Ford played it smart against Trump | Ontario Election 2025 Quick Takes

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National Post’s Chris Selley and National Post contributor Anthony Furey discuss the latest in the 2025 Ontario election. Watch the video or read the transcript.

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Chris Selley: Hello, I’m Chris Selley. I’m a columnist with the National Post and I’m here with Anthony Furey, who’s a contributor to the National Post. We’re going to talk a little bit about the last five days or so — or maybe it was six or maybe it was seven or maybe it was only four — of madness with regard to Doug Ford versus Donald Trump, and indeed Canada versus Donald Trump, on the terrorist front. Anthony, can you summarize your thoughts about what we’ve seen over the past few days?

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Anthony Furey: Well, Chris, the main thing I’d add to what you said, maybe it was six months or a year or a decade. I don’t know, but there’s so much happening in that three or four day time span that normally would take like a number of years of slow paced meetings, various different international gatherings to move the football along the line on these issues. And yet here Donald Trump did it in a matter of, I think, hours on some days. I remember there was one day where we were told, the tariffs are off, based on I think a Reuters breaking news, and then the White House said 45 minutes later, that is just not true. So then we went back to the prior thinking, which led policymakers here to talk about prospective bans of exported gas or what have you. And then we do learn at the end of the day, it was all, if not for show, then at least negotiated and arguably an art of the deal situation happened for us. So here we are.

Selley: Yeah, and I thought Doug Ford did a pretty good job making Ontario’s and Canada’s cases. I thought he did it where he should have, and I thought he did it how he should have. I don’t know if it’s going to make a difference. And I don’t know if it did make a difference, because no one really knows, I don’t think, at the end of the day, how Donald Trump thinks. For all we know, he was planning to string us along and then let us off the hook anyways, because he didn’t really get, as far as I can see, any huge last-minute concessions from Canada, or indeed from Mexico, to get those 30 day reprieves. What do you think about that?

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Furey: Yeah, it’s a good point. I mean, I’m of the view that we got to tighten up the border, we really got to deal with the drug crisis. But at the same time, what were the announcements that were that were new and what were the details that were new about it? And depending on where you’re reading, what you’re taking a look at in terms of the rationale behind this. You know, I read a really interesting paper by his former senior economic adviser back in the first Trump administration talking about these plans to realign the global trading system. OK, that makes sense. I did read one American analyst that said, look, it was really just about going after Canada to show they weren’t just going after Mexico because they don’t want to seem to be unfair there. They don’t want to alienate the growing support that the Republicans have for Latinos. I’m like, OK, that’s interesting too. I mean, we are so preoccupied with ourselves as we would be when terrorists are put against us and when there’s a threat to our sovereignty about becoming a state that we quite rightfully were looking at it solely from our perspective. But maybe it wasn’t about us all along, even though it was about doing things to us.

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Selley: Yeah. And I was really struck by, you know, one of the funny moments this week, or I don’t know if it was funny. I found it funny, was when Doug Ford was caught on an open mic telling his supporters at his local campaign headquarters that he was 100 per cent behind Trump and he was really happy when Trump won. And then now he feels sort of betrayed by that. And I was sort of amused by that because I thought, I mean, I don’t know how much clearer Donald Trump could have been about bringing in tariffs. We were never quite sure if he was serious right until the last moment. But he certainly telegraphed that. And I was surprised to see that that anyone would have been surprised because he just his unpredictability above all else is sort of his brand.

Furey: I guess Doug Ford, who said he supported Trump back in the first election in 2016, I guess he… likes Donald Trump’s style, more or less likes his perspective on things, but just doesn’t like this part of it. And was kind of hoping that he could have both of it, could support all the things Donald Trump’s doing and then also manage to pass through unscathed in terms of how Trump would deal with Ontario. I mean, Chris, all this brings about what does this mean for the Ontario election now? Because the whole reason this election was called was ostensibly to secure a strong, stable majority, so Doug Ford could respond to tariffs and bring in tens of billions of dollars in stimulus spending to prop us up. And now this is suddenly left the table. Although Doug Ford’s adamant that the election is still going to be about how to respond to Donald Trump in the event of tariffs. How do think that’s going to play out?

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Selley: And the problem is, well, the way it’s going to turn out, as far as I can see, is that everyone’s going to basically agree on this point, you know, retaliation, strategic retaliation. Making our case as strongly as we can and trying to band together province by province by province and Canada-wide to make this case. There doesn’t seem to be any real disagreement on this. Now, I’m a little bit dubious of this Team Canada approach. Everyone criticized Danielle Smith for not signing that document, but I think if push came to shove, especially when it comes to sort of internal trade barriers, that we might see less Team Canada and more team provinces as usual. But it is an odd dynamic that no one disagrees on the number one issue that this election is supposed to be about. I can’t remember actually seeing anything like this before.

Furey: No, that’s a good point. And I think what remains to be seen is in the few weeks we have left, and I can’t believe the election is in some sense almost done, in terms of there being just a couple of weeks left. But these are short elections and it only just began, but it will end pretty soon as well — will there be a narrative shift away from that? And will we get into sort of work-a-day issues, talking about health care and education and so forth? And that’s where this becomes more traditional election.

Selley: Yeah, well, I hope so, but we’re out of time here. So thanks for joining me, Anthony.

Furey: Thanks, Chris.

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