Ontario Premier Ford Says He Viewed Anti-Tariff Ad With Carney Before Its Release

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he was with Prime Minister Mark Carney when he watched the controversial anti-tariff advertisement before it aired in the United States.

Ford was asked by reporters on Oct. 29 for details on his previous comment that Carney and his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, had seen the advertisement before it was released. When asked how he knew this, Ford responded, “I was with him.” 

When asked whether Carney or Blanchard expressed any concerns about the ad, Ford said he would not discuss their private conversation.

“I told them that we’re running it, I’m going to cut it off on Monday, and that’s it,” he said, adding, “I think it was the right thing to do.”

Ontario’s $75 million advertising campaign featured audio from Reagan’s 1987 address to the nation, in which he spoke about the value of free trade, including with Canada. At the start of that address, Reagan announced he was imposing tariffs on Japan, a part not included in Ontario’s ad. In that portion of his speech, he described the move as “steps that I am loath to take,” accusing Japan of unfair trade practices involving semiconductors.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 23 that trade negotiations with Canada were “terminated” due to the ad campaign, which he said misrepresented Reagan’s stance on tariffs. Ford said a day later that following discussions with the prime minister, he would be pausing the ad campaign on Oct. 27 so that trade talks could resume. But he said the ad campaign would continue during the weekend’s World Series games on Oct. 25 and 26.

Trump then announced on Oct. 26 that he would be raising tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 percent over Ford’s decision not to immediately pull the ads. The U.S. president said the advertisement had been “fraudulent,” that Reagan “loved tariffs for purposes of national security and the economy,” and that the ad was aimed at interfering with the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing on tariffs.

The Ontario premier told reporters on Oct. 29 that it was the “most successful ad ever” and had over 11 billion impressions. “Ronald Reagan is telling the truth. A tariff on Canada is a tax on the American people. And I could run 10 more different ads, which I’m not going to, with Ronald Reagan saying in different speeches about how tariffs are terrible,” Ford said.

Carney had said on Oct. 23 that the federal government had chosen not to run anti-tariff advertisements in the United States, and that this was an “obvious” choice. He also said Ford “took a decision which is different than the Canadian government’s.”

During debate in the House of Commons on Oct. 28, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre repeatedly asked whether Carney had seen the ad before it aired.

Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc did not answer directly, responding that the Liberal government was elected to negotiate a trade agreement with the United States, and that it would sign an agreement that “benefits Canadian workers and the Canadian economy.”

Trump said following his announcement of Canadian tariffs increasing by 10 percent that he would not be meeting with Carney “for a while.” The U.S. president repeated a similar message on Truth Social on Oct. 28 ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-Operation Summit saying, “For those who are asking, we didn’t come to South Korea to meet Canada!”