The comments come as Canada is negotiating to reduce tariffs. Trump has been urging the Big 3 American automakers to move production to the U.S.
“That guy, President Trump, he’s a real piece of work,” Ford said. “I’m sick and tired of rolling over. We need to fight back.”
Ford said Canada needs to hit back with tariffs if Prime Minister Mark Carney can’t reach a trade deal with Trump.
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said the production shift is “unacceptable” and warned Stellantis made commitments to Canadian production in exchange for substantial financial support.
“Anything short of fulfilling that commitment will be considered as default under our agreements,” Joly wrote in a letter to the company chief executive.
“Stellantis is bowing at the Trump administration with this pledge of massive investments in the U.S.,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
“If this bullying tactic works with Stellantis I expect it to be replicated to every other automaker that has a presence in Canada and frankly other sectors that the U.S. has an interest in.”
Workers at the Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton were greeted Wednesday with a robocall from their employer that said work they’d been waiting for wouldn’t be coming back. The company closed the factory in 2023 and laid off its roughly 3,000 workers as it retooled the facility.
Stellantis said it would reopen its Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois to expand U.S. Jeep production, creating thousands of new jobs there.
Vito Beato, president of Unifor Local 1285, which represents the Brampton plant workers, said the news came as a surprise because Stellantis had said previously it was committed to producing its Jeep Compass in Brampton.
Stellantis said it continues to invest in Canada, including adding a third shift to the Windsor, Ontario assembly plant, and that it is in talks with the government on the future of the Brampton facility.
Ford said Canada should start responding to Trump’s tariffs with its own harsh measures.
“That’s the only thing that this person understands,” Ford said of Trump. Ford is scheduled to meet with Carney this week.
