Ontario will pull ads that triggered Trump in order to restart trade talks, Ford says

OTTAWA – Ontario is hitting pause on its short-lived anti-tariff television ad campaign in the United States on Monday so that Canada-U.S. trade talks can resume, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday.

Ford said he decided to pull the plug on the campaign after speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is travelling in Asia for back-to-back summits where he is expected to encounter U.S. President Donald Trump.

But the premier also said he’ll only stop running the ads after the weekend, so they can play throughout the first two World Series games and get in front of a massive American audience.

“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. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said in a media statement Friday.

An offended Trump called a halt to trade talks over the ads, which feature footage of former president Ronald Reagan warning about the economically devastating effects of tariffs.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith welcomed Ford’s decision and said the route to resolving the trade war is through diplomacy.

“I am pleased to see Ontario’s ad campaign is being suspended and I once again urge the federal government to continue negotiating to resolve these tariff issues and restore a free and fair trade agreement with the United States,” Smith said on social media.

But Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said in a video message earlier in the day that Trump’s reaction showed the ad campaign was working, and encouraged Ford not to back down.

“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.

Standing on the tarmac outside Ottawa’s airport Friday morning, Carney said Canada can’t control a U.S. trade policy that has “fundamentally changed.”

“Our officials, my colleagues, have been working with their American colleagues on detailed, constructive negotiations, discussions on specific transactions, specific sectors — steel, aluminum and energy — and a lot of progress has been made,” Carney said in a brief statement before boarding a government jet.

“We stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions.”

Trump’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett, director of the U.S. National Economic Council, told reporters outside the White House Friday that Trump’s “frustration” with Canada has “built up over time” and the Canadians have been “very difficult to negotiate with.”

Hassett said that’s due to a “lack of flexibility” and “leftover behaviours from the (Justin) Trudeau folks.” He refused to comment on the ads and said he is not directly engaged in trade talks.

Carney met with Trump at the White House just a few weeks ago, and Canadian officials had signalled they were making progress on sector-specific deals.

The federal Conservatives made the collapse of talks the focus of question period in the House of Commons on Friday. They accused Carney of falling down on the trade file after presenting himself in the spring election campaign as the best person to resolve the trade war.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who was travelling in southern Ontario on Friday doing interviews with local media, asserted that Carney should have settled the trade war months ago.

“All of today’s trade and tariff chaos could have been avoided if Mark Carney had kept his promise to ‘negotiate a win’ and get a deal by July 21,” Poilievre posted on social media. “His weak diplomacy and broken promises have left premiers no choice but to take things into their own hands.”

Trump accused Canada on Friday of launching the ads to influence an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling on his global tariff regime.

America’s top court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in November on the legality of Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — IEEPA — to hit most of the world with devastating duties.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May called Trump a “thin-skinned” leader who clearly doesn’t understand how Canadian federalism works — that Ontario bought the ads, not the federal government.

Trump also posted Friday that “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT” for saying Reagan did not like tariffs, which Trump claimed the late president “LOVED.”

Reagan was a staunch advocate of free trade. He negotiated the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement that changed the structure of the North American economy and removed many trade barriers, including tariffs.

The Ontario government paid about $75 million for the ads, which use audio and video of Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987 and have aired across multiple American television stations.

“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the 1987 radio address that was used in Ontario’s TV spots.

“Then the worst happens. Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.”

The ads began airing last week and have run on right-wing networks that cater to Republican audiences and Trump supporters, such as Newsmax and Fox News. The campaign was originally set to last through to end of January 31, 2026.

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When the ads were launched, Ford said he intended to blast Reagan’s anti-tariff message on repeat to “every Republican district there is right across the entire country.”

Trump said earlier this week he saw the ad on television.

“I saw an ad last night from Canada. If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said at the time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2025.

— With files from Allison Jones and Maan Alhmidi in Toronto and Sarah Ritchie, and The Associated Press.