‘Temperature is being lowered’ following tariff talks with top Trump aides, Fords says

President Donald Trump’s trade war against Canada rages on, but Premier Doug Ford insists “the temperature is being lowered” after meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

 

Ford and federal cabinet ministers Dominic LeBlanc and François-Philippe Champagne were in Washington, D.C. on Thursday after being summoned by Lutnick, who was jolted by Ontario’s 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports stateside.

 

Despite heated rhetoric from Trump’s cabinet secretary in TV interviews, the premier said the 90-minute discussion, which also included U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was “very civil” and they will hold another meeting next week.

 

In the meantime, the president’s 25 per cent levies against Canadian steel and aluminum and other products remain in place.

 

“We’re like a family and sometimes there’s tension between families, but that was an extremely productive meeting,” said Ford, who signed autographs from passersby outside Lutnick’s office, around the corner from the White House.

“We feel the temperature is being lowered,” Ford added.

 

In a separate news conference later at the Canadian Embassy, LeBlanc and Champagne — the federal finance and industry ministers, respectively — said the country’s counter-tariffs against American products would continue, but the discussion was constructive.

 

“We agreed to maintain the dialogue,” said LeBlanc, noting he texts with Lutnick “late at night and early in the morning.” However, the finance minister stressed Canada’s retaliatory measures “remain on the table” to help force an end to the trade tiff.

 

Champagne added that “there is a reset” coming in the U.S.-Canada relationship with Friday’s swearing in of Mark Carney as prime minister. “We insisted they may take the opportunity to engage with the new prime minister in a different way,” he said.

 

That’s an apparent reference to the notion that Trump‘s motivation may stem in part from an enmity toward Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

 

Indeed, sources at the closed-door session told the Star that while the Americans are believers in tariffs, they outlined a path to eventually removing them.

 

Before their 4 p.m. meeting, Trump lashed out against Canada and vowed to keep his levies in place. During a rambling Oval Office news conference hours earlier, he had effectively crushed any hopes of an immediate end to the trade battle.

 

“We’re not going to bend. We’ve been ripped off as a country for many, many years,” the president said.

 

Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is “spending $200 billion a year to subsidize Canada.

 

“We do it because we want to be helpful, but it comes a point when you just can’t do that. You have to run your own country. And to be honest with you, Canada only works as a state,” he said.

 

“I love Canada. I love the people of Canada. I have many friends in Canada.”

 

Carney has reiterated that “Canada will never be a 51st state.”

 

“I’m ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time, under a position where there’s respect for Canadian sovereignty,” Carney, who will be sworn in on Friday, has said.

 

Prior to the confab, Lutnick suggested the Canadians were to blame for enraging Trump by imposing retaliatory tariffs.

 

“If you make him unhappy he responds unhappy,” the commerce secretary said.

 

It was Ford’s third trip to the U.S. capital in the past month to lobby against the president’s levies.

 

“This, I can honestly say, was the best meeting I’ve ever had coming down here,” he said.

 

The premier’s decision Monday to slap a 25 per cent surcharge on Ontario electricity exports to 1.5 million customers in New York, Michigan and Minnesota in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs spurred Lutnick to invite the premier to Washington.

 

That led to the surcharge being temporarily paused Tuesday.

 

Ford pointedly would not comment on whether it would be reinstated.

 

Lutnick told CBS News he made the invitation at the direction of Trump, who told him Tuesday morning “this had better come off.”

 

“I spoke to Doug Ford, the premier, and I’m happy to tell you it is off,” the commerce secretary said.

 

Ford said at Queen’s Park on Wednesday that he took the call from Lutnick as an “olive branch” but warned “we’ll continue to negotiate through strength.”

 

In Lutnick, the Canadian delegation faced a fast-talking former Wall Street chief executive who claimed, incorrectly, that “75 per cent of terrorists that we’ve captured have come through Canada.”

 

He also told CBS News that “you can’t have a Canadian premier sort of attacking, effectively tacking on a 25 per cent tax on Americans’ energy.”

 

“You can’t threaten … he knows he made a mistake and withdrew it,” Lutnick claimed of Ford.

 

“The president of the United States in the White House says ‘oh, no you won’t’ and breaks him in what, by a tweet” in which Trump took to social media with a threat to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50 per cent.

 

As well, Lutnick suggested the Canadian countermeasures were about domestic politics because Carney will be facing voters in a federal election soon.

 

“You think it’s about a trade war. This is their way of getting election votes,” he said.

 

Ford’s electricity gambit was viewed in Washington as provocative, said Lutnick, noting Trump is frustrated with existing trade agreements between the two countries.

 

“When your biggest … trading partner in the whole world, that is vital to Canada’s existence, says ‘I’m unhappy,’ and they (Canada) respond negatively … it’s like Ukraine,” Lutnick added, referencing a dramatic Oval Office showdown between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy two weeks ago.

 

“When Donald Trump’s in the White House, you talk about respect.”

 

To prepare for Thursday’s meeting, Ford conferred with Carney at Wally’s Grill on Rexdale Boulevard in Etobicoke.

 

“We’ve got a big fight ahead of us, and we’ll be working together every step of the way. We’re strongest when we’re united,” Carney, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, said after their power breakfast.

 

Ford said they “agreed on the need to stand firm and strong in the face of President Trump’s threats, including additional retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, which will raise costs for American businesses and families.”

 

The premier was in Washington twice in February, to lobby American lawmakers against the Trump tariffs.

 

On Tuesday, the president described Ford as “a very strong man in Canada.”

While premier expressed gratitude for “those comments,” he stressed that ending the trade war is more important than political posturing.

 

Also on Thursday, Canada launched a formal complaint at the World Trade Organization about the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, saying they “are inconsistent with U.S. obligations.”

 

The “request for consultations” filed by Canada gives the two sides 60 days to discuss the situation and try to avoid litigation. After 60 days, if consultations don’t resolve the dispute, Canada may request adjudication by a panel.

 

Trouble in the condo market, which is particularly acute in Toronto, predates the current economic malaise. It is worst in the preconstruction segment, where rental rates aren’t high enough to cover real estate investors’ mortgage payments, condo fees and property taxes. Preconstruction condo prices tumbled 15 per cent in the Toronto region in the last three months of 2024, with sales plummeting to lows not seen since the late 1990s.

 

But with rents currently falling and mortgage rates still high compared to the lows of the pandemic housing craze, investors have soured even on the resale condo market, where units are typically cheaper, according to Mr. Pasalis.

 

The dearth of investors has made it particularly difficult to sell one-bedroom condos, said Jeffrey Cheng, a realtor at RARE Real Estate.

 

Tiny units have long appealed to mom and pop investors with limited budgets and to tenants looking for relatively lower rents. But with most condo demand currently made up of people looking for condos to live in, buyers now want larger units, especially outside of the downtown core, Mr. Cheng said.

 

“People are willing to pay a little more to live in a better space,” he said.

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Star