OTTAWA — A ketchup war is brewing, and Justin Trudeau is about to step into the middle of it.
Representing the United States is Heinz, which put 700 Canadian workers out of work in 2014 when it closed a plant in Canada’s tomato capital, a small southern Ontario town called Leamington. Anger and hand-wringing ensued.
Representing Canada is French’s, the mustard-maker, which began producing ketchup in Canada after the Heinz closure. In its bid for Canadian dollars, French’s even put a maple leaf on the bottle. Canadians rejoiced and bought French’s ketchup.
And on Sunday — which also happens to be Canada Day — Prime Minister Trudeau’s government is hitting back against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian metals by slapping tariffs on $12.6 billion ($16.6 billion Canadian) worth of American-made products, including ketchup. To mark the occasion, Trudeau will spend part of the day not in the capital but in tomato country, meeting “Canadians and their families” and visiting a food processing plant.
