Ontario Premier Doug Ford will pause his U.S. ad campaign featuring a province-produced television spot that sparked anger in the Donald Trump White House, after a chat with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
But halting the contentious campaign won’t happen right away, Ford said, explaining the ad will still run during the first two games of the World Series.
While Ford’s office initially indicated they were standing firm, a statement issued Friday afternoon walked that back, saying that after consulting with the PM the decision was made to pause the broadcasts effective Monday.
“ 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,” the statement read. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”
Ford said he directed his team to keep the commercial on the air over the weekend, so that it airs during the first two games of the World Series.
The commercial featured clips of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan extolling the virtues of free trade — sparking anger in the White House and prompting Trump to air his grievances via his Truth Social app.
“They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump posted Thursday night, referring to the November supreme court decision his tariff plans are facing — and referring to the ad as “fake.”
“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
In his statement, Ford stood by his decision to produce the ad.
“Like I said earlier today: Canada and the U.S. are neighbours, friends and allies. We’re so much stronger when we work together,” the statement read. “Let’s work together to build Fortress Am-Can and make our two countries stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”
$75M ad campaign meant to ‘blast’ Trump supporters
In the ad, Reagan remarks that high tariffs “inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” resulting in “more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition.”
In his Truth Social post, Trump referenced a tweet posted Thursday evening by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which described the ad as “misrepresenting” the April 1987 radio address that it drew its content from, but didn’t go into detail about how the quotes were misrepresented.
The foundation also stated they were “reviewing legal options.”
Listen to President Reagan's unedited remarks here: https://t.co/1gQUcbR4eZ pic.twitter.com/iqmjSuypp0
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) October 24, 2025
The ad campaign, which cost $75 million, saw airtime on major U.S. television networks and in the premier’s words was meant to “blast” the message to Americans — especially Trump supporters.
Earlier this week, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that talks with the White House were “progressing,” but said more work needed to be done.
In remarks delivered Friday morning as he was about to board CANFORCE ONE for a trip to Asia, Carney made no mention of Ford’s video or Trump’s comments.
“We can’t control the trade policy of the United States,” Carney said.
“We recognize that policy has fundamentally changed from the policy in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and it’s a situation where the United States has tariffs against every one of their trading partners to different degrees.”
Carney then boarded his aircraft without taking questions from reporters.
Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together.
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 24, 2025
God bless Canada and God bless the United States.https://t.co/n1Nj6ofNZU
Thursday’s response was quite different from Trump’s original reaction to the Ontario ad.
“ I saw an ad last night from Canada,” Trump told party supporters Tuesday in Washington. “If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also.”
This comes just two weeks after Carney visited Trump at the White House, talks that ended without any hint of a trade deal for Canada.
