this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Summary

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will permanently cancel its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink, even if U.S. tariffs are lifted.

The decision follows Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, which prompted Ontario to ban U.S. firms from contracts.

Ford cited Musk’s ties to Trump as a factor and said he is willing to fight potential legal fallout.

Musk previously responded to cancellation threats with a dismissive “Oh well.”

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 170 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Fords an absolute asshole, and this is a stopped clock situation. But let’s take the win. This is a policy change in the right direction.

From a southern neighbor: sorry about the smell and the noise. We are busy shitting the bed, and we’re just getting started.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks bud. it's not our first rodeo, we're used to the smell of bullshit.
Still, you know, when it actually gets on you it stains things.

[–] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

Fords an absolute asshole,

and he is OUR asshole, for now (no telling if/when he will flip-flop, let's hope he sticks to it)

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[–] Daelsky@lemmy.ca 66 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Good. We Canadians should stop relying on the US. Time to focus on local industries.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Cross country trade scales the economy way better than doing things locally though

[–] Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

With a stable partner, I’d say you are correct.

However if your partner is willing to weaponize that interdependency then the calculation changes.

China weaponized trade and used wolf warrior diplomacy during Covid in an attempt to gain influence. Russia weaponized energy with Europe. Now Trump is having the US do the same for “reasons” with Canada.

You’d think we would learn there is more up side to cooperation than conflict but here we are again.

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[–] d00phy@lemmy.world 63 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Oooh Trump’s gonna get in a fight with Canadian Trump! Get some popcorn y’all!

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 43 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

Yeah, i was gonna say pp is canada trump, but on further reflection pp is more akin to mike Johnson. I guess marlaina Smith is a combo of mtg and bobo. Side note i forgot bobos name and looked it up.

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[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 49 points 2 weeks ago

This is the right thing to do. Make responses permanent, otherwise trump will just continue his idiotic game of bouncing back and forth.

[–] DozensOfDonner@mander.xyz 44 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Feel bad for the people at Starlink. I can imagine a few astro-nerds really enjoying their work there and then some moldy bigwig rich guy thinking the world is his sims 4 just fuckes you with tweeting.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 57 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't. The tech world has been aware that Musk is a piece of shit for more than a decade.

Anyone working for a Musk company approves of his craziness.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 44 points 2 weeks ago

Or is stranded there on a H1B visa. Musk likes them both fanatical and vulnerable.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 weeks ago

Eh, idk. I'm sure there's smart people doing cool things at Starlink, but the actual product itself is basically a brute force approach to Internet access with a ton of downsides

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 37 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Doug Ford is the world's biggest douche.

But this is how you get Musk to behave.

[–] ThomasCrappersGhost@feddit.uk 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Doug Ford is the world’s biggest douche.

Interesting choice of words given this world has Trump and Musk, amongst others …

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

It's true.

Lots of high-profile douchebags in the world today.

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[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago

This is absolutely the right decision.

[–] Substance_P@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It's frustrating that $100 million is only about 0.028760% of Elon Musk's total wealth ($347.7 billion). Let's hope more people abandon his failing companies and that other governments and big clients follow Fords lead.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

I canceled my starlink after his nazi salutes, I hope a bunch more follow suit, then it could be a lot more lost reoccurring revenue for old Moscow musk

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[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah “Oh well.” But then he cries like a baby who didn’t get a piggy back ride, and starts to sue people who won’t do business with his companies.

Just like all these people he’s paying off and then two days later realizes he made a mistake and wants to hire them back. Just like all these tariffs they are so fast to impose and then AFTER THINKING ABOUT SHIT want to start rolling it all back. These people are legit dumb as fuck.

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[–] sirico@feddit.uk 20 points 2 weeks ago

The name Ford making Elon cry again

[–] Kalon@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Good. Should cut ties with that asshole. He is constantly pitching ideas that are not that great on their own and can only be accomplished with subsidies.

And all this tariff threat should have repercussions. Can't keep going back and forth, back and forth without saying enough.

I say this as an American who is disgusted with how this administration is treating our closest friends and allies.

[–] Cruxifux@feddit.nl 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Why tf we doing starlink deals with that fucking idiot in the first place?

[–] GreatBlueHeron@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

From a consumer perspective it's a good solution for internet in remote areas and Ontario has a lot of remote areas. I used it for a couple of years when my only other option was a local wireless provider with an expensive high speed plan with advertised downloads up to 10Mbps, but actually never got anywhere near that. I'm lucky that I now have fibre and my starlink hardware is collecting dust in the shed.

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[–] psmgx@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Ontario is a massive province and rural internet outside of a handful of areas is terrible. Satellite, esp. good, consistent satellite, is a godsend for those areas -- no one is running fiber out to a town of only 2000 bodies that's highly isolated.

It was a reasonable choice, assuming Musk was mostly sane and not onboard with MAGA.

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[–] wasay@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

EU citizen here, I see that Premier Doug Ford is doing good stuff, it is a good political figure in general?

[–] doxxx@lemmy.ca 35 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

He’s a Conservative douchebag in general.

[–] wasay@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Oh. Then it looks like he is trying to clean his image or something.

[–] doxxx@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

He could actually be patriotic for all I know but he has tried to enrich himself and his buddies at the expense of the public before so I trust him about as far as I could throw him.

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[–] ahal@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 weeks ago

Not really, he was already insanely popular before this. Just won a third majority a week ago, which is unheard of in Ontario politics. It's more that he knows how to connect with people and the electorate is very gullible / willing to turn a blind eye.

With all this recent goodwill he'll probably end up being our prime minister at some point shudder

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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Hahahahaha no, this is one of the very few odd times that I agree with him.

That being said, I come from one of the orangest (NDP), most union-ey provinces, Manitoba, so I'm a bit biased.

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[–] spechter@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

From what I've understood he's a conservative populist. So interpret that however you want.

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