Carney and Ford had a bromance but Trump is coming between them

Contents of the article

Is the friendship between Premier Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford broken?

Contents of the article

Carney's soft treatment of Donald Trump and concerns that liberals might leave the auto industry seem to say yes.

Contents of the article

Contents of the article

Ford had been one of Carney's staunchest allies since he was elected prime minister; some Conservative voters even blame the Ontario PC leader for helping elect Carney back in April.

Over the past few months, Ford has praised Carney's cross-border approach to tariffs and urged other prime ministers to give Carney a chance. Back in July, when Ford hosted all the premieres in Muskoka. At the Federation Council meeting, Carney joined them for a meeting and, some believed, an overnight stay at Ford's cottage.

“Full disclosure: the Prime Minister did not sleep at my house,” Ford said at the time. “We had dinner, stayed up until 12:30 at night, chatted in front of the fireplace, solving all the world’s problems.”

Contents of the article

Contents of the article

It even turned out that Carney and several other prime ministers wore Doug Ford campaign hoodies to stand around an outdoor fire that chilly evening.

Ford seems annoyed with Carney lately

Lately, however, Ford seems irritated with Carney, and it comes back to one of the issues the prime minister has given the prime minister credit for: Donald Trump. Ford has expressed irritation several times recently about Carney's treatment of the American president.

“There has to be a point that if Prime Minister Carney can't get a deal done, we have to start hitting back. We need to hit back hard,” Ford said Tuesday around the same time. Carney arrived in the Oval Office. in Washington.

Of course, Carney didn't make a deal with Trump or hit him back hard. Instead, he effusively praised Trump.

Contents of the article

“If I may, you graciously received me and some of my colleagues a few months ago, and I said then that you are a transformative president,” Carney told Trump.

“And since then, the transformation in the economy, the unprecedented commitments of NATO partners on defense spending, peace from India-Pakistan to Azerbaijan-Armenia, the dismantling of Iran have been a force of terror.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play video

Carney exaggerated Trump's praise so much that the president interrupted him and jokingly asked if Carney was ready to announce a merger between Canada and the United States.

“Canadian leader turns into 'screaming teenager at Taylor Swift concert' to butter up Trump,” British newspaper headline Daily mail marked.

Somewhere between Ford's desire to fight Trump at every turn like a walking Irish bar brawl and Carney's constant desire to go overboard in praising Trump in order to suck up to him is probably the happy medium.

Contents of the article

However, Ford has another source of dissatisfaction with Carney's approach to cross-border relations: the perception of many in the Ontario government and the province's auto industry that Liberals intend to let Americans take all auto assembly jobs and move them south. Americans have said it is one of their goals, and Carney's liberals have said little to oppose or defend the industry.

“Americans don't want to buy cars made in Canada,” Trump said. “Americans want the product here, they want to make it here. Detroit emptied out and moved to Canada, then to Mexico, moved to other places, not just Canada. And now they're all coming back.”

Carney can't protect Canada's auto industry

His claim that auto jobs left Detroit for Canada is simply not true – Canadian industry grew alongside American industry and was integrated for over a century. Carney sat silently, he offered no real protection for Canada's auto industry, and neither has his government since.

Contents of the article

“We talked about the importance of reaching an agreement early and quickly on steel, aluminum and energy,” Dominic LeBlanc, Carney's point man on cross-border issues, said shortly after the meeting.

The word missing from that sentence for everyone at Ford was simple: cars. Even after Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threatened Canada's auto industry in Toronto on Wednesday, the Carney government remained silent.

They beat their chests against protecting Canada's dairy industry and fewer than 10,000 dairy farmers are defending jobs in Quebec, but they're not talking about the Ontario auto industry.

If you're wondering why Doug Ford has been mad at Mark Carney lately, this sums it up.

[email protected]

Contents of the article