Canada must hold out for ‘the right deal’ with Donald Trump, Doug Ford says - Toronto Star

Premier Doug Ford is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney not to rush into a trade deal with embattled U.S. President Donald Trump.

Premier Doug Ford speaks to reporters at the Ontario legislature in Toronto on Oct. 27, 2026.

Premier Doug Ford is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney not to rush into a trade deal with embattled U.S. President Donald Trump.

At Queen’s Park on Monday, Ford cautioned that “we need the right deal — not any deal.”

As Trump’s Republicans face grim midterm elections Tuesday that could see them lose control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the president is touting the “concept” of a pact with Canada in hopes of cutting costs for weary American consumers.

Carney confirmed Sunday he had a “good conversation … on the future of Canada-U.S. trade” with Trump, who has the lowest approval rating of any U.S. president heading into the midterms since 1946.

“This builds on our recent constructive discussions on the outlines of a mutually beneficial trade deal that would create jobs for our workers, boost affordability for families, and fully respect Canada’s languages, culture, and sovereignty,” the prime minister said.

“Our teams will now be working in the coming weeks to deliver that outcome.”

Ford — who two weeks ago joined with Carney to unveil an $8.7-billion aid package to help the tariff-battered steel and auto industries and to accelerate critical minerals mining — implored the prime minister to proceed carefully.

“I wouldn’t be in favour of any deal, but the right fair trade agreement is what we’re looking for to protect our steel, protect our autoworkers, protect our manufacturing, aluminum,” the premier told CityNews.

Asked if he had shared those concerns with the prime minister, Ford said, “I’ve told him my views.”

The premier argued Carney is negotiating from a position of strength because Canada is America’s biggest customer and closest ally.

“We buy 400 per cent more cars off the U.S. than any other country in the world,” he noted.

Pressed on the midterms, which polls suggest could see the Democrats win Congress as well as take a number of statehouses, Ford said he understands where American voters are coming from.

“In both countries, in Canada and the U.S., people feel uncertain right now. 
They want certainty, they want stability, and this deal — if it goes through and it’s a fair one — it’ll give everyone certainty. 
Both countries will boom. It’s a very, very simple solution at the end of the day,” the premier said.

“They should take a page out of Ronald Reagan’s book, that’s what they need to do,” he said, referring to the U.S. president who signed a free trade agreement with prime minister Brian Mulroney in 1988.

Ford raised Trump’s ire last year when, as first reported by the Star, the Ontario government used video of Reagan in an anti-tariff ad that went viral in the U.S.

That TV commercial, which aired during the 2025 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, led the furious president to cancel trade negotiations with Ottawa.

The premier’s latest comments came as CTV News revealed Monday that Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary whose intervention scuttled the trade talks in August, is now a “driving force” pushing for a deal.

CTV reported Lutnick “initiated the re-engagement just over 10 days ago, after months of stasis, and has centred talks around the Section 232 tariffs that apply to steel, aluminum, lumber and autos because that is his purview.”

Those are the hefty levies Trump slapped on Canadian goods in the name of U.S. national security.

Lutnick, who had successfully lobbied the president to stall the opening this past summer of the Canadian-built Gordie Howe International Bridge to extract financial concessions from Ottawa, has been one of the president’s leading tariff boosters.

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Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on social media: @robertbenzie.