Doug Ford

"We have a U.S. president(-elect) with a strong mandate, who is a powerful negotiator who can spot weakness from a mile away," Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday.

The meeting of the 13 premiers, chaired by Ford, took place the same day as Chrystia Freeland resigned as federal finance minister, before she was set to present her government's fall economic statement.

A decision over whether to expand an obscure dog sport in Ontario sparked division within Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative caucus that saw the premier agree to cancel a new licensing regime before later resurrecting it, The Canadian Press has learned.

Canada is preparing retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat to levy a 25 per cent import tax on all Canadian goods, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to withhold the province's energy, which it exports to five states.

British Columbia Premier David Eby says his fellow premiers and the federal government have hatched a game plan to fight U.S. tariffs, with conservative premiers lobbying Republican counterparts, left-leaning provincial leaders courting the Democrats, and Ottawa focusing on president-elect Donald Trump.

For all their talk about being fiscally prudent, Conservative politicians in Canada have more or less abandoned the idea of balancing the budget. 

Unity among provinces and the federal government is critical in the face of the grave challenge posed by the threat of massive new import tariffs from Canada's closest trading partner, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday following an emergency first ministers' meeting.

Trump is threatening to impose a 25 per cent import tariff on goods coming from Canada and Mexico right after he takes office, saying they would remain in effect until Canada and Mexico stop illegal border crossings and prevent drugs like fentanyl from entering the U.S.

Premier Doug Ford, who chairs the premiers' association known as the Council of the Federation, tells Trudeau in a letter today that premiers want to be part of a "Team Canada" approach to everything from trade and secure borders to energy, defence and cross-border supply chains.

Trump said the tariff will remain in place until both countries stop drugs, in particular fentanyl, and people from illegally crossing the borders. He said until those issues are solved Canada and Mexico will "pay a very big price!"

The president-elect posted to Truth Social on Monday he will sign an executive order imposing a 25 per cent tariff on all products coming in to the United States from Canada and Mexico. He said the tariff will remain in place until both countries stop drugs, in particular fentanyl, and people from illegally crossing the borders.

Ontario insists it still needs gas-fired electricity as part of its future mix, despite incoming federal regulations to get Canada’s electricity grid to net-zero emissions by 2035. But some municipalities are refusing to take on additional gas generation because of concerns about climate change and health.

The supposed “law and order” party is duplicitous, but that won’t stop them from moralizing, nor will it stop them from leveraging culture war wedge issues to divide the electorate and wrongfoot the split Liberal-NDP-Green opposition. It’s a classic and effective move.

Living in a clean environment and affordable housing should take precedence over buying beer and wine in Ontario's corner stores.

The premier has gone back to his roots in his latest tirade against bike lanes, which he’s been teasing for a while now but officially acted on earlier last week. His government recently proposed legislation that would ban all new bike lanes that take up space that could otherwise be used by cars — unless they receive special permission from the province.