SNOWFLAKE
Trump Abruptly Ends Trade Talks With Canada Over Reagan Ad Controversy
Late on Thursday, President Trump announced the termination of all trade negotiations with Canada, citing a Canadian government advertisement that he alleged misused the remarks of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and criticised U.S. tariffs.
In a post on his social-media platform, President Trump wrote: “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
The advertisement referenced was from the Ontario government and showed Reagan warning about the impact of tariffs on jobs and trade. Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford had earlier acknowledged the advertisement had caught the president’s eye, stating that he believed Trump “wasn’t too happy” about it.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has emphasized Canada’s unwillingness to grant unfair access to its markets if a U.S. trade deal fails.
The current trade talks come as a result of the U.S. raising tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminium, and autos earlier this year, prompting retaliatory moves from Ottawa. Talks had been underway between the two countries to resolve the dispute.
With the agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico scheduled for review next year, this fresh breakdown threatens to complicate not only bilateral relations but the broader North American trade architecture.
Canada exports large volumes of energy and raw materials to the U.S., and any trade shock may ripple into resource flows, investment decisions, and regulatory alignment in oil, gas, minerals, and power sectors. For oil markets, that means yet more uncertainty.
At the time of writing, oil prices were down slightly after soaring during Thursday's session, with Brent trading at $65.57 and WTI falling to $61.39.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
Updated: October 24, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is terminating trade negotiations with Canada following new anti-tariff ads from the Ontario government that features the voice of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social late Thursday.
“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 a post to X on Thursday, The Ronald Reagan Foundation said the ad “misrepresents” a radio address on free and fair trade from April 1987 and “the government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks.”
But the advertisement does appear to accurately quote Reagan, who supported free trade and delivered the remarks to explain new duties on Japanese products as a response to Japan’s violation of a trade agreement on semiconductors.
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the address.
“The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs,” he added.
Reagan and former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney later went on to sign the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988.
After the ad caught the attention of Trump earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended the move, saying the aim is to “blast” the message to Americans, particularly Republican districts where Trump draws his support.
The ad, which Ford previously said cost $75 million, has been running on most major U.S. networks.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet have been in ongoing discussions with Trump and his administration for months, as the trade war between the two countries drags on.
Throughout the negotiations, Carney has signalled it’s highly unlikely any country will come away from talks with the United States with an entirely tariff-free deal. Instead, Canada is hoping to secure deals on specific sectors, including steel and aluminum.
Earlier this week, Carney did not dismiss the possibility for a new sectoral tariff deal with the United States, saying “we’ll see” when asked whether Canada can expect a deal on sectoral tariffs by this month’s APEC summit.
Speaking to reporters in Bowmanville, Ont. – alongside Ford – on Thursday, Carney spoke again about the Americans “moving to an approach which is sector by sector, as opposed to global.”
“In the situation we’re in right now with the United States, with the negotiations we’re having with the United States, we’re having very detailed, specific, constructive negotiations for the steel industry, the aluminum industry. There’s elements of the energy industry, a few other components in there,” Carney added.
Carney is set to head to Asia on Friday for both the ASEAN and APEC summits next week. Trump is also expected to attend APEC.
This is not the first time Trump abruptly ended negotiations with Canada in a social media post.
Back in June, Trump called off trade talks “effective immediately,” citing disagreement over Canada’s controversial digital services tax as the reason for shutting down negotiations.
CTV News has reached out to both the Prime Minister’s Office and Ford’s office for comment.
With files from CP24’s Joshua Freeman and CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk
Stephanie Ha
Supervising Producer, Ottawa News Bureau, CTV News
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