Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday the province will pause airing a television ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs so that U.S.-Canada trade talks can resume — but only after the ad is shown during the first two World Series games this weekend.
Ford’s move means millions of World Series viewers will see the ad that President Donald Trump cited for his decision Thursday to terminate trade negotiations with Canada.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in an X post about the ad that has aired in U.S. markets for the past week.
“We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said, apparently referring to Trump.
“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”
“In speaking with Prime Minister [Mark] Carney, Ontario will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” he said.
Trump halted trade talks with Canada after claims Thursday by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute that the ad misrepresents Reagan’s radio address speech from April 25, 1987, and that his remarks were edited without permission.
The foundation posted a YouTube video of the speech on its site and urged people to watch it in its entirety.
Ford responded to that criticism earlier Friday by tweeting out a link to the same video.
On it, Reagan discusses his recent imposition of new tariffs “on some Japanese products in response to Japan’s inability to enforce their trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors.”
That context is missing from Ontario’s ad. But the ad accurately captures Reagan saying, “Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”
The ad also has Reagan, from the same speech, saying, “When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works — but only for a short time.”
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the speech and in the ad.
Ford’s hometown Toronto Blue Jays are set to host the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first game of the series on Friday night. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday night in Toronto.
Ford, who calls himself a “big Ronald Reagan fan,” first posted the ad on X on Oct. 16, days after saying that Ontario’s government would spend $75 million to run the ad in the United States.
“We’re going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country,” said Ford.
Trump raged about the ad in a Truth Social post on Friday morning.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote.
“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country. Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer. Thank you to the Ronald Reagan Foundation for exposing this FRAUD.”
The Supreme Court in early November is set to hear oral arguments in a case that will determine if Trump had power under the law to impose sweeping tariffs against scores of countries, including Canada, without the consent of Congress.