Ontario premier explains why he’s slapping 25% surcharge on electricity to U.S.

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• Amna Nawaz:

  Welcome to the "News Hour."

  The U.S. markets plunged again today, as investors worried about the economy and whether a recession could be on the horizon. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 900 points, or more than 2 percent. The Nasdaq had its worst session since 2022. It was also the worst session of the year so far for the S&P 500.

  The trade war that President Trump initiated last week with the country's top trading partners, Canada, Mexico and China, is a factor in the market's overall volatility. Some 1.5 million Americans will soon see their electric bills rise by approximately $70 a month as a result of that trade war.

  Ontario's Premier Doug Ford announced earlier today he is slapping a 25 percent surcharge on the electricity his province exports to New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

  Here now to explain why he's taking that step is Premier Doug Ford.

  Welcome to the "News Hour," sir. Thanks for joining us.

  Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, Canada: Well thank you so much, Amna, for having me on.

  And I just always start off with every interview, I love Americans. I spent 20 years of my life there. I know Canadians love Americans. And I know Americans love Canadians. This is so unnecessary what President Trump is doing, not just to Canada, but his own country.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Premier, if I may, why take this step now then? What's the response you're hoping to get from the Trump administration?

• Doug Ford:

  Well, President Trump has said many times he's going to put a tariff on. Then he pulls it off. Then he puts it back on. Once I touch the stove once and get burned, I'm not going to get burnt again.

  And I apologize to the American people. I have talked to three governors. They understand the situation we're in. We have to negotiate through strengths, not weakness. And I'd prefer to create an Am-Can fortress, an American-Canadian fortress, and be the strongest, most resilient, and richest safest two countries in the world.

  He should be keeping an eye on China. He shouldn't be worried about Canada.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You have said too that if the U.S. escalates you won't — quote — "hesitate to shut the electricity off completely."

  What do you view as escalation?

• Doug Ford:

  Well, that's the last thing I want to do. I love our American neighbors. I want to send them more electricity. I want to send them more critical minerals. I want to send them more energy in total.

  That's the last thing. But when President Trump is attacking our families, our businesses, taking food off people's tables, putting them in the unemployment line, as long as you can imagine, but this is happening on both sides of the border. It's not just going to happen on one side of the border.

  I do not understand his rationale. And we just want to sit down and have a fair USMCA deal that he created, and he said it was the greatest deal ever. So I don't know why it's not the greatest deal ever now. But we want to sit down and negotiate with him.

• Amna Nawaz:

  He did end up pausing many of the tariffs he wanted to impose on Canada. If he moves forward with those, would you view that as escalation? Would you then shut off electricity exports completely?

• Doug Ford:

  Well, I'd add another 25 percent onto the tariff charge right now.

  So it'd be a total of 50 percent. But that's the last thing I want to do. If we take the 4.3 million barrels of crude oil we ship down daily that helps your economy move forward, if you put that to the side, the U.S. has a $56 billion surplus on Canada, and I'm fine with that.

  That's not a problem, but let's sit down and negotiate like two business-minded people.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You mentioned that surplus. I mean, it's fair to say that Canada is more dependent on U.S. exports than America is on Canadian goods. Is it also fair to say that Canadians are suffering as a result of these tariffs? Are they with you on escalating the terms here?

• Doug Ford:

  Absolutely.

  I have never seen patriotism run so wild across our country ever. It's united Canada. President Trump has underestimated the resilience and the strength of the Canadian population. And we're your number one customer right across the board on everything. And why you want to hurt your number one customer? We buy more goods, more autos, more agriculture, more everything off the United States than anyone.

• Amna Nawaz:

  President Trump has said, I'm sure, as you have heard, that this is about reducing the amount of fentanyl that's crossing the northern border.

  His White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, yesterday just alleged that Canadian authorities aren't going after some secret fentanyl labs in Canada. He said Canada's got a big drug problem.

  What's your response to that?

• Doug Ford:

  Wow. I call the pot calling the kettle black on that one, but I agree.

  Do we tighten up the borders on both sides? Absolutely. And we listened to President Trump. I was a big advocate about tightening up the borders on both sides. We put over 10,000 personnel along our borders. We have we have bought fixed-winged aircraft, helicopters, drones, boots on the ground, boats in the water. You name it, we have it.

  And we have seen a drastic decrease. I will speak for Ontario alone. But I got a report the other day from our provincial police, which is equal to your state police, that they busted hundreds of kilos of cocaine, opioids, fentanyl, and the illegals and endless illegal guns just over the last couple of weeks.

  So it's a shared border. I have had the DEA come up to meet with me. We have sat down with U.S. Border Patrol, Canadian Border Patrol, federal police, state police, provincial police. We need to work together and stop the flow of drugs.

• Amna Nawaz:

  You have talked about how much you love America, the time you have spent here. You're also now sitting in front of a very clear sign behind you saying "Canada's Not For Sale" in response, of course, to President Trump's threats to annex Canada and make it the 51st state.

  The fact that relations between the two countries are where they are right now, what does that say to you?

• Doug Ford:

  Well, it's such a sad situation. We have probably a million Americans living in Canada, a million Canadians living in the U.S. Americans are marrying Canadians. Canadians are marrying Americans.

  We're part of the family for over 200 years. I will tell you, he really let down a lot of Canadians, President Trump. Disappointment is an understatement. We thought we were to have a great trading relationship, as we have for decades and decades. And we just stand shoulder to shoulder when there's a crisis.

  No matter what crisis it is, we're there for American family members.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Ontario's Premier Doug Ford joining us tonight.

  Premier Ford, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

• Doug Ford:

  Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it. And God bless America and God bless Canada. Thank you.

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