Ford disputes Carney’s account of Reagan ad discussions: “I’ll never apologize”

Ford says he has a “different recollection” of conversations with Carney prior to releasing an anti-tariff Reagan ad, despite Carney’s claim that he advised Ford to pull the campaign.

Source: Ontario Premier’s Office

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he has a “different recollection” of conversations with Prime Minister Mark Carney prior to releasing an anti-tariff Reagan ad, despite Carney’s claim that he advised Ford to pull the campaign.

During a media scrum at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Monday, Ford told reporters he would “never apologize to Donald Trump” after Carney did.

“I’ve never apologized to Donald Trump. Donald Trump’s trying to destroy our province, destroy our country, steal manufacturing jobs and auto objective jobs, steel jobs, aluminum jobs, the list keeps going on,” he said. “I’ll never apologize to President Trump, and I’m going to continue fighting for the people of Ontario and the people of Canada.”

Ford noted he rejected multiple requests from the prime minister to take the ad down following U.S. backlash.

“He called me from Asia a couple of times and said, Pull the ad. And I said I wasn’t going to do it until we pause the ad on Monday. That’s exactly what we did. It was 12.4 billion impressions around the world, and they talked about it on the Senate floor,” Ford said. “I love the fact that four Republicans jumped over and voted against tariffs on Canada.”

Ford said he understands Carney wants a deal with the U.S. but claimed the president would give Canada a bad deal anyway.

“I fully understand the position he’s in. He’s trying to talk to the president, but the President was going to give us a terrible deal, like they gave UK a terrible deal. Gave Japan even a worse deal, in my opinion, and we weren’t going to go down that rabbit hole of getting a terrible deal,” Ford added. “I always say no deal is better than a bad deal, and that’s what President Trump wants. He wants a terrible deal for Canadians.”

On Saturday, Carney told reporters in Malaysia that he apologized to Trump over the ad and that airing it was “not something” he would have done.”

Ford said Monday he doesn’t recall Carney telling him not to run the ad before it aired.

“I’m the one who is responsible in my role as prime minister for the relationship with the president of the United States, and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the US government. Things happen, we take the good with the bad, and I apologize to him.”

Carney said he did not want Ford to antagonize Trump further in a similar way, saying, “Well, you saw what came of it.”

The ad in question included audio from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan giving a pro-free trade radio address condemning tariffs. Trump and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation called the ad a fraud, saying it was edited to remove context.

Because of the ad, which Ford said Carney and his chief of staff viewed before airing, