S. President Donald Trump in a press conference Monday, when he called him a loser and a bully, he doesn’t regret those words because they resonated around the world.
He said earlier this week that “everything is on the table” if the dispute worsens, including cutting off electricity and critical minerals from Ontario.
Ford has used electricity as leverage before. During an earlier phase of the dispute, Ontario imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity exported to Michigan, Minnesota and New York. Trump responded by threatening to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum before both sides backed away.
On Wednesday, the White House said Trump had signed an executive order to “protect the security, integrity, and reliability of bulk-power system electric equipment used in the United States, particularly from interference by foreign actors.”
It included lanuaguge about preventing foreign actors from “crippiling critical infrastructure,” and said, “continued reliance on foreign sources of bulk-power system electric equipment creates a supply chain vulnerability to the U.S.”
It’s unclear if the executive order was related to Ford’s threat about electricity.
