On October 7, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump (Republican) and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he told Ontario’s premier not to run anti-tariff ads urging U.S. President Donald Trump to halt trade negotiations with Canada.
Carney also acknowledged that he apologized to the president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit dinner because the president “offended” him.
An Ontario TV ad aired in the US criticizes President Trump’s tariffs, citing a speech by former US President Ronald Reagan.
The ad infuriated President Trump, who said he plans to end trade negotiations with Canada and increase import duties on Canadian products by an additional 10%.
Asked Saturday how he would react to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s request to stop advertising, Mr. Carney said, “Well, you know what the outcome is.”
“I wouldn’t have done that,” Carney added at a press conference at the end of a nine-day trip to Asia.
Ford is a populist conservative and Carney is a liberal. As prime minister, Mr. Ford is the equivalent of a U.S. governor.
“In my role as prime minister, I am responsible for our relationship with the president of the United States, and the federal government is responsible for our foreign relations with the United States government,” Carney said.
A Ford spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a question asking whether Mr. Carney had instructed Ford not to run the ads.
Ford previously said that Mr. Carney and Mr. Carney’s chief of staff had seen the ad before it was released.
Ford withdrew the ad last Monday, but allowed it to air during the first two games of the Baseball World Series.
Trump said the ad misrepresented the position of Mr. Reagan, a two-term president and popular Republican. But President Reagan was wary of tariffs, and used much of his 1987 speech, published in an Ontario ad, to spell out his case for tariffs.
President Trump complained that the ad was aimed at influencing the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of arguments scheduled this month to decide whether it has the authority to impose across-the-board tariffs, a key part of Trump’s economic strategy. A lower court ruled that he overstepped his authority.
Mr. Carney met with Mr. Trump at the White House last month and has been trying to secure a trade deal that would lower some tariffs on sectors such as steel and aluminum. Tariffs are hitting the aluminum, steel, auto and timber sectors hard.
More than three-quarters of Canada’s exports go to the United States, with C$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services crossing the border every day.
