On a day when U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at the vehicle manufacturing industry, Ontario autoworkers said it’s the latest wave in what’s been a storm of uncertainty and more proof the Canadian industry needs government support.
Late Wednesday, Trump said he’d signed an executive order that will impose a 25 per cent import tariff on vehicles not made in the United States. Although the full implications of the tariff weren’t immediately clear, he said the levy will kick in on April 2 and suggested it could start at a base rate of 2.5 per cent.
Trump’s statement came the same day Canadian Liberal Leader Mark Carney was in Windsor, Ont., one of the front lines of the tariff war, where he promised $2 billion in new supportsfor the domestic auto industry while campaigning for the April 28 federal election. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called Trump’s latest action a “full frontal attack on autoworkers.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said tariffs are …