A pair of Greater Toronto Area councillors are pushing back against U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff threat with an online ad campaign set to target Washington during his upcoming inauguration.
The campaign is a direct response to Trump promising to impose 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products shortly after winning the 2024 election purportedly to slow the flow of drugs and migrants illegally crossing into the U.S.
Brampton city councillor Rowena Santos and Whitby regional councillor Chris Leahy plan to use location-based advertising methods to urge U.S. government officials to consider the policy’s detriments, such as potential Canadian job losses, with the help of video ads as they take to Washington on Jan. 20.
The video ads will appear on smartphones, with the intended target being U.S officials located within range of the D.C area for two or more hours during the inauguration, according to the councillors.
“We are not going to stand idly by while the U.S. president threatens local jobs and our economy, we are going to fight like hell,” Santos said.
At a Mar-a-Lago news conference, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump said he was willing to use ‘economic force’ to absorb Canada and refused to rule out using military force to annex Greenland and take control of the Panama Canal.
Both councillors worry the tariffs will lead to economic instability for Canadians, especially those living in their respective cities.
Brampton in particular is home to the CN intermodal facility, where goods to and from the U.S pass through each day, which could make the city first to feel the blow Rowena says.
“The residents that I serve will be at risk of job loss and higher property taxes,” she said.
The tariffs on cars and car parts could also lead to job losses in Durham Region, where 10 per cent of the economy is generated from the automotive and manufacturing sectors, according to Leahy.
The looming threat is being taken seriously by top politicians like Premier Doug Ford, who previously promised to cut off Ontario’s energy supply to Michigan, Minnesota, and New York.
Leahy says Ford should “follow through on that threat.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he told his fellow premiers and the prime minister that Canada needs to ‘be ready to fight’ as president-elect Donald Trump threatens to hit this country with tariffs. Ford participated in a virtual meeting with all premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday about U.S.-Canada relations ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.
“Are we ready to play hardball? The answer is yes… It is why we cannot and will not sit by on the sidelines while jobs and livelihoods are on the line,” Leahy said.
Municipal mayors have yet to take a formal stance, but the Ontario Big City Mayors caucus will be meeting to discuss the threat in February, according to the group’s chair and Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.
The campaign will continue past the inauguration to target sporting events like the upcoming Super Bowl, according to Rowena and Leahy.
Campaign could ‘fall flat’: economist says
While the threat of economic retaliation has been widely discussed at the provincial and now municipal level, Concordia University economics professor Moshe Lander says the councillors’ support of Ford’s threats need to be reconsidered and will only escalate tensions, not solve them.
“There’s a difference between trying to promote free trade and meeting tough talk. You don’t solve a bully by being a bully yourself,” he said.
Lander says the campaign also takes a misguided approach by targeting Washington insiders who already understand why Trump’s policy could be “bad news.” Because of this, he says the campaign could “fall flat.”
The campaign’s intended target should be mid-western households, who are unaware of the economic and political impacts the tariffs could have on their Canadians neighbours, according to Lander.
