Doug Ford defends anti-tariff ad that infuriated Trump, says trade talks have done nothing to protect auto workers
By Joshua Freeman
Published: October 27, 2025
Ont. Premier Ford says the anti-tariff ad was a ‘mission accomplished’ and says he will ‘never apologize for fighting for the hardworking people.’
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is defending a multi-million-dollar anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan that was blasted at U.S. audiences and which incurred the wrath of President Donald Trump, who cited it when he threatened to impose higher tariffs on Canada over the weekend.
“The message was clear: don’t forget our auto sector,” Ford told reporters Monday when asked about the ad.
The ad, which featured an old clip of Ronald Reagan talking about the negative effects of tariffs, ran on major U.S. networks last week and prompted Trump to break off trade talks with Canada.
But during an exchange with Liberal MPP John Fraser in the legislature earlier Monday, Ford called the ad “the most successful ad in the history of North America.”
He said he’s heard from people around the world about the ad and that the message received between $300 million and $400 million in earned media — a measure of free media exposure through news coverage and social media impressions.
His office later clarified that while they originally expected to garner one billion impressions through a $75 million campaign, they have reached an estimated 11.4 billion impressions over the past seven days through earned media and social impressions.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks in the Ontario legislature Monday October 27, 2025.
Fraser shot back at Ford that “Ontarians are paying with their jobs for what you just did,” a reference to Trump’s threat on Saturday to add an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian goods because the ads were only paused on Monday so that they could run during the World Series.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that trade talks had been proceeding well until they were halted because of the tariffs.
However Ford said he’s been waiting months for a trade deal that would protect Ontario’s economy — particularly in the auto sector, where some companies have recently announced they are slimming down on their production in Ontario — and none has yet materialized.
“We’ve been waiting for this deal month after month after month after month,” Ford said. “But this deal has nothing to do with protecting auto workers. We’re here to protect the auto workers, and I don’t think a fair deal is the Americans charge us a 50 per cent tariff on steel, we charge them a 25 per cent tariff on steel. My job is to protect the people of Ontario. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Ford has been saying for months that he thinks Canada should be levying dollar-for-dollar tariffs against the U.S. and that it should not “roll over” for Trump.
Fraser shot back at Ford that “Ontarians are paying with their jobs for what you just did,” a reference to Trump’s threat on Saturday to add an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian goods because the ads were only paused on Monday so that they could run during the World Series.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that trade talks had been proceeding well until they were halted because of the tariffs.
However Ford said he’s been waiting months for a trade deal that would protect Ontario’s economy — particularly in the auto sector, where some companies have recently announced they are slimming down on their production in Ontario — and none has yet materialized.
“We’ve been waiting for this deal month after month after month after month,” Ford said. “But this deal has nothing to do with protecting auto workers. We’re here to protect the auto workers, and I don’t think a fair deal is the Americans charge us a 50 per cent tariff on steel, we charge them a 25 per cent tariff on steel. My job is to protect the people of Ontario. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Ford has been saying for months that he thinks Canada should be levying dollar-for-dollar tariffs against the U.S. and that it should not “roll over” for Trump.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and U.S. President Donald Trump are shown in this combination photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan / Sean Kilpatrick/AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ford told reporters that while he doesn’t have the numbers in hand just yet, the ad campaign will not cost as much as $75 million, as he previously said it would. It was scheduled to run through February, but only ran for around a week.
Speaking with ABC News during a slew of U.S. media appearances Monday, Ford said he has no regrets about running the ad.
“I don’t regret it at all. My intention was to make sure the American people were informed and have a conversation and it really started a conversation,” Ford said.
Trump claimed last week that the ad was “fake” and that Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. However, a comparison of the audio with the full radio address shows that while the clip was edited, the meaning and sentiment of the message in both were the same.
Ford said Trump is simply upset because the ad was effective.
“It’s working,” Ford said, adding that the campaign has generated a conversation, especially among Republicans. He said he doesn’t believe Trump will follow through in his threat to raise tariffs on Canada because of the ad.
He also said Carney and his chief of staff saw the ad before it ran, and the incident has not strained their relationship.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy also weighed in on the ad Monday, saying it helped the province achieve its objective.
“I think it was money extremely well spent,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters at an unrelated news conference.
“It achieved its objective of increasing the narrative and the awareness that a trade war hurts both countries, that it’s in the interests of both countries to get a deal, to get a good deal that’s sustainable, that supports workers. We’re always going to support workers and our businesses here in Ontario, we’re stronger together. And I think the ads achieve that objective.”
