With the federal election in the books, Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma is heading south to talk about perhaps the biggest topic of the recent campaign.
“We have to remember that a lot of this election was around tariffs,” the mayor told MyStratfordNow.
Ritsma is in Windsor Wednesday for a meeting with Ontario’s auto mayors and he expects some of their colleagues from the U.S. to be there.
Tariffs in the auto sector in particular are top of mind and auto makers continue to lobby U.S. President Donald Trump about serious negative financial impacts.
Stratford’s mayor said there could be a 25 per cent trade tariff as early as May 2, however, news reports on Tuesday suggested the U.S. government is adjusting those plans. It is not clear how it will impact Canadian businesses moving forward.
Tariffs have dominated the discourse and impacted economies.
Stratford has 15 auto manufacturing-related businesses.
Ritsma says the overall local impact is still being determined but it’s worrying.
“A lot of conversation. A lot of anxiety and angst.”
Meanwhile, Doug Ford’s Conservative provincial government are pushing ahead pursuing more east-west domestic trade in Canada, Ristma said, adding the newly-elected federal Liberal government will keep tariffs at the forefront of their economic plans.
