TORONTO (AP) — The leader of Canada’s most populous province said Friday he’ll pull the anti-tariff ad that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to end trade talks with Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said after talking with Prime Minister Mark Carney he’s decided to pause the advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume.
Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad sponsored by Ontario that used the words of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs.
“We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels," Ford said in a statement.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses."
Ford said the commercials will continue to run this weekend including during the first World Series games between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games,” he said.
On Thursday Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
Trump doubled down on his criticism of the Ontario ads Friday and accused Canada of trying to influence an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his global tariff regime.
Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations has further inflamed trade tensions between the neighbors and longtime allies.
Carney said this week he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Canadian officials remain ready to continue talks to reduce tariffs in certain sectors, he said.
“We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s,” Carney said Friday morning before boarding a flight to Asia. “We have to focus on what we can control and realize what we can’t control.”
Carney is trying to secure a trade deal with Trump, but tariffs are taking a toll in the aluminum, steel, auto and lumber sectors.
Carney spoke to Ford Thursday night and again Friday.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said talks with Canada have not led to any constructive progress.
“Ontario’s taxpayer-funded ad campaign on American TV networks — that misleadingly edited President Reagan’s 1987 radio address about trade — is the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the Administration," Desai said in a statement.
“As President Trump made clear on Truth Social, further talks are a futile effort if Canada can’t be serious.”
The Ontario government has said it would pay about $75 million Canadian (US$54 million) for the ads to air across multiple American television stations using audio and video of Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987.
Ford said earlier this week he had heard that Trump had seen the ad.
“I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said.
He said the aim is to “blast” the pro-trade message to Americans.
“It’s real, because it was coming from the best president the country’s ever seen, Ronald Reagan," Ford said. “I feel the Reagan Republicans are going to be fighting with the MAGA group, and let's hope, Reagan Republicans win.”
Ford is a populist conservative who doesn’t belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and British Columbia Premier David Eby backed Ford.
“It’s clear that these ads are working. If you throw a rock at a lake and you don’t hear a splash, you probably missed. So to my good friend Doug Ford, keep the ads on TV. They’re effective, and this country is behind you,” Kinew said.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the ad has backfired “big time.”
Trump has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most offensively by claiming Canada could be “the 51st state.”
Jason Kenney, a former Conservative cabinet minister under ex-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, called Trump’s posts “just embarrassing."
“The Ontario ad does not misrepresent President Reagan’s anti-tariff radio address in any respect whatsoever. It is a direct replay of his radio address, formatted for a one minute ad,” Kenney posted on social media.
Kenney also took aim at the Reagan Foundation, saying it “now has gormless leadership which is easily intimidated by a call from the White House, yet another sign of the hugely corrosive influence of Trump on the American conservative movement.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he said misstated the facts and called “egregious behavior” aimed at influencing U.S. court decisions.
The post on Trump's social media site came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. Trump's call for an abrupt end to negotiations could further inflame trade tensions that already have been building between the two neighboring countries for months.
Trump posted, “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The prime minister was set to leave Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same Friday evening.
Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that an ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the 'Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade' dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks.”
The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan's address.
Carney met with Trump earlier this month to try to ease trade tensions, as the two countries and Mexico prepare for a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — a trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term, but has since soured on.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., and nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
Trump said earlier this week that he had seen the ad on television and said that it showed that his tariffs were having an impact.
“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said then.
In his own post on X last week, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, posted a link to the ad and the message: “It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.”
He continued, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”
A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. But Ford previously got Trump’s attention with an electricity surcharge to U.S. states. Trump responded by doubling steel and aluminum tariffs.
The president has moved to impose steep U.S. tariffs on many goods from Canada. In April, Canada’s government imposed retaliatory levies on certain U.S. goods -- but it carved out exemptions for some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as remission quotas.
Trump’s tariffs have especially hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, Stellantis said it would move a production line from Ontario to Illinois
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Associated Press Writer Rob Gillies in Toronto, Ontario, contributed to this report.