Canadians are reacting after Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended his million-dollar anti-tariff ad that resulted in U.S. President Donald Trump cancelling trade deals with Canada.
Ford’s government recently ran a $75-million anti-tariff ad featuring former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, which received criticism for its high price tag.
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Shortly after the ad went public, Trump criticized the campaign, announcing he was ending trade negotiations with Canada over the ad.
“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A.” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday.
“Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
Earlier today, Prime Minister Mark Carney reacted to Trump’s remarks saying that negotiations had been progressing up until the ad was published.
“There were a series of very detailed, very specific, very comprehensive discussions… up until the point of those ads running,” Carney told reporters while attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Malaysia.
Despite Trump’s announcement and significant backlash, Ford defended the ad on Monday, saying that the campaign was successful.
“We achieved our goal, as we say, mission accomplished, it was done. They are talking about it in the U.S., and they weren’t talking about it before I put the ad on. So, I’m glad that Ronald Reagan was a free trader,” he told reporters on Monday.
The premier said that despite negotiations on the steel sector, Trump had not been offering deals on the auto sector, which he hoped to protect.
Refusing to apologize for the ad, the premier said his objective is to achieve a “fair deal” for Canada and Ontario.
“I love the steel workers…but I’m here, my job is to protect jobs here in Ontario. There’s no mention whatsoever of auto, I feel like it slipped to the side. I’m gonna fight for the auto workers, the steel workers, the manufacturing, and the life-sciences sector, all these sectors that President Trump wants to annihilate,” he said.
“Not just our country, but in particular, he wants to take jobs from Ontario. That’s what he is trying to do and I’ll keep fighting, and I’ll never apologize for fighting.”
When asked by reporters about Carney’s impressions of the ad, Ford said he would not give details on his personal conversations with the prime minister, but confirmed he was aware the ad was being aired.
“He saw the ad before I put it out, so did his chief of staff. They both saw it, and we moved forward on it.”
Meanwhile, Canadians are reacting to Ford defending the ad, with many criticizing the premier for running it.
“He just screwed the auto industry huge. The agriculture industry, lumber, steel. Trolling Trump was stupid and cost us huge. Trump has to be handled with care,” one person said on X.
“The $75 million spent on this ad which effectively did nothing to change the minds of Americans was a huge waste of money. The blame lies squarely on Ford for this because doing nothing would have been better. It is also out of the provincial government scope to handle international relations,” another user said.
“Trump is clearly unhinged and having a disproportionate irrational reaction to the ad, but I also think it was stupid for Ford to run it. Negotiating this stuff is a federal responsibility and the federal liberals notably did not run any ads like this, although I’m sure they easily could have, and were trying to butter Trump up to negotiate a deal,” a different person said.
On the other hand, some Canadians also say Ford can’t be entirely blamed for Trump’s decision to stop negotiations.
“I can’t stand Ford, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to hold him responsible for Trump’s decision making. Trump’s reaction to this ad is wildly disproportionate, realistically if it wasn’t this it would have been something else, and that’s on Trump, not Doug Ford,” one person said.
“I still think the ad was a stupid decision and a waste of money, but by now everyone should know that Trump flipping the chess board over right when the game was about to end is the most tiringly obvious move,” another person added.
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