Ontario Premier Doug Ford has announced he will pause a contentious U.S. ad campaign that used Ronald Reagan’s words after the spot reportedly prompted President Donald Trump to halt trade negotiations with Canada. Ford said the commercials will keep running through the World Series weekend before being suspended effective Monday, a move he claims was meant to get Americans talking about tariffs and jobs.
The ad pulls quotes from Reagan’s April 25, 1987 radio address and repurposes them to criticize modern tariffs, a choice that drew sharp rebukes from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which says the material was edited and misused. Critics on both sides of the border argued the ad crossed a line by dragging a revered American president into a contemporary trade spat, and the foundation has said it is reviewing legal options.
President Trump’s swift decision to end trade talks over the spot was the right kind of tough response from a leader defending American workers and bargaining leverage, not bowing to foreign political theater. If Canada’s provincial politicians think they can play audience theater in U.S. media and expect our negotiators to bow gracefully, they’re mistaken — trade talks are about consequences, not virtue signaling on late-night cable.
Doug Ford’s insistence on airing the ad during the World Series was a calculated provocation that put partisan optics ahead of North American supply chains and jobs. There is nothing patriotic about a foreign provincial government paying to influence American public opinion while our own negotiating position is on the table; that’s a dangerous precedent that weakens mutual respect.
This episode underscores how fragile trade relationships can be when political showmanship interferes with real economics — Canada sends the lion’s share of its exports to the United States, and reckless stunts risk hurting workers on both sides of the border. Conservatives who put country first should applaud a president who refuses to be played for a fool and insists on bargaining from strength to protect American industry and families.
Ford says he’ll suspend the campaign after discussions with Prime Minister Mark Carney, but the damage is already visible: negotiations were interrupted and the diplomatic frost will take time to thaw. That reality should teach a clear lesson to would-be provocateurs abroad and backbench grandstanders at home — if you want to influence American policy, do it through sober diplomacy and respect, not theatrical ads that jeopardize workers and livelihoods.
