'We Want to Inflict as Much Pain as We Possibly Can'

The leader of Canada's most populous province has vowed to "inflict as much pain as we possibly can" to retaliate against President Trump's tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday that if the 25% tariffs on Canadian imports persist, he will slap a 25% surcharge on electricity the province sends to the US, and will consider cutting off the supply if the tariffs are still around in April, the BBC reports. Around 1.5 million homes and businesses in New York, Michigan, and Minnesota get their electricity from Ontario. "I feel terrible, because they are great governors," Ford said of the governors of the three states. "I work well with them."

Ford—who was re-elected last week after promising to fight Trump's tariffs—has cancelled a $100 million contract with Elon Musk's Starlink and banned US companies from other government contracts. The provincial government, which has a monopoly on liquor sales, has pulled American brands from the shelves.

• "

  We are standing up for Ontario. We are standing up for Canada and we are willing to fight in court," Ford said Tuesday, per CP24.

  "I want to inflict as much pain as we possibly can."

  Ford stressed that his beef was with Trump, not the people of America. Canadians "are absolutely livid," he said. "They are furious because we look at the United States as our family."

• "People refuse to buy American products. This is not right," Ford said. "We love America, we love the people, and the president needs to be stopped. Simple as that."
• Ford said he would urge the governors of Saskatchewan and Alberta to follow suit with a possible ban on energy exports. The leader of the federal Bloc Quebecois party, however, called it a "strange idea," the CBC reports. "I am far from being certain that threatening the United States not to supply them with electricity is such a good idea," Yves-Francois Blanchet said Tuesday. "We've got to keep in mind that after the crisis, they will still have to be business partners. We want them to keep buying our electricity."

(More Canada stories.)