Ontario rips up $100M Starlink contract ahead of U.S. tariffs | Hacker News Reader

Ontario rips up $100M Starlink contract ahead of U.S. tariffs

ctvnews.ca

45 pointsbelter19 comments

Nice to see a principled stand by a regional leader. I've seen people (e.g. Shopify's CEO) complain that Canada should be more compliant to the U.S.'s demands. But that implies there is something reasonable to be complaint to [0]. The amount of fentanyl and illegal immigrants that cross over from Canada is relatively minuscule, not any more egregious than the traffic of illegal guns from the U.S. It's absolute insanity start a trade war with our closest and oldest ally.

[0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-pr...

The fentanyl excuse is technically necessary because the US President only has emergency powers in matters of commerce. He would emphasize decreasingly-urgent excuses without fentanyl, each looking expedient and cynical. Failing to persuade Congress to rubber-stamp this might expose Trump as weak.

A single member can bring a resolution to question the declared emergency, with the statute granting the emergency powers requiring the resolution to be brought to the floor relatively quickly.

Since fentanyl is mostly smuggled by US citizens, I’m not sure what kind of emergency this is that it needs the executive to overrule the legislative on commerce.

Shopify’s CEO has been a known weirdo for a long time now.

Doug Ford is doing this 180 out of sheer political necessity. There is an Ontario provincial election later this month, and he is desperate to reverse the perception that Canada's conservatives (especially at the federal level) are too enamoured of maga-style slash-and-burn politics after using it successfully to protest Covid lockdowns 3 years ago.

There was no need for a Starlink deal to begin with, especially as his government has slashed millions in education and healthcare funding in Ontario, and has a multi-billion dollar transit line in Toronto that's several years behind schedule. There is a federal election scheduled for later in the year as well, and cosying up to present American lunacy isn't going to be a winning formula.

This. I'm amazed the man is doing anything pro-Ontario/Canada at this point. Any other time he's been self-serving for himself or his financial interests.

See also: Ontario Place, the continual handshake deals with Galen Weston (might as well call it Shoppers Doug Mart), etc.

Perhaps Ontarians are finding themselves looking at Premier Ford's new patriotitic platform in the way that some U.S. religious leaders wince and cringe at their president's peccadillos yet pat him on the back for delivering on issues they tout. Politics 101, as transparent as it is.

The Canadian PM, Cabinet, Provincial, and Territorial leaders have stepped forward in what they'd been war-gaming for quite some time, as have party, business, and labour leaders. While most of them are going for Churchillian tones, Alberta's PM seems to be channeling a mix of Neville Chamberlain and Vidkun Quisling, and Saskatchewan's PM lets slip similarly undermining thoughts. Then you have the Kevin O'Leary Ferengi-types who see profit in backing the U.S. president's plans, plain and simple.

I wonder if Trump tells a few friends in advance of his tariff decisions. If he tipped off Musk, that's worth more than this $100 million.

Perhaps that's too cynical, and the tariffs aren't currency manipulation; perhaps it's something legitimate (like an excuse to lower his own taxes on account of the tariff revenue)

I highly doubt that anything he is doing is a secret to Musk and others, perhaps even to Russian and/or Chinese intelligence.

What surprised his supporters is that he chose not to use this as a negotiation tactic; he enacted them on an emergency basis and risked them getting shot down without even leveraging them in negotiation.

Well, he just dropped the Mexico tariff an hour ago. In retrospect, his waffling announcements are most readily explained as a way to game the stock and forex markets.

Cory Doctorow hinted that this is about John Deere tractors:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42777812

Since John Deere chose StarLink for its newer models, would you risk your agricultural capability on the decisions of someone as protected as Elon Musk?

Self inflicted harm - I’m doubtful that will get the outcome they are hoping for

Is your comment about the US' tariffs or the Ontario's decision?

Or perhaps it's about existing Canadian tariffs?

Exactly my point.

By definition, tariffs (wherever they are) are always self inflicted harm on the opposite of a libertarian ideology where as cutting a contract because you don't like the company is exactly that.

> By definition, tariffs (wherever they are) are always self inflicted harm on the opposite of a libertarian ideology where as cutting a contract because you don't like the company is exactly that.

That doesn't mean it is not a "self inflicted harm" in essentially the same way, it just means you believe you have some justification that outweighs the harm. But there is no reason why you couldn't justify tariffs in some way (e.g., because you don't like the country).

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