Ontario Premier Ford Says Carney Asked Him to Pull Controversial Ad ‘a Couple Times’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to the media during a press conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Oct. 27, 2025. The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Mark Carney phoned him several times during his trip to Asia, asking Ford to remove an anti-tariff advertisement that angered U.S. President Donald Trump.

“He called me from Asia a couple times and said, ‘pull the ad,’ and I said I wasn’t going to do it until we’re going to pause the ad on Monday [Oct. 27]. And that’s exactly what we did,” Ford told reporters in Queen’s Park on Nov. 3.

The Ontario government’s advertising campaign, which aired on U.S. television networks, featured audio from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 address to the nation, in which he spoke about the value of free trade.

Reagan announced he was imposing tariffs on Japan at the start of the address, but that part was not included in Ontario’s ad. Reagan described this move as “steps that I am loath to take,” and accused Japan of engaging in unfair trade practices involving semiconductors.

Trump announced on Oct. 23 that due to the ad campaign, which he said misrepresented Reagan’s stance on tariffs, all trade negotiations with Canada were “terminated.”

A day later, Ford said that following discussions with Carney, he would be pausing the ad campaign on Oct. 27 so that trade talks could resume. But Ford said the ad campaign would continue during the weekend’s World Series games on Oct. 25 and 26.

Trump then announced on Oct. 25 that he would be raising tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 percent over Ford’s decision not to immediately pull the ads, adding that the advertisement was “fraudulent,” and was aimed at interfering with the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing on tariffs.

Ford also said on Oct. 29 that Carney and his chief of staff were with him when he initially watched the advertisement.

Ford told reporters on Nov. 3 that the ad campaign made 12.4 billion impressions worldwide, was discussed on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and reignited discussions on how U.S. tariffs on Canada are “a tax on American people.”

Ford said Carney was not “angry at all” about his decision not to pull the ad immediately, adding that “I fully understand the position he’s in” when it comes to negotiating with Trump. Ford also said he did not believe that Carney showed weakness for apologizing to the U.S. president over the ad.

“The prime minister is doing the best he can for the country, he has the best interest of the country at heart, and he’s trying to work with 13 different premiers across the board,” Ford said.

Trump said on Oct. 31 that Carney had apologized for the ad campaign during a dinner in South Korea on Oct. 29 held with other world leaders. During a Nov. 1 press conference, Carney confirmed that he did apologize to the president for the ad, as he was “offended” by it. Carney added that running the ad was “not something I would have done.”

Carney said as the prime minister, he is responsible for the relationship with the U.S. president, and the federal government is the entity that deals with the U.S. government. “So things happen, we take the good with the bad, and I apologized to him,” Carney said.

Carney also told reporters that after viewing the ad with Ford, he informed the premier that he did not want it to be aired. “You saw what came of it,” Carney said.

Ford told reporters that he would not apologize to Trump, saying the U.S. president is trying to “destroy” the province of Ontario and Canada’s steel, aluminum, and automobile sectors.