Ontario Pauses Reagan Ad Campaign Amid US Trade War Tensions

The advertisements were released last week by the government of Canada's Ontario province and were running in the US.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump said he was ending trade talks with Canada in response.

"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 on Friday on X.

"We've achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels. I've directed my 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."

Ford said he made the decision to end the ads after speaking with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The ads featured featured audio from a speech by former US President Ronald Reagan where he lambasted tariffs as hurting "every American worker and consumer" and "triggering fierce trade wars".

The Ronald Reagan Foundation later claimed it "misrepresents" the speech, and that the Ontario government had not asked permission to use the clip.

Carney told reporters earlier on Friday that Canada is prepared to resume trade talks with the US "when the Americans are ready".

Trump criticised the ad late on Thursday night in a Truth Social post, calling it "FAKE" and "egregious".

He said trade talks were "HEREBY TERMINATED".

Canada is still the only G7 country that has not reached a trade deal with Trump since he began introducing sweeping tariffs.

The US has imposed a 35 per cent levy on all Canadian goods -- though most are exempt under an existing free trade agreement.

It has also slapped sector-specific levies on Canadian goods, including a 50 per cent levy on metals and 25 per cent on automobiles.

Those sector tariffs have especially hurt Ontario, where the bulk of Canada's auto manufacturing industry is based.

It is unclear if trade talks will indeed resume now that Ford has pulled the ad, and President Trump is yet to respond to the announcement it will stop running.

The White House on Friday signalled frustration with what it called "Canada's longstanding, unfair trade barriers," and added that efforts to address these issues "have not led to any constructive progress".

Carney has made some appeasements to keep talks going, including removing retaliatory tariffs and dropping Canada's digital services tax. But he has repeatedly said that he is searching for "the best deal for Canada".

Both Trump and Carney are heading to Asia on Friday for the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The Canadian Prime Minister told reporters that the focus of his trip would be "developing new partnerships and opportunities, including with the economic giants of Asia".

- IANS