The leader of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has kicked off his provincial election campaign, saying he needs a strong mandate to fight the tariffs threatened by U.S.

While Premier Doug Ford insists that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threat is why he's calling an election 15 months ahead of schedule, there are plenty of reasons why the timing is politically advantageous to Ford and his Ontario PC Party.

Doug Ford, Ontario’s Conservative leader, has recently said that President Trump was “going to try to devastate our country” with a plan to impose tariffs on Canadian exports.