Canada’s Ontario province has re-elected Premier Doug Ford’s ruling conservatives in an election heavily focused on trade tensions stoked by United States President Donald Trump.
Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) cruised to their third consecutive legislative majority on Thursday after seeking the “largest mandate in Ontario history” to protect the economy of Canada’s most populous province from Trump’s tariffs.
The PC Party had won at least 74 seats in the 124-member Legislative Assembly of Ontario and was leading in seven other districts as of Thursday night, according to a tally by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“We’re going to make sure we protect the people of Ontario and protect their families, and their jobs and businesses,” Ford, 60, told CTV News after his win.
“I’ll fight tooth and nail against Donald Trump. I’ll promise you that.”
Ford, who often sported a “Canada is Not for Sale” hat and styled himself as Captain Canada throughout his election campaign, called the vote more than a year early, arguing that he should have a stronger mandate to navigate years of potential economic chaos under Trump.
“This is gonna be a battle for the next four years,” Ford said last month as he called the snap election. “I want to make sure I have a strong mandate to outlast President Trump.”
During his campaign, Ford twice travelled to Washington, DC, and made numerous appearances on US networks such as Fox News and CNN to lobby against the tariffs and position himself as a spokesman for Canada as a whole.
Ford’s critics questioned the timing of his decision to call an election and pointed out that Ottawa has the primarily responsibility for negotiating with Trump’s administration.
Earlier this week, he said he would impose a tariff on electricity sent from the province to the US if Trump went ahead with his trade measures and then “wait to see what happens from there.”
Ontario, which surrounds Toronto and is home to about 40 percent of Canada’s population of some 40 million people, is highly dependent on trade with the US.
More than 80 percent of Ontario’s exports went to the US in 2023, making it the province most reliant on American consumers after New Brunswick and Alberta, according to an analysis by Scotiabank.
Ontario’s auto industry, which handles production for Honda, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, was the second biggest producer in the world next to the US state of Michigan in 2022, according to Invest Ontario.
The province is also home to one of the largest tech industries in North America, with some 420,000 employees and 22,000 businesses involved into the sector, according to the investment agency.
Trump, who had agreed to a 30-day pause on his threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico pending negotiations on border security, said on Thursday that the 25-percent levies would go into effect on March 4.
Trump, who has also suggested that the US could absorb Canada as its 51st state, said on Truth Social that he had made his decision as illicit drugs such as fentanyl were continuing to cross the border at “unacceptable levels”.
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