Canada to continue airing controversial Ronald Reagan ad? Ontario Premier said THIS after Trump suspended trade talks

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on X announced that he planned to run an ad featuring a 1987 speech by Ronald Reagan, the same speech that led to US President Donald Trump suspending all trade negotiations with Canada. Ford, on X, announced that he had "directed his 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" (Oct 25 and 26). However, he said that after talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ontario has decided to "pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday" (Oct 27) so that the trade talks between the US and Canada could resume.

Why did Trump stop US-Canada trade talks?

The trade relationship between the United States and Canada took an unexpected turn this week, after a decades-old speech by former US president Ronald Reagan triggered a diplomatic storm. It began when Ontario Premier Doug Ford ran an ad in US markets featuring Reagan’s 1987 remarks denouncing tariffs. The video, meant to celebrate cross-border unity, quickly caught Donald Trump’s attention — and his fury. Within hours, Trump announced that all US trade talks with Canada were “terminated.”

Soon after, speaking on X, Ford sought to strike a conciliatory tone. "Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together," he wrote. But the backlash from Washington grew so intense that Ford later said, after consulting Prime Minister Mark Carney, he would pull the ad campaign by Monday.

"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. “We've achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels.”

The one-minute ad featured Reagan saying that "trade barriers hurt every American worker." But Trump accused Canada of running a "fake" and "fraudulent" video, and without offering any evidence to back the claim, declared all trade negotiations suspended. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio added fuel, claiming the clip took Reagan’s words "out of context." The Reagan Foundation joined the criticism, saying Ontario used Reagan’s remarks without permission and "misrepresents" his intent.

Canada defends ad

Ford's office, however, countered that the ad used "an unedited excerpt from one of Reagan’s public addresses, which is available through public domain" and posted a longer version online for transparency.

Even as the spat escalated, some US lawmakers came to Ford’s defence. Members of the House Ways and Means Committee reposted the ad. "This is the ad that drove Trump to cancel all trade talks with Canada," the committee posted on social media, adding, "Unlike Trump’s AI slop, this is real and uses Reagan’s own words on tariffs."