With MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire pointing out that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been surprisingly sanguine about Donald Trump's insults and tariff threats, CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin claimed the president-elect's taunts are not going unnoticed north of the U.S. border.
With Trump wielding tariff threats against Canada, Mexico and China before he even takes office, the "Squawk Box" host reported that there is the danger that some Americans could end up scrambling to keep the lights on if Canada's leaders choose to cut off power supplies to the U.S. provided by their country.
"Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, at least to this point, has not really fought back against Trump's taunting, whether about tariffs or the suggestion he would annex Canada and be our 51st state, calling him Governor Trudeau in a social media post," Lemire prompted his guest. "But all eyes turns to the province of Ontario and Doug Ford which is floating the idea they're going to hit back, they may bar American-made alcohol and other restrictions if Trump follows through on these tariffs threats."
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"Ontario is not having it," Ross Sorkin bluntly replied. "And they're throwing down the gauntlet on the alcohol front because it would make the export of alcohol from the U.S. complicated and much more expensive.":
"But more importantly there's this electricity piece," he continued. "Ontario delivers electricity to about 1.5 million homes in the United States and suggesting maybe they would consider cutting that off."
"You know, this is when people talk about the tariffs and the uncertainty the tariffs could create, it's –– it wasn't just the cost of the tariffs, it's the retaliation," he elaborated, "and this is an example of the kind of thing that could happen and, therefore, a kind of different leverage points you think either the U.S. has or, in this case, Canada, may have."
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