”After talks with Prime Minister (Mark) Carney, Ontario will pause its American advertising campaign from Monday so that trade talks can be resumed”, Ford writes on X.
Ford writes further that they have achieved their goal of initiating a discussion about ”the effects of tariffs on workers and businesses”.
In the commercial, which Ontario is the sender of, a radio speech by Reagan from 1987 is quoted. The President criticizes there tariffs for inevitably leading to countermeasures from other countries and wild trade wars.
Reagan was a known free trade friend. At the same time, he is a great hero among the US conservatives, and thus many Trump voters.
Trump has called the ad fake and ”disgusting behavior” from Canada's side, intended to influence court decisions in the US about the tariffs.
According to a post from Trump on Truth Social ”LOVED REAGAN” tariffs. But that's not true. CNN points out that Reagan indeed introduced high tariffs against Japan to stop the influx of cheap electronics, but that the President was clear that trade barriers are fundamentally harmful to American workers and the US economy.
