Doug Ford is against tariffs and protectionism, except when he's not...

Ontario's premier takes aim at Donald Trump and his protectionist measures.

Will Doug Ford soon be crashing a Jeep Compass into a wall to protest job losses? It’s a valid question given that Ford poured out a bottle of Crown Royal and is threatening to pull all products from Crown Royal’s parent company Diageo off the shelves.

If you haven’t heard, Stellantis, the company we used to call Chrysler, has decided that they will make the Jeep Compass in Illinois rather than in Brampton. It was expected that the Compass would be built in the Stellantis Plant in Brampton though that was never made clear.

Still, back in May 2022, shortly after the province of Ontario had secured the Stellantis EV battery plant in Windsor, there was a promise keep Brampton operational.

At its Brampton Assembly Plant, Stellantis will install a flexible assembly line capable of producing battery-electric and hybrid vehicles. This overhaul will diversify the automaker’s capacity to meet growing consumer demand for low-emission vehicles. Ontario’s commitment of up to $132 million helps secure the long-term future of the facility in Brampton.

That long-term future is now up in the air.

I’ll be honest, the future of the Brampton plant has always been up in the air. It was opened in the 1980s by AMC, later acquired by Chrysler, and on the cusp of closing ever since.

That doesn’t excuse the company from moving production to the United States but this is something that has been discussed for years. In securing the Windsor battery plant and the future of Brampton, Doug Ford thought he had secured the future, he didn’t.

As Ford pointed out in his statement, no money flowed to Stellantis for the Brampton plant because they didn’t meet the requirements. As for the battery plants, despite what you’ve heard, this isn’t a $15 billion subsdidy.

The entire EV battery program was a tax break, not a direct subsidy. The companies, Stellantis and Volkswagen, only get the full tax break if they employ enough people and produce enough batteries to get the full tax break.

That is unlikely to happen.

Even if it does, the program is set up as a tax break, not a direct subsidy. The companies only get a break on their taxes if they actually produce the product and pay taxes. As I’ve said many times, getting 75% of taxes on a new product is better than getting nothing on a project that doesn’t go ahead and that is what we are looking at.

Doug Ford is against tariffs, except when he’s not…

You may have heard that Doug Ford is running ads on American TV against tariffs on Canadian goods. He’s using the words of Ronald Reagan from a 1987 radio address speaking against tariffs to say the United States shouldn’t have tariffs on Canadian goods.

He calls it a tax on American citizens and consumers.

Here’s the problem with Ford’s position, he wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to respond with harsh tariffs on American goods. Based on what Ford says about American tariffs, wouldn’t that make tariffs on American goods a tax on Canadians?

Of course it would and starting September 1, the Carney government reduced tariffs on many goods because their previous tariffs were pushing up the cost of groceries.

The Dougie Shuffle…

Is Doug Ford about to do a shuffle in his cabinet? Speculation began to spread late Wednesday that something was coming, specifically for Minister of Sport Neil Lumsden.

Cabinet speculation is what political reporters live off of. Even in the Carney government, I’ve heard of cabinet shuffles from day one and even when the people pushing these stories are proven wrong, they push forward.

Most times, the speculation isn’t true.

So, late in the day on Wednesday I got a message that the Ford government was about to engage in a cabinet shuffle.

A senior Ford source downplayed the idea that a cabinet shuffle would be happening anytime soon.

“If that’s happening, it’s news to me,” said the source who would know.

Of course, Ford will relish in this idea that some of his underperforming cabinet ministers could be shuffled. Any PM or premier will tell you that cabinet shuffle speculation makes those in cabinet work harder.

Doug Ford wants to beat up shoplifters…

I’ll say this about Doug Ford’s story about threatening to beat up a shoplifter at a Home Depot. I don’t doubt it for a second.

Both current opposition leader, Marit Stiles of the NDP and former Premier Kathleen Wynne have denounced Ford for what he claimed to have done. They not only have cast doubt on this incident, they hav denounced him for his actions.

My guess that the public would back Ford on this file.

Mamdani won’t commit to disarming Hamas…

On Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani showed up on Fox News. It was a bold move given that he’s the frontrunner to be the next mayor of NYC and Fox isn’t exactly a friendly space for him.

That said, Martha McCallum conducted a fair and balanced interview. She asked him about Hamas disarming, which he didn’t want to comment on but he did want to comment on arresting Israeli leaders based on faulty ICJ rulings.