Ontario leader threatens the US with a power cut

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Canada's most populous province has imposed a twenty-five percent surcharge on electricity exports to the United States in response to tariffs imposed by Washington. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said he would be prepared to cut off power supplies altogether unless the US changed course. He said the surcharge would raise a total of up to four hundred thousand dollars a day from the states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota. On Sunday, Canada's next Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said the national government was right to retaliate against US tariffs. He said Canada would maintain its own duties on US goods until the Americans showed some respect. We hear from Yasir Naqvi, from Mr Carney's Liberal Party.

Also in the programme: Thousands of people are reported to have fled Syria after violent attacks on the minority Alawite community; and as Ukraine peace negotiations begin in Saudi Arabia, we'll hear from a former Prime Minister of Russia who's now a Putin critic.

(File Photo: Ontario Premier Doug Ford responds to US President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada. March 4, 2025. Reuters/Kyaw Soe Oo/File Photo)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
0:06.4	Coming to you from our studio in central London, I'm Celia Hatton.
0:10.5	For years in Canada, it was accepted that Mark Carney didn't want to wade into politics.
0:16.2	He turned down approaches from both the major conservative and liberal parties,
0:20.7	preferring instead to remain an enthusiastic economist.
0:24.8	Now, without ever winning an election, he's about to become Canada's prime minister,
0:29.4	and the stakes couldn't be higher.
0:31.5	Canada is facing a spiraling trade war with the United States,
0:35.0	its biggest trading partner by far.
0:37.4	It's a move that could
0:38.2	cripple the Canadian economy. Anxieties in Canada are already running high. Mr. Trump's
0:44.1	repeatedly threatened or joked about turning Canada into America's 51st state. That's left
0:50.8	Canadians feeling defiant but also vulnerable.
0:57.1	Canada has about one-tenth of the U.S. population,
1:00.3	and the two share the world's longest undefended border.
1:07.0	So Mark Carney echoed some of the rising fear and frustration Canadians are feeling as he took the helm of his Liberal Party on Sunday evening.
1:10.8	Here's a bit of what he had to say.
1:12.7	So Donald Trump thinks, thinks he can weaken us with his plan to divide and conquer.
1:22.3	Pierre Puellev's plan will leave us divided and ready to be conquered.
1:29.7	Because a person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump
1:34.7	will kneel before him, not stand up to him.
1:39.0	The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country.
	...

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