An apology was given to the American people by Ontario Premier Doug Ford after relations turned sour from the trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada.
According to the New York Post, Ford called for an end to the bitter back-and-forth and the “chaos” and noted that it needs to stop to “save millions of jobs.”
“I thought this was the right decision … they understand how serious we are. We both agreed that cooler heads prevail, we need to sit down and move this forward,” Ford said ahead of his meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
During an interview with John Catsimitides and Rita Cosby on WABC’s “Cats & Cosby,” Ford said he loves the American people, noting that the April 2 deadline to settle the trade deal will get done.
“I wanna apologize for going back and forth like this to the American people. I spent 20 years of my life in the U.S. in New Jersey, and Chicago,” Ford said. “I love the Americans, I absolutely love em, and I just wanna say, we’re gonna get through this, we’re stronger together. United we stand, divided we fall, and we’ll always stay united.”
Speaking on the progress that has been made while speaking to President Donald Trump and Lutnick, Ford said, “Secretary Lutnick reached out, and I appreciate the phone call, and I just told him, as all of you have seen, the markets are tumbling over $4 trillion, consumer confidence is down, inflations happening, its chaos, we have to put an end to it, and we need to sit down and move this deal up from April 2.”
Ford noted that both countries have a common enemy, and it is not each other.
“So, he said, ‘by all means come down and pay me a visit’, and you know, I think that conversation between us saved millions of jobs on both sides of the border,” Ford said. “Because we have to look at our real enemy. Our real enemy is China, it’s not each other and as we’re going back and forth with each other, China’s building up their critical minerals and building up everything else, and we have to keep an eye on China.”
The Post further reported that the interview with Ford came only hours after he had been engaged in tariffs battle with Trump on Tuesday after Ford added a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S. In response, Trump added an additional 25% tariff on Canadian aluminum and steel.
Ford suspended the surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S.
Ford and Lutnick are due to meet with each other in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to resolve the tariffs issue before the deadline is reached.
