Ford getting a good taste of what backing down gets you with these people.
He gets granted an audience in Washington with a mid-level Trump flunkie. And then that person has spent the days since publicly taunting Ford for his weakness, mocking Canada and laughingly repeating the administrations explicit threats to Canada’s independence & sovereignty, while Trump himself has done much the same.
Feels like every time the Premiers stick their beaks into this, they just end up gaining nothing except further humiliation for Canada. Like when Ford led all of the Premiers down for a group trip to Washington where they spent a couple of days getting ignored by everyone important before slinking back home.