Trump ally asks Ford to tone down his rhetoric
According to a report from the Globe and Mail, confirmed by CBC Toronto, that tone sparked a call from Trump's own commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. He asked Ford to ease up with his rhetoric, a request the premier refused.
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Conservative strategist Shakir Chambers said Lutnick's call shows that Ford has managed to grab the attention of people in the White House and his appeals have them concerned....
Ford has been making multiple daily appearances on U.S. cable news shows since December, when the tariff threats first emerged, which have accelerated in recent days. In those, Ford has also aggressively blamed Trump for contributing to rising retail prices for Americans.
Really forgive him.
Chambers said he initially dismissed the Ford team's U.S. media strategy, thinking it would be ineffective in the massive American media market. But after this week, he thinks the premier may have broken through with messages targeting American conservatives watching channels like Fox News.
"When you have American conservatives and American commentators say, 'This is a dumb idea, maybe we should back down,' I think those are the voices that Donald Trump listens to," [Chambers] said. "Ford is connecting with the right audience in the US."
Like conservatives world-wide, maybe Ford is just stupid?:
"I think Mr. Ford is maybe late in discovering some features of Mr. Trump's personality or how he engages situations. But the very material impacts of Mr. Trump's decisions mean that Mr. Ford has been shaken out of thinking like a partisan and having to think much more like an Ontarian.
"He probably is more effective than Mr. Trudeau in reaching parts of the American electorate with the message that this is not something that Canada wants to be doing, but has no choice to do. He's not really moving the dial that much, but presumably that's better than the alternative of not moving it at all."--McMaster University political science professor Peter Graefe.
"I say this as a lifelong Liberal, I would tell him to keep doing what he's doing. If this becomes uncomfortable politically for the Americans to be doing, and as we get closer to the mid-terms at the end of next year … that is significant.
"We only have so many cards to play."--Liberal strategist Charles Bird.
"The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country. Think about it. If they succeed they would destroy our way of life. In America health care is big business. In Canada it is a right.”
...America is “a melting pot. Canada is mosaic. America is not Canada. And Canada will never, ever will be a part of America in any way, shape or form.”
(Liberal Party leader Mark Carney, who replaces Justin Trudeau.)
Trudeau urged Liberals supporters to get involved.
(Time)
The world is beginning to tire of Trump’s whiplash leadership
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
America is turning on Trump
From Elon Musk's Doge chaos to cutting Medicaid, voters across the political spectrum are unhappy.