Ontario premier says he will pause anti-tariff ad that angered Trump

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he will pause his province’s anti-tariff advertisement campaign in the US, after it prompted President Donald Trump to terminate trade talks.

Ford said he made the decision after speaking to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday, adding that the TV spot will be paused on Monday “so that trade talks can resume”.

It will still run over the weekend on US networks, he said, including during the Major League Baseball World Series games.

Carney told reporters earlier on Friday that Canada is prepared to resume trade talks with the US “when the Americans are ready”.

Trump criticised the advert late on Thursday night in a Truth Social post, calling it “FAKE” and “egregious”. He said trade talks were “HEREBY TERMINATED”.

The advert, which was sponsored by the Ontario government, quotes former US President Ronald Reagan, a Republican and icon of US conservatism, saying tariffs “hurt every American”.

The video takes excerpts from a 1987 national radio address by Reagan that focused on foreign trade.

Trump’s termination of trade talks came after the Ronald Reagan Foundation, which is charged with preserving Reagan’s legacy, released a statement saying the advert had used “selective” audio and video of the former president’s remarks.

It accused the advert of misrepresenting Reagan’s address, and said the Ontario government had not sought permission to use it.

On Friday, Ford said the intention of the advert was “to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build” and the impact of tariffs.

“We’ve achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said.

Trump’s reaction to the advert has ignited debate in Canada over whether Ford’s combative approach to US trade talks is the right one, or whether the country would be better served by striking a friendlier chord with its neighbour and closest trade ally.

Canada is still the only G7 country that has not reached a trade deal with Trump since he began introducing sweeping tariffs.

The US has imposed a 35% levy on all Canadian goods – though most are exempt under an existing free trade agreement. It has also slapped sector-specific levies on Canadian goods, including a 50% levy on metals and 25% on automobiles.

Those sector tariffs have especially hurt Ontario, where the bulk of Canada’s automanufacturing industry is based.

Prime Minister Carney has attempted for months to negotiate a deal that would ease the tariffs. Three-quarters of Canadian exports are sold to the US, making its economy particularly vulnerable.

In doing so, he has opted for friendly face-to-face meetings and text messages with the US president.

Ford, on the other hand, has taken a more defiant stance. He pulled US liquor off Ontario shelves and briefly threatened withholding energy exports.

Last week, he told reporters he was “sick and tired of sitting and rolling over”, after car manufacturer Stellantis announced it would move some production out of its Brampton, Ontario, plant into the United States.

“We need to fight back,” Ford said at the time.

The next day, he launched the advertisement campaign that eventually drew the ire of the US president.

Trump’s abrupt termination of trade talks is unsurprising to most Canadians, said Mahmood Nanji, a fellow at the Ivey Business School at Western University and former associate deputy finance minister in Ontario.

The US president had made a similar threat earlier this year after Ottawa announced it would impose a digital services tax on US technology firms.

“His posts tend to be full of theatrics and hyperbole,” Mr Nanji said.

And while some might appreciate Ford standing up for the Ontario industries hardest hit by tariffs, the timing and tone of Ford’s advert campaign has not helped Canada’s case, causing an “unnecessary distraction,” Mr Nanji added.

It is unclear if trade talks will indeed resume now that Ford has pulled the ad, and President Trump is yet to respond to the announcement it will stop running.

The White House on Friday signalled frustration with what it called “Canada’s longstanding, unfair trade barriers,” and added that efforts to address these issues “have not led to any constructive progress”.

Carney has made some appeasements to keep talks going, including removing retaliatory tariffs and dropping Canada’s digital services tax. But he has repeatedly said that he is searching for “the best deal for Canada.”

Both Trump and Carney are heading to Asia on Friday for the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. The Canadian prime minister told reporters that the focus of his trip would be “developing new partnerships and opportunities, including with the economic giants of Asia”.

But Carney also left the door open to continue trade talks with the US.

Mr Nanji said the advert saga is a reminder that the path to a deal for Canada will not be an easy one, regardless of negotiation methods.

He noted remarks by Carney earlier in the week, in which he stated that “the US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade” and that Canada’s close tie to America has become a vulnerability.

“We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner,” Carney said in a speech Wednesday to tease his government’s first budget, which will be unveiled on 4 November.

The speech, Mr Nanji said, was also meant to “caution Canadians that this is going to be a really rocky road with the Americans”.