TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford is firing back at United States President Donald Trump after he indicated there could soon be loosened restrictions at the border.
"Trudeau should say no right away," Ford said Thursday. "Until we have this under containment, we need to have our borders closed."
On Wednesday, Trump told Americans that Canada is doing well in the fight against COVID-19 and that it will be one of the early borders to be released.
Ontario shares a border with Minnesota, Michigan and New York, which is the hardest hit area in the country.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are 629,264 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, including 26,708 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The borders between the two countries have been closed for nearly a month to non-essential travellers.
"We should have shut down the borders a lot sooner and put better screening at our airports," Ford said.
"The answer is absolutely not. I don't want them (Americans) in Ontario."
"I want to put the people of Ontario first."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that there is still a "significant amount of time" before the border restrictions are relaxed.
It's not the first time Ford has spoken out against Trump during the pandemic.
Earlier this month, he said he was disappointed with the president for ceasing exports of 3M’s N95 masks to Canada.
"I just can't stress how disappointed I am at President Trump for making this decision," Ford said April 3.
“I'm not going to rely on President Trump, I'm not going to rely on any prime minister of any country ever again."