Joshua Freeman
Ford told reporters that while he doesn’t have the numbers in hand just yet, the ad campaign will not cost as much as $75 million, as he previously said it would. It was scheduled to run through February, but only ran for around a week.
Speaking with ABC News during a slew of U.S. media appearances Monday, Ford said he has no regrets about running the ad.
“I don’t regret it at all. My intention was to make sure the American people were informed and have a conversation and it really started a conversation,” Ford said.
Trump claimed last week that the ad was “fake” and that Ronald Reagan loved tariffs. However, a comparison of the audio with the full radio address shows that while the clip was edited, the meaning and sentiment of the message in both were the same.
Ford said Trump is simply upset because the ad was effective.
“It’s working,” Ford said, adding that the campaign has generated a conversation, especially among Republicans. He said he doesn’t believe Trump will follow through in his threat to raise tariffs on Canada because of the ad.
He also said Carney and his chief of staff saw the ad before it ran, and the incident has not strained their relationship.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy also weighed in on the ad Monday, saying it helped the province achieve its objective.
“I think it was money extremely well spent,” Bethlenfalvy told reporters at an unrelated news conference.
“It achieved its objective of increasing the narrative and the awareness that a trade war hurts both countries, that it’s in the interests of both countries to get a deal, to get a good deal that’s sustainable, that supports workers. We’re always going to support workers and our businesses here in Ontario, we’re stronger together. And I think the ads achieve that objective.”
Joshua Freeman
Journalist, CP24.com
‘Canada burned the bridges’: U.S. ambassador doubts tariff deal feasible before new year
The U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra speaks during an event at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce in Halifax on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)
The U.S. ambassador to Canada doesn’t foresee a new security and economic deal between Canada and the United States — which could see the reduction or full removal of tariffs amid an ongoing trade dispute — before the new year.
“We have stopped negotiations with Canada,” Pete Hoekstra said in a keynote address to the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Business Canada on Monday. “I don’t see any way that there will be an agreement before American Thanksgiving.”
“I’m not sure what it’s going to take to get people back to the table in a constructive and positive mode,” he added.
Hoekstra’s comments come just days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he is terminating trade talks with Canada and increasing levies on Canadian goods by 10 per cent in response to an anti-tariff ad by the government of Ontario which featured the voice of former Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
Ontario has since pulled the ads, effective Monday.
Government sources had told CTV News that Canadian officials were hopeful there could be movement on a steel and aluminum deal by this week’s APEC Summit in South Korea.
And, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said talks “had been making progress” on affected sectors like steel and aluminum until the Ontario anti-tariff ad created waves.
Hoekstra said while he is not part of the negotiating team, he is in frequent contact with U.S. officials who are. He said if not by this week, he’d heard indications a deal could be reached by American Thanksgiving at the end of November.
“They were confident it would happen before Thanksgiving, that we would have a deal on steel, aluminum, energy, which would include both oil and uranium,” he said. “So, that’s where we were on Thursday.”
“The answer was, ‘oh, yeah, absolutely, we’ve ironed out most of the major issues, most of the major hurdles,’” he also said.
Now, with very little time between American Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays, Hoekstra said, it’s unlikely a trade deal with Canada will take any priority until the new year.
‘Canada burned the bridges’: Hoekstra
Asked by event attendees whether he sees any way to get negotiations back on track, such as an apology for the ad, Hoekstra said: “No.”
Speaking more broadly about the state of negotiations, Hoekstra laid the blame at Canada’s feet for the soured relationship.
Hoekstra has previous expressed his distaste for what he’s called “anti-American” sentiment in Canada, and on Monday pointed to some provinces removing U.S. liquor from store shelves and Canadians being discouraged from travelling south of the border as examples.
He also said the ad amounts to foreign interference, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to start hearing arguments on the legality of Trump’s tariffs on Nov. 5, as well as some gubernatorial and state legislative elections happening next week.
“Canada burnt the bridges with America,” he said. “Donald Trump did not slam the door.”
“Donald Trump could do the only thing that a leader of a sovereign nation could do when a neighbour, another sovereign nation, decided to interject itself into American politics,” he added. “Canada slammed that door shut all by itself.”
‘Mission accomplished’: Ford
Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said both Carney and his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, saw the ad prior to it airing.
Ford also said the ad accomplished what he’d hoped, surpassing a billion impressions and reaching American voters.
“Mission accomplished, it was done,” he said. “They’re talking about it in the U.S., and they weren’t talking about it before I put the ad on.”
“We achieved our goal, and our goal is to make sure that we get a fair deal, not a one-sided Donald Trump deal, but a fair deal for the people of Ontario and Canada,” he also said.
