TORONTO (AP) — Ontario’s premier bragged Monday about the impact of his antitariff ad that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to end trade talks with Canada.
Premier Doug Ford said the ad had over a “billion impressions around the world” and “generated a conversation that wasn’t happening in the U.S.”
“You know why President Trump is so upset right now? It was because it was effective. It was working. It woke up the whole country,” Ford said.
Ontario’s television advertisement criticizes Trump’s tariffs by citing a speech from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
The ad infuriated Trump, who said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%.
Trump also said Monday he won’t be meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for some time.
“They shouldn’t have done it. And they’ve apologized,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Tokyo. “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.”
Ford pulled the ad Monday but allowed it to be shown in the first two games of the baseball World Series over the weekend.
Ford said Carney and Carney’s chief of staff watched the ad before it was released.
Trump said he didn’t care that the ad was not released by Canada’s federal government.
“Whether it’s provincial or Canada itself — they all knew exactly what the ad was. The prime minister knew,” Trump said.
The president said they’ll inform the Canadians when the extra tariff is applied.
Ford, a populist Conservative who doesn’t belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal, said Trump hasn’t put the extra 10% tariff on yet and noted Trump had threatened a lot before.
Ford called it the “best ad I ever ran” and said he’s achieved his goals with it. He said he’s “not going to roll over” and his job is to protect auto jobs.
Carney met with Trump at the White House earlier this month and has been trying to secure a trade deal to lower some tariffs on sectors like steel and aluminum. Tariffs are taking a toll in the aluminum, steel, auto and lumber sectors.
“My intention was never to poke the president in the eye,” Ford said. “My intention was to inform the American people this is serious. And it is going to cost jobs if we don’t get a fair-trade deal with your closest friend and ally.”
Ford said Republicans are too afraid to speak up against Trump.
“They are too scared of President Trump. When was the last a time a Republican governor was scared of a Republican president? They are scared of ramifications which is really sad,” Ford said.
Trump said he’s very happy with the deal he has now with Canada, saying “We’re going to let it ride.”
Trump said the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president and a beloved figure in the Republican Party. But Reagan was wary of tariffs and used much of the 1987 address featured in Ontario’s ad spelling out the case against tariffs.
Most goods are exempted from tariffs by the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement. That trade agreement is slated for review. Trump negotiated the deal in his first term but has since soured on it.
Carney said he remains ready to talk to Trump.
“We were close to an agreement. After that, there were the ads that ran, and everything changed,” Carney said.