The leader of Canada’s most populous province and the heart of its vital auto industry said on Friday that he would call early elections because he needed a stronger hand to deal with President Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on Canadian exports.

“With a strong mandate, we will be able to fight with Donald Trump to make sure we stop the tariffs,” Doug Ford, the Conservative premier of the province, Ontario, said at a news conference on Friday.

Mr. Ford has emerged as one of the strongest political voices defending Canada against Mr. Trump, who argues that Canada has an unfair economic advantage over the United States.

“He’s going to try to devastate our country,” Mr. Ford recently told reporters of the U.S. president.

Ontario’s auto industry is deeply intertwined with that of the United States, with parts and components crossing back and forth numerous times before vehicles are fully assembled.

A blanket tariff of 25 percent that Mr. Trump said he will apply on Feb. 1 would decimated Canada’s economy — the province could lose as many as 500,000 jobs, according to Mr. Ford.

Ontario is also a major producer of hydroelectric power that flows across the border and provides energy to New England, something Mr. Ford said the province could withhold as a form of retaliation.

“We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy,” he said recently.

At such a potentially perilous moment, Mr. Ford said Canada was hobbled by a lack of a strong bargaining position at the federal level, in part because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to step down and make way for a new party leader and prime minister.

“You need a loud voice at the table,” Mr. Ford said.

Mr. Ford’s party already holds a majority of seats in the Ontario legislature, but he signaled that increasing the Conservatives’ number of seats would bolster their ability to act aggressively in a turbulent political climate with the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner.

“The opposition treats you with a little more respect, as opposed to being vulnerable,” Mr. Ford said. Elections will now be held on Feb. 27, more than a year before the June 2026 fixed election date.

Opposition leaders have said that early elections are unnecessary because they would support Mr. Ford in defending the province and the country against tariffs.

Mr. Ford has been making the rounds on American cable programs, including Fox News, to criticize Mr. Trump on tariffs. He also launched a multimillion dollar advertising campaign reminding viewers of Ontario’s contributions of energy and minerals to the United States.

Mr. Trump reiterated his tariff threat on Thursday in remarks delivered to attendees of the Davos economic forum in Switzerland, saying that the United States does not need Canadian exports like lumber, oil and gas.

“We have our own,” said Mr. Trump.



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