It was a Thursday night that sent shockwaves through diplomatic and economic circles on both sides of the world’s longest border. President Donald Trump, in a fiery post on his social media platform, announced that the United States was immediately terminating all trade negotiations with Canada. The reason? A television advertisement—one that, at first glance, might seem innocuous, but in reality, played directly into the high-stakes battle over tariffs and the future of North American trade.
Trump’s post was unequivocal: “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.” According to AP and ABC News, the president accused Canada, specifically the province of Ontario, of launching an ad campaign that, in his words, was “fraudulently” using the legacy of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs. Trump further alleged that the ad was part of a scheme to “illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.”
The Supreme Court case in question—set for a hearing in November 2025—will determine whether Trump’s sweeping global reciprocal tariffs, imposed under emergency authority, are legal. Billions of dollars collected in duties hang in the balance, and a ruling against Trump could force the government to refund those payments. The stakes, to put it mildly, are enormous.
The advertisement at the heart of the storm was funded not by the Canadian federal government, but by Ontario, the country’s most populous province and industrial powerhouse. Premier Doug Ford, a populist conservative, announced on October 14 that Ontario would spend 75 million Canadian dollars (about 54 million U.S. dollars) to air anti-tariff ads across the U.S., including during the much-anticipated World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers. According to Al Jazeera and AP, the ad features audio excerpts from Ronald Reagan’s 1987 national address on free and fair trade, in which Reagan warns against the long-term dangers of high tariffs and trade wars.
“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,” Reagan’s voice intones over images of the New York Stock Exchange, North American farm fields, and cranes hoisting both U.S. and Canadian flags. “Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker and consumer. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. … Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs.”
Ford, unbowed by the controversy, doubled down on the message. “Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together. God bless Canada and God bless the United States,” Ford declared on X, formerly known as Twitter. He added, “We’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”
But the Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute was quick to push back. In a statement posted on October 23, the foundation asserted that Ontario had not sought permission to use or edit Reagan’s remarks and that the ad “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” The foundation said it was reviewing legal options, and a spokesperson noted that the ad “used selective audio and video” to bolster its argument against tariffs.
Fact-checking by Al Jazeera revealed that while all the statements in the ad were indeed made by Reagan during his 1987 address, the Ontario team had rearranged the order of the sentences, splicing together different sections to create a more forceful narrative. The essence of Reagan’s message—his skepticism about the long-term value of tariffs—remained intact, but the editing raised hackles among Reagan loyalists and the Trump administration alike.
White House officials, speaking to AP, described Trump’s reaction as the culmination of long-standing frustrations with Canada’s trade negotiation tactics. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett cited “a lack of flexibility” from Ottawa, while White House spokesman Kush Desai called the ad “the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the Administration.”
The economic context is impossible to ignore. In July 2025, Trump imposed a 35% tariff on most Canadian goods and raw materials, a move that hit Ontario’s auto and steel sectors particularly hard. Companies like Stellantis, a major automaker, responded by shifting production lines from Ontario to Illinois. More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., with nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of goods and services crossing the border daily, according to AP and ABC News.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, a Liberal, has tried to keep the door open to future negotiations. “We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s,” Carney told reporters before leaving for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia. “We have to focus on what we can control and realise what we can’t control.”
For his part, Trump has made it clear that tariffs are a central pillar of his economic and national security strategy. “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” he wrote on social media. “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.”
The fallout from the ad controversy has led to a freeze in talks that had, just weeks earlier, shown signs of progress. After a White House meeting in early October, Trump had expressed optimism that a deal could be reached with Carney’s government. Now, that optimism has evaporated—at least for the time being.
Some Canadian officials and commentators have defended the ad’s approach. Jason Kenney, a former Canadian cabinet minister, wrote on social media, “The Ontario ad does not misrepresent President Reagan’s anti-tariff radio address in any respect whatsoever. It is a direct replay of his radio address, formatted for a one minute ad.” He argued that the foundation’s objections were politically motivated and reflected the “hugely corrosive influence of Trump on the American conservative movement.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the legality of Trump’s tariffs looms large. If the justices rule against the administration, the financial and political consequences could be significant—not only for Trump, but for the entire structure of U.S.-Canada trade.
For now, the relationship between two of the world’s closest allies remains in uncharted waters, with high tariffs, political brinkmanship, and a single television ad at the center of the storm. The coming weeks will reveal whether cooler heads can prevail—or whether this dispute signals a deeper, more lasting rift in North American trade.