Donald Trump is the villain of Ontario's throne speech. Doug Ford plans to make the most of it

Doug Ford never imagined he’d be raising the alarm and lowering the drawbridges against a U.S. attack on both our economy and sovereignty.

Upon winning power in 2018, the premier hitched his wagon to the friendly American behemoth, vowing to lower all barriers at the border. “Ontario is open for business!” he proclaimed back then. That was then.



This is different. “It’s not business as usual!” Ford professes now. His government’s latest road map, unveiled Tuesday, calls on Ontarians to rally against the ferocious American belligerent.

Job One is not an opening to America, but a retrenchment that requires him to “protect Ontario” from the spectre of joblessness. Today, the leader of Ford Nation is seeking a “radically different” free trade across the country. The premier is pledging to drop the insidious interprovincial trade barriers that have discouraged the east-west flow of goods and services.

In Tuesday’s Speech from the Throne — read in the legislature by Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont — Ford’s This week’s throne speech could not have been more different than the one Ford dreamed up when he first took office seven years ago.

Back then, the premier launched an unabashedly pro-American agenda. Ontario had “the good fortune to sit at the crossroads of ..

. continental trade,” the throne speech exulted at the time. Now, America-bashing is the order of the day.

And Donald Trump is the villain of the hour. “South of the border, President Donald Trump is openly taking aim at Ontario’s economy and our national sovereignty. He has even threatened to use economic force to break our country.

This, of course, will never happen,” Lt.-Gov. Edith Dumont declared, reading from the text prepared by Ford’s Progressive Conservative government to open the legislative session.

“For decades, Ontario and Canada have relied on free trade with the United States,” the speech continued, but that reliance will not continue in decades to come. America “has proven itself to be fundamentally unreliable,” Dumont declared. Which means that Ontarians and their fellow Canadians must foster self-reliance.

Today, our future course is written in our past. Ontario’s First Nations and United Empire Loyalists shall serve as historic role models for the battle ahead, the speech argued. It’s worth noting that the first Speech from the Throne prepared by Ford’s government in 2018 conspicuously dropped a routine land acknowledgment.

On Tuesday, Indigenous recognition had returned to the prepared text. After paying tribute to the “traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples,” Dumont heralded the Loyalists “who fled north from the turmoil of The American Revolution to build a new home here in Canada.” Together, Ontarians repulsed American invaders before.

And they will rally against U.S. interlopers again.

“Canada is not for sale. Canada will never be the 51st state.” In this hour, this government knows its audience.

One could easily imagine the rhetoric being repurposed into a federal throne speech after the April 28 election. If Liberal Leader Mark Carney returns to the prime minister’s office, don’t be surprised if the next parliamentary throne speech quotes from the Ontario version, exhorting Canadians to stand together against American meddling. But back to Tuesday’s oratory at Queen’s Park, which was read out by Dumont as representative of King Charles III.

She noted that Ontarians face “existential risks” in 2025, but overcame the threat of invasion and annexation in the War of 1812. The throne speech quoted former U.S.

president Thomas Jefferson predicting, “The acquisition of Canada ...

will be a mere matter of marching.” He was wrong then, “much like the current occupant of the White House,” because all those years ago “American soldiers marched home, defeated.” Ford’s battle cry to Ontarians may seem stirring to some, but is it enough to overcome the inertia of interprovincial trade barriers? These non-tariff barriers are the barnacles of Confederation, redolent with red tape, rules and regulations while resisting the soaring rhetoric of many a politician.

We shall see. As a young journalist, I was tasked by the economic nationalists who presided over the Toronto Star to write about the scourge of interprovincial trade barriers. Every politician and business executive I interviewed vowed to do their utmost to undo them, but it never came to pass.

More recently, Ontario led the crusade for a national securities commission that would subsume the provincial regulators that force businesses to duplicate the registration and compliance process over and over across the country. Quebec and Alberta led the counterattack that killed the idea, protective of their financial centres in Montreal and Calgary. Can the provinces come together in their hour of mutual insecurity, whether on securities or other barriers? The only certainty is that Canadians can credit Trump, owing him a debt of gratitude for forcing us into action after decades of inaction.

Or, to quote the final words of the speech: “ Meegwetch. Thank you. Merci.

” Words that weren’t written by the Ford government seven years ago, when it eschewed both an Indigenous acknowledgment and a simple megweetch and merci . Perhaps Ford’s Tories, in writing the speech from the throne, are finding their voice while learning the lessons of the past to prepare for an uncertain future. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request.

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