Ford said the intention was never to “poke the president in the eye,” but rather to “inform the American people.”
Asked whether he believes he owes an apology for derailing negotiations, Ford said his job is to fight for workers in at-risk sectors in Ontario, and he believes that despite word of an imminent deal, some sectors — namely autos — have “slipped to the side.”
“If it wasn’t the ad, he’d look out the door or the window, President Trump say, ‘Oh, the leaves have turned colour, let’s stop,’” Ford said. “Believe me, President Trump is not putting a deal together to benefit Canada. It’s our job. It’s the prime minister’s job to get a deal that benefits all of Canada.”
“It’s not about the ad, it’s about finding every excuse in the world not to get a deal,” he also said.
With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha
Spencer Van Dyk
Writer & Producer, Ottawa News Bureau, CTV News
The U.S. ambassador to Canada doesn’t foresee a new security and economic deal between Canada and the United States — which could see the reduction or full removal of tariffs amid an ongoing trade dispute — before the new year.
“We have stopped negotiations with Canada,” Pete Hoekstra said in a keynote address to the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Business Canada on Monday. “I don’t see any way that there will be an agreement before American Thanksgiving.”
“I’m not sure what it’s going to take to get people back to the table in a constructive and positive mode,” he added.
Hoekstra’s comments come just days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he is terminating trade talks with Canada and increasing levies on Canadian goods by 10 per cent in response to an anti-tariff ad by the government of Ontario which featured the voice of former Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
Ontario has since pulled the ads, effective Monday.
Government sources had told CTV News that Canadian officials were hopeful there could be movement on a steel and aluminum deal by this week’s APEC Summit in South Korea.
And, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said talks “had been making progress” on affected sectors like steel and aluminum until the Ontario anti-tariff ad created waves.
Hoekstra said while he is not part of the negotiating team, he is in frequent contact with U.S. officials who are. He said if not by this week, he’d heard indications a deal could be reached by American Thanksgiving at the end of November.
“They were confident it would happen before Thanksgiving, that we would have a deal on steel, aluminum, energy, which would include both oil and uranium,” he said. “So, that’s where we were on Thursday.”
“The answer was, ‘oh, yeah, absolutely, we’ve ironed out most of the major issues, most of the major hurdles,’” he also said.
Now, with very little time between American Thanksgiving and the Christmas holidays, Hoekstra said, it’s unlikely a trade deal with Canada will take any priority until the new year.
‘Canada burned the bridges’: Hoekstra
Asked by event attendees whether he sees any way to get negotiations back on track, such as an apology for the ad, Hoekstra said: “No.”
Speaking more broadly about the state of negotiations, Hoekstra laid the blame at Canada’s feet for the soured relationship.
Hoekstra has previous expressed his distaste for what he’s called “anti-American” sentiment in Canada, and on Monday pointed to some provinces removing U.S. liquor from store shelves and Canadians being discouraged from travelling south of the border as examples.
He also said the ad amounts to foreign interference, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to start hearing arguments on the legality of Trump’s tariffs on Nov. 5, as well as some gubernatorial and state legislative elections happening next week.
“Canada burnt the bridges with America,” he said. “Donald Trump did not slam the door.”
“Donald Trump could do the only thing that a leader of a sovereign nation could do when a neighbour, another sovereign nation, decided to interject itself into American politics,” he added. “Canada slammed that door shut all by itself.”
‘Mission accomplished’: Ford
Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said both Carney and his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, saw the ad prior to it airing.
Ford also said the ad accomplished what he’d hoped, surpassing a billion impressions and reaching American voters.
“Mission accomplished, it was done,” he said. “They’re talking about it in the U.S., and they weren’t talking about it before I put the ad on.”
“We achieved our goal, and our goal is to make sure that we get a fair deal, not a one-sided Donald Trump deal, but a fair deal for the people of Ontario and Canada,” he also said.
Ford said the intention was never to “poke the president in the eye,” but rather to “inform the American people.”
Asked whether he believes he owes an apology for derailing negotiations, Ford said his job is to fight for workers in at-risk sectors in Ontario, and he believes that despite word of an imminent deal, some sectors — namely autos — have “slipped to the side.”
“If it wasn’t the ad, he’d look out the door or the window, President Trump say, ‘Oh, the leaves have turned colour, let’s stop,’” Ford said. “Believe me, President Trump is not putting a deal together to benefit Canada. It’s our job. It’s the prime minister’s job to get a deal that benefits all of Canada.”
“It’s not about the ad, it’s about finding every excuse in the world not to get a deal,” he also said.
With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha
Spencer Van Dyk
Writer & Producer, Ottawa News Bureau, CTV News
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