An unrepentant Premier Doug Ford says he has no regrets about Ontario’s anti-tariff advertising blitz that derailed Canada’s trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump.
While Ontario has paused the $75 million campaign, featuring former president Ronald Reagan, after Ford spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney, the premier insisted Monday it was effective.
“It was our intention was to get the message out. It was the most successful ad in the history of North America,” Ford boasted during the legislature’s daily question period, saying it received “$300 million to $400 million of earned media” over the past several days.
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“We had over we had over one we had over one billion impressions, meaning one billion views, and it’s still counting from around the world,” he said, noting the 60-second spot went viral and “every outlet, small, large, medium in the U.S. was talking about (how it’s) better to get rid of any of the tariffs.”
“President Trump wants to attack our country, but I’m never going to, never take a back seat to President Trump.”
Ford pointed out “we’ve been waiting for this deal month after month after month after month” so it’s unlikely the ad was solely to blame for the president’s ire.
Speaking in Kuala Lumpur, Carney said the Ontario ad was pivotal in triggering Trump’s decision to end trade negotiations and threaten a new 10 per cent tariff.
But he pointedly did not blame Ford outright, or criticize him in any strong terms.
Still, Carney underscored that it is the federal government’s responsibility to lead trade negotiations, and that his government deliberately made a choice not to advertise against tariffs in the U.S.
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He also dismissed any suggestion that the U.S. was unhappy more broadly with the way trade negotiations had been going.
“We were close to a deal,” Carney said in French.
“Then there were the ads, and everything changed. The position of the American government changed, that’s obvious. It’s not more complicated than that.”
The prime minister’s remarks appeared calibrated to not blame Ford and at the same time allow Trump the ability to do so.
Aboard Air Force One en route to Japan, Trump again ripped into the ad, its portrayal of Reagan, whom he said wasn’t strong “on finance, on trade.” And he said it doesn’t matter if it was a provincial or federal ad, because Carney knew about it.
“I don’t care whether it’s provincial or Canada itself. They all knew exactly what the AD was. The prime minister knew. Everybody knew. The prime minister knew what the ad was,” Trump told reporters.
The president said “I don’t want to meet with him. I’m not going to be meeting with him for a while. I’m very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada. We’re going to let it ride.”
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Carney, who is politically and personally close to the Ontario premier, struck a sanguine note.
“In any complicated, high stakes negotiation, you can get unexpected twists and turns, and you have to keep your cool during those situations. It doesn’t pay to be upset. Emotions don’t carry you very far. And we had made progress, to repeat. And we stand by the progress that had been made.”
“We are ready when appropriate to pick that up so and I’ll just re emphasize that it is the responsibility of the government of Canada to have these negotiations, and others will have opinions, and others welcome free advice. Unsolicited advice is entirely appropriate. Every Canadian is a stakeholder in these negotiations.”
He said he had not spoken to Trump since his Thursday night move to call off trade talks, nor had Canada received any details about the latest additional 10 per cent tariff threat Trump issued Saturday.
“The president knows that I’m available. I’m available to speak to the president … as I always would be, as you would expect,” said Carney.
“We will both be at APEC. Canada is a member of APEC. I mean, we’re meeting there — very much so,” he said with a smile.
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Last Thursday night on social media, Trump blasted the Ontario ad, featuring a 1987 pro-free trade speech by Reagan, saying it was “egregious behaviour” and expressed fears it would influence deliberations of the U.S. Supreme Court on the validity of tariffs.
“They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behaviour, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” he wrote,
The ad, which has been airing on many U.S. networks, accurately quotes Reagan, an advocate of free trade and an opponent of the tariffs Trump has embraced.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan says in the 38-year-old address.
“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. Soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”
In a part of the speech that is not included in the Ontario ad, Reagan, president from 1981 to 1989, says he had been promoting increased trade with then-prime minister Brian Mulroney.
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“That message of free trade is one I conveyed to Canada’s leaders a few weeks ago and it was warmly received there.”
In 1988, Reagan and Mulroney signed the free trade agreement that is the precursor to the current Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.
On the ad itself, Trump said Monday, “Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. He used them sparingly … He made a mistake in that and again, I was the biggest fan of Ronald Reagan, but on finance, on trade, it wasn’t his strong suit. But he liked tariffs, and they totally changed that to say that he didn’t because they’re catering to the Supreme Court, because Canada’s been ripping us off for a long time. And they’re not going to rip us off anymore. Canada has been ripping us off for a long time.
“One of the most difficult countries to deal with has been Canada, as much as I love Canada itself and the people of Canada … a lot of bad representatives, they did a fake ad yesterday. They were caught. The Ronald Reagan Foundation was the one that caught him, and it was totally the opposite of what was said.
“So I don’t like that. That’s dirty pool. And let me just tell you they shouldn’t have done it. They’ve apologized, and they said we’re going to take the ad down. Well, they did it, but they did it very late. They let it play for another two nights, and now they took that ad down. So I don’t know when it’s going to kick in. We’ll see, but I don’t really want to discuss it.”
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