Ontario Premier Doug Ford has slammed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent deal to bring a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) into Canada at reduced tariffs.
Speaking to media at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference in Toronto on Monday, Ford not only claimed the move will hurt domestic autoworkers, but that it also poses a privacy risk for Canadians.
“When you get on your cellphone, it’s the Chinese that are going to be listening to your … telephone conversation,” said Ford. “I find it ironic that the prime minister is using a burner phone and all his staff over in China, but we are making a deal — it’s Huawei 2.0 – to come back into Canada and we get nothing but potential job losses in our factories right across the board.”
Ford is referring to the fact that Canada banned Huawei from Canada’s 5G network in 2022 over national security implications associated with giving the Chinese access to key infrastructure. That said, some Huawei equipment remains in use at telecoms after the previous Trudeau government’s prorogation killed a bill that would have seen the equipment removed.
After Ford made those claims, CityNews Queen’s Park reporter Richard Southern asked the premier about what evidence he has of China using vehicles to spy on people.
WATCH – Premier Ford today said Chinese made EV’s will be listening to your calls. “When you get on your cell phone, it’s the Chinese that are going to be listening”
I ask Ford to back up those claims, & ask if he’s concerned about his Chinese made iPhone spying on him. pic.twitter.com/MT0D3QUfkB
— Richard Southern (@RichardCityNews) January 19, 2026
In response, Ford said it’s “very simple” because Carney and his team use “burner phones” when they’re in China to make deals. He added that Carney himself said China is Canada’s biggest security threat during an April 2025 election debate. “We know when you hook up your phone, they’re going to be listening, simple as that. And anyone who doesn’t believe that is very, very naïve,” added Ford.
Southern then asked, by that logic, whether Ford was also concerned about the Chinese-made phone in his pocket.
“I’m concerned about cybersecurity and the threat of China. That’s what I’m concerned about. So we’re gonna always make sure we think twice before we have countries come here and we get nothing back… We get absolutely — Ontarians — nothing back but a threat of jobs in the auto sector.”
It should be noted that even if Ford’s concerns were valid, there are plenty of non-Chinese devices, vehicles included, that have their own privacy risks. For instance, Mozilla has previously researched dozens of modern car brands, including BMW, Ford, Toyota, Tesla, Subaru, and found that many are a “privacy nightmare.”
Meanwhile, Carney has argued that the auto sector is “evolving very rapidly” and, therefore, deals like the one with China need to be made. “We want to become competitive in the market in the future. That’s what’s going to get great jobs for Ontarians going forward,” Carney told reporters over the weekend.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, Carney also said Canada must be “principled and pragmatic” when it comes to diversifying relationships to become less reliant on countries like the U.S. “Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid.”
Image credit: Doug Ford
