OTTAWA: The premier of Canada’s most populous province has again complicated the country’s delicate trade negotiations with the US, this time with a political ad targeting Americans that has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump.

The ad, commissioned by Doug Ford, Ontario’s outspoken Conservative premier who is sometimes compared to Trump, uses a snippet of Republican icon and former President Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disaster.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, unlike Ford, has sought to lower the temperature with Trump since taking office in March and had hoped for a deal to eliminate US tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports.

In March, Ford, who often sports a “Canada is not for sale” hat, threatened to implement a surcharge on energy going to several American states if the US moved ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminium.

Ford later relented, and the White House claimed victory, saying he had backed down. Ford said in a Friday statement that after discussions with Carney, Ontario would pause the US advertising campaign on Monday so that trade talks could resume. But the disputed commercial will continue to air this weekend as the Toronto Blue Jays play in the first two games of the World Series, he added. Ford said the message has reached US audiences “at the highest levels.”

Some analysts suggested that Ford’s ad was only a pretext for Trump’s outburst. Mr Trump doesn’t like to be confronted with the truth, said Asa McKercher, an expert in US-Canada politics at St. Francis Xavier University. He said that the ad is an accurate representation of Reagan’s views.

“If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” McKercher said that Ford has often used his aggressive and populist style to appeal to American audiences in appearances on conservative-leaning outlets like Fox News, but his latest ad may have misfired. The Canadian dollar weakened after Trump broke off trade talks, and Ontario is the province most impacted by auto and steel tariffs.

When you use Ford’s attack-dog approach, there’s always a risk that you’re going to get smacked, McKercher said, adding it would be Carney who might need to make concessions to get Trump back to trade negotiations.

Still, Ford’s approach attracted some unusual support from politicians on the other side of the political spectrum. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who heads the left-leaning New Democratic Party in the province, posted a message for his “good friend Doug Ford,” calling on him to keep running the ads.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May cheered “Go Doug Ford!” as she arrived at Parliament in Ottawa on Friday. Pollster Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said Ford has acted “as the more pugilistic foil” when the prime minister has adopted a more conciliatory approach to Trump, noting that “it’s not a stance that generally hurts him (Ford).”

In February, Ford handily won a rare third term as Ontario premier. Earlier this month, Ford said he confronted and threatened to beat up a suspected shoplifter at a Home Depot store, telling an audience at a Toronto club, Screw this, Im going after this guy.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2025