Poilievre suggests Trudeau is too weak to engage with Trump, Ford won't go there

While federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has taken aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week — calling him too "weak" to engage with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump — Ontario Premier Doug Ford declined to echo the characterization in an exclusive Canadian broadcast interview set to air this Sunday on CTV's Question Period.

"I'm not going to get involved in the federal politics between Mr. Poilievre and the prime minister," Ford told host Vassy Kapelos. "They can jump in the ring, battle it out and see who wins."

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
• Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News, right at your fingertips

Ford added that in Canada, "democracy is always going to reign," and that it's "going to be up to the people of Canada to decide who they want to be their next prime minister."

The premier's comments came before Trudeau's surprise trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday evening, to meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump's bombshell announcement on social media this week, that on day one of his presidency he'll implement 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico, set off alarm bells across the country.

It also prompted an emergency meeting between the federal government and the premiers, after which Ford — who is also the current chair of the Council of the Federation of Canada's premiers — said in a statement that during the talks he "stressed that the federal government has been slow to react and is stuck on its back foot."

Trump threatened the tariffs will remain in place "until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!"

Poilievre, meanwhile, is pointing fingers at Trudeau, laying the blame for the tariffs threat at his feet.

"He's lost control of our borders, he's lost control of immigration, he's lost control of spending, and with that erratic performance, we now see that he's lost control of himself," Poilievre said of Trudeau in the House of Commons this week.

"No wonder foreign leaders believe they can walk all over him, they see him as a weak, incompetent leader who does not even have the support of his own caucus," he continued. "Why won't he put the country first for a change? Allow a carbon tax election, so Canadians can have a prime minister who will protect this country."

When asked by Kapelos whether, putting aside Poilievre's characterization, he believes the Canadian government can negotiate with Trump from a position of strength, Ford said "strength comes from unity."

"With all the premiers, we have to stand as Team Canada," he said. "We have to put our political stripes aside and do what's best for everyone in the country, not for one political stripe or the other, because we have multiple political stripes in the federation."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signalled an unwillingness this week to denounce Trump's tariffs, refusing to say in an interview on CTV News Channel's Power Play whether she would characterize the move as unjustified.

Smith said Canada should address Trump's border concerns in the next two months before he's back in the White House.

When pressed on how firmly Ford believes a united front is possible — especially when factoring his comments about the federal government being on the "back foot," coupled with Smith's stance on the issue — he said he does.

• Top headlines on Canadian politics, all in one place

"I believe so," he said. "But we have to get the federal government moving. We have to hold them accountable."

"And we're going to do that, but we're going to do it collaboratively," he added. "We're going to work with them. We're going to support them any way we can to make sure we secure the border."

Ford in his interview also discussed the premiers' united front to the federal government in pushing for it to meet its NATO defence spending commitments sooner than planned, and the need for more resources at the border.

You can watch Ford's full interview on CTV's Question Period on Sunday at 11ET/8PT on CTV and CTV News Channel.

With files from CTV News' Supervising Producer Stephanie Ha