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.

Ford said the 25 per cent tax will be announced on Monday, with it likely being enacted on Tuesday.

“We are moving forward with it. 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.” Ford told 640Toronto radio host Ben Mulroney on Thursday.

“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.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will temporarily waive tariffs on products from Mexico that fall under the North American free trade agreement, two days after launching a continental trade war.

The announcement did not mention Canada, which is also facing sweeping tariffs on all goods entering the U.S., despite Trump’s commerce secretary saying earlier that both countries would “likely” see a reprieve. It came shortly after Trump levelled new attacks against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following a heated exchange Wednesday.

“After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following a scheduled call between the two leaders.

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will temporarily waive tariffs on products from Mexico that fall under the North American free trade agreement, two days after launching a continental trade war.

The announcement did not mention Canada, which is also facing sweeping tariffs on all goods entering the U.S., despite Trump’s commerce secretary saying earlier that both countries would “likely” see a reprieve. It came shortly after Trump levelled new attacks against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau following a heated exchange Wednesday.

“After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following a scheduled call between the two leaders.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that his phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump was "colourful" with moments of tension as the two hashed out how to bring the American-led trade war to an end.

Trudeau said negotiations are ongoing to secure some form of tariff relief for certain sectors, but warned there's no sign that Trump is willing to drop his levies entirely and it's likely a trade dispute will continue "for the foreseeable future."

Trudeau said there are ongoing discussions to have all of the tariffs dropped until April 2, when Trump is expected to impose another layer of retaliatory tariffs on all countries he claims are ripping off the U.S. But those talks have not been finalized and Trudeau said he was reluctant to comment until there is something concrete to announce.

The prime minister acknowledged that the 50-minute conversation between the two men on Wednesday was heated, but said it was a "substantive" call and that there could be a resolution to these issues, at least in the short term.

Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job.

The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert.

The discussions centered on whether Ukraine could hold quick presidential elections. These are being delayed in line with the country’s constitution because Ukraine remains under martial law. Critics of holding elections say they could be chaotic and play into Russia’s hands, with so many potential voters serving on the front lines or living abroad as refugees.

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"Since Donald Trump began his tariff threats against Canada and his ‘jokes’ about making Canada the 51st US state, I have not bought a single product originating in the US,” said Lynne Allardice, 78, a retired business owner from New Brunswick, Canada.

“Not a single lettuce leaf or piece of fruit. I have become an avid reader of labels and have adopted an ‘anywhere but the US’ policy when shopping. I will not visit the States while Trump remains in office, and most of the people I know have adopted the same policy.”"

. . .

Many Canadians have responded to Trump’s economic tariffs and political messaging with a consumer boycott of US products and services – no more California wines or American Bourbon; local shopping instead of Amazon Prime; analogue entertainment and cable TV instead of Netflix and Spotify; holidays in the Kootenays instead of Disney World.

Four former British ambassadors to the United States have expressed concern about the future of intelligence sharing with the US following the re-election of Donald Trump.

Sir David Manning, who served as ambassador between 2003 and 2007, told a parliamentary committee some of Trump's appointees had "strange track records" which would create a "problem on the intelligence front".

Dame Karen Pierce, who only left the role last month, said intelligence sharing would continue "even if at the top level there might be things we might wish to be circumspect about".

. . .

He said some of the people appointed by Trump to lead intelligence and security could "present some difficulties in terms of their view of us and views of co-operation".

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The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has warned that Russian aggression “knows no borders”, will not stop at Ukraine and is a direct threat to France and Europe which must prepare in case the US steps away from its side.

“I want to believe the US will stay by our side,” Macron said in a televised address late on Wednesday. “But we have to be ready if that isn’t the case,” he said.

. . .

Macron said to the French public in a prime-time TV speech: “I’m speaking to you tonight because of the international situation and its consequences for Europe … I know you are legitimately worried faced with the historic events that are shaking the world order.

“The war in Ukraine, which has left almost one million dead and injured, continues with the same intensity. The US, our ally, has changed its position on this war, supporting Ukraine less and allowing doubt to linger on what will come next.”

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While French President Emmanuel Macron has talked of the need for “an incredible awakening” and German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz described Europe as being “five minutes to midnight,” the worry from those close to the discussion is that events are happening more quickly than they can cope with.

“The nightmare scenario is that the U.S. announces a deal soon that accepts most of Russia’s demands and then tells Ukraine and Europe to take it or leave it,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

And they’re not only scared of the United States. They’re also wary of some of their own. While Thursday’s hastily arranged summit, just days after less formal gatherings in Paris and London, signals an intention to come up with solutions, diplomats are already bracing for a pro-Russia group of leaders led by Hungary’s Victor Orbán derailing the whole thing.

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Most of Canada’s politicians understood the assignment here. Outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau certainly did, delivering a speech that reminded Americans of our affection for their country — and our determination to stand up for ourselves in spite of it. BC Premier David Eby was even more forceful in his own remarks as he promised the immediate removal from the province’s liquor stores of products from red states. “We understand who is attacking us,” he said. “We understand where this is coming from. We want to send a message particularly to those governors, to those congresspeople.”

. . .

The pro-appeasement forces within Canada’s conservative community have done the bare minimum to indicate their displeasure with Trump’s tariffs, but they don’t seem like they’ve actually changed their mind. Last weekend, for example, the editorial board at the Toronto Sun — which just happens to be owned by a Trump-friendly U.S. hedge fund — blamed Justin Trudeau for Donald Trump’s decision to launch what the Wall Street Journal has described as the “dumbest trade war.”

And when it was finally launched, leaders like Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith completely missed the moment. After a few harsh words for Trump, Poilievre immediately pivoted to his pre-existing political script, blaming Justin Trudeau for everything from rising home prices to longer lines at food banks. He even suggested that the best way to mitigate the damage done by Trump’s tariffs was — you guessed it — tax cuts. “The obvious place to start is to get rid of the Liberal carbon tax,” he said. Of course it is, Pierre.

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On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Donald Trump was softening up Canada by attacking our economy ahead of an attempt to annex the country.

Let that sit for a moment.

Because it’s easy to miss the significance of the statement. We live in an era of exaggeration, and a moment of frenetic happenings. But the prime minister of Canada has said that the global hegemon is attacking this country economically in the hopes of later annexing it. To put it mildly, the stakes right now are high, and our leaders must rise to meet the challenges these stakes imply.

At least one premier understands the assignment. After Trudeau spoke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford held his own press conference in Toronto. “I want to inflict as much pain as we possibly can until we get to a deal,” Ford said.

He laid out a plan to hit the United States hard in response to Trump’s attack on Canada’s economy and sovereignty. You could write a book about Ford’s failures. Some people have. But his approach to dealing with the Trump regime is spot on.

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*PM says Trump is trying to make it easier to annex Canada — but it won't work *

An unbowed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canada will hit back hard at the U.S. after President Donald Trump launched a North American trade war by slapping devastating 25 per cent tariffs on virtually all Canadian goods.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference on Parliament Hill, Trudeau said Trump is trying to prompt "a total collapse of the Canadian economy" because he thinks that will "make it easier to annex us."

But Trudeau said that will never happen because "when it comes to defending our great nation, there is no price we all aren't willing to pay."

Trudeau said Canada will not back down from a fight in the face of "completely bogus and completely unjustified" trade action that has the potential to ruin bilateral relations and prompt job losses, economic devastation and higher inflation on both sides of the border.