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Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province plans on moving ahead with a tax on electricity sent to several U.S. states starting early next week as Canada’s trade war escalates. Ford said the 25 per cent tax will be officially confirmed on Monday and is likely to be enacted on Tuesday.“We are moving forward with it,” Ford confirmed in an interview with 640Toronto radio host Ben Mulroney on Thursday.“I feel terrible for the American people because it’s not the American people, and it’s not even the elected officials, it’s one person and that’s President (Donald) Trump… It’s totally unacceptable, but he’s coming after his closest friends, closest allies in the world and it’s going to absolutely devastate both economies.”The move is one Ford and his team have publicly weighed since before U.S...

U.S. President Donald Trump is making the race for critical minerals a key part of his agenda — and Canada’s rich reserves are a prime target for his ambitions. Dozens of minerals are being increasingly traded around the world for technologies such as smartphones, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, as well as modern military equipment.For years, the U.S. has been trying to reduce its reliance on China for those minerals, turning to like-minded producers like Canada.“Canada has strategic reserves the U.S. doesn’t have a lot of,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical mineral studies program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a U.S. think tank.Trump is now looking to accelerate that shift.On Tuesday, he told a joint session of Congress he will be s...

The Canadian and Mexican architects of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement say Donald Trump’s trade war has crossed a line that essentially wipes out the continental trade pact, as experts suggest the president’s actions are meant to rattle America’s closest neighbours ahead of a mandatory review. Canada’s chief negotiator, Steve Verheul, and Mexico’s chief negotiator, Ken Smith Ramos, said the devastating duties essentially suspend the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement.“With 25 per cent tariffs, it blows a complete hole in the trade agreement,” Verheul said Wednesday.“It makes it virtually worthless to us. In fact, it leaves Canada and Mexico in a far worse position than any other country in the world practically.”Trump followed through Tuesday on his threat to impose sweeping economy-wide tariff...

As the U.S. finally slaps long-threatened tariffs on Canada, a population unaccustomed to conflict wonders: what does President Donald Trump have against us, anyway? Theories abound, from the plausible (It’s about the lack of U.S. access to the Canadian dairy market), to the personal (Trump really, really doesn’t like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), to the neo-colonial (the U.S. wants to annex us) to the perverse. (Could it have been that 2019 photographic faux pas, when Trudeau looked like he wanted to smooch the First Lady, Melania?)Trump has given his own reasons — lax border security and fentanyl, but sometimes impeded access to banking or an incorrectly quoted trade imbalance — but those reasons have either been disproven or dismissed. He frequently goads Canada and “Governor...