Ford says he won’t apologize for anti-tariff ads that scuttled trade talks with U.S.

OTTAWA — After Ontario’s anti-tariff TV ad blitz scuttled trade talks, Premier Doug Ford vowed Monday he will “never apologize” for pushing back against hostile trade measures designed to poach jobs from his province.

U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to think otherwise on Monday, when he said aboard Air Force One the Canadians were playing “dirty” but now “they’ve apologized and they said, ‘We’re going to take the ad down.'”

The spot — which features archival footage of the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan railing against tariffs almost 40 years ago — played in major American TV markets and appeared during baseball playoff broadcasts. It went viral after Trump lashed out against it in several Truth Social posts.

Ford called the ad the best “that ever ran” and even claimed it was “the most successful ad in the history of North America.”

“Oh my goodness, did we get our money’s worth,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday, claiming the ad got more than a billion ad “impressions,” or views, achieving Ontario’s campaign goal.

Further information provided by the premier’s office states the initial $75-million ad buy was expected to net 1 billion ad impressions, but news media coverage and social media earned it about 11.4 billion in a week’s time.

Ford said his intention was not to “poke the president in the eye” but to warn the American public that Trump’s trade war is “going to cost” them.

Trump declared Thursday night he was suspending trade talks with Canada over the ad and told reporters travelling with him to Malaysia on Saturday that he would retaliate with an additional 10 per cent tariff.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai on Monday called the “taxpayer-funded” ad campaign just the “latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the administration,” and said “further talks are a futile effort if Canada can’t be serious.”

Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa and Washington had been close to a deal when Trump suddenly froze the trade talks.

Carney said there were “very detailed, very specific, very comprehensive” negotiations ongoing for steel, aluminum and energy before everything changed on Thursday. He said Canada is ready to pick up where things left off once Trump decides to return to the table.

But Ford contended he’s been hearing about an imminent deal for months now, with little talk of relief coming for Ontario’s battered automotive sector.

“There’s no mention whatsoever of auto. I feel like it’s slipped to the side,” Ford said.

“I’ve got to fight for the autoworkers, the steelworkers, the manufacturing and life-science sector — all these sectors that President Trump wants to annihilate, not just from our country but, in particular, he wants to take jobs from Ontario.”

Ford also said he doesn’t think Trump ended the talks over the ad alone.

“It’s about finding every excuse in the world not to get a deal,” the premier said. “President Trump is not putting a deal together to benefit Canada.”

When pressed by American reporters for details on the additional 10 per cent tariffs, the president said he didn’t know when they would kick in, “but I don’t really want to discuss it.”

Ford suggested Trump might not follow through on his threat to retaliate with the extra tariffs.

“The tariffs aren’t going up and they aren’t going to go up,” Ford said in question period.

In Parliament in Ottawa Monday, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc also downplayed Trump’s threat of new tariffs.

“We need to be careful. Before that’s made official, we shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that a certain amount of tariffs will be imposed,” LeBlanc said in French.

The ad in question features parts of a 1987 speech in which Reagan warned tariffs lead to trade wars and damage economies in the long run.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Monday the situation only started to spiral after the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute took a position on the ads. She said she’s “sad to see we’re back at square zero.”

The foundation accused Ontario on Thursday of misrepresenting Reagan’s speech and argued the province did not receive permission to “use and edit the remarks,” which Ontario contends are in the public domain.

Trump told reporters Monday the ad misconstrues Reagan’s legacy, who “loved tariffs,” and said the Canadians “shouldn’t have done it.”

“He hated tariffs,” Ford shot back, encouraging the public to research Reagan’s positions on free trade.

Bruce Bartlett, who served for a time as a domestic policy adviser in Reagan’s White House, said the ad was “was 100% accurate.”

“I know, I worked for Ronald Reagan in the White House,” Bartlett said on X.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Ontario’s message clearly reached its intended audience and said it is “good that President Trump has to squirm” under a reminder that Republicans and Reagan were not in favour of tariffs.

“We have to keep pushing forward because a bad deal would be probably the worst outcome,” he said. “I’ve got Doug Ford’s back on this one.”

Carney spoke with Ford just before leaving for Malaysia on Friday. Later that day, Ford said Ontario would pull the ads after they aired during two World Series games over the weekend. Ford said Carney knew in advance about the campaign, which was scheduled to run until February.

B.C. Premier David Eby has also pledged to unveil a digital campaign about the high price of softwood lumber tariffs next month that will “speak directly to Americans.”

Trump and Carney were both at the ASEAN summit and also will be in South Korea at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meetings later this week. They do not intend to meet.

Carney and Trump heaped praise on each other in the Oval Office just a few weeks ago. At the time, Trump called Carney a “world-class leader” and said Canada would walk away from the talks happy.

When asked what he thought had gone wrong in his relationship with Trump, Carney said, “That’s a question for him.”

He said Canadians should take Trump at his word when he says the ad campaign was the reason talks broke down.

Liberal MP Marc Miller told reporters Monday there are likely many “other rabbits Mr. Trump could have pulled out of his hat to justify any more delay,” and Ford pulling the ad spots only made the message more prominent.

White House officials have claimed in recent days there have been multiple points of friction with the Canadian negotiators.

Carney did not say if he thought the ad was a mistake, only that it’s important to keep cool during tense moments in high-stakes negotiations.

“It doesn’t pay to be upset,” he said.

Carney said negotiations with the U.S. have shifted to focus on trade in specific sectors, rather than the broader economic and security pact he had been pitching during the spring and summer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.

— With files from Sarah Ritchie in Kuala Lumpur, Allison Jones in Toronto, Aaron Sousa in Edmonton and Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press