WASHINGTON, D.C. — Doug Ford is not known for playing nice with Donald Trump. The Ontario premier has repeatedly condemned the president’s 51st state rhetoric and boldly removed American booze exports from their biggest market: Ontario’s shelves. It was also notably Ford’s Ronald Reagan ad that reportedly led to the breakdown in U.S.-Canada trade talks last year. So the fact that Ford visited Washington this week, engaging lawmakers and business leaders and calling for getting the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) renewal done, may have seemed odd to many — and maybe downright risky.
But was it — or was it a sign that Canada has pivoted on its approach to Washington?
A Change in Tone from Ottawa
“You are looking at a change in tone from Ottawa,” said Graeme Thompson, senior analyst at Eurasia Group, who pointed to three relevant developments preceding Ford’s visit. “There was Mr. Carney’s speech in New York, which was very conciliatory, and Dominic LeBlanc’s trip to Washington, where he met with Jameson Greer and evidently presented at least constructive proposals and reported that the meeting went well.”
The third development was a statement from the Department of Canadian Heritage, indicating that the minister would instruct the regulator to revisit its decision on interpreting the Online Streaming Act to mean it would levy 15 per cent charges — as opposed to 5 per cent — on big tech companies’ streaming revenues in Canada to support Canadian industry. That is “really important,” Thompson said, “because digital trade and digital taxes have emerged as a major bilateral trade irritant for the U.S., and that signals a softening of the Canadian position on that issue.”
Strategic Shift Toward Conciliation
Ian Keller, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, also sees a clear strategic shift toward a conciliatory tone with the U.S. In New York, Carney even leaned in on Trump’s MAGA messaging, saying “Canada Strong will help make America great again.” Now, with Ford’s visit, that’s “the one-two punch,” said Keller.
“I think that this is one of those situations in which there’s a pretty good coordination between the government and between Ford,” said Christopher Sands, director of the Center for Canadian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Ford told reporters on Tuesday he spoke with LeBlanc before his trip to Washington and, while there, he met with Canada’s Ambassador Mark Wiseman — which suggests at least some coordination with Carney’s team.
“Towards late spring, there was a decision in Ottawa,” Sands said he believes, “that they were going to reboot, and if Carney needed to say nice things, he would say nice things.”
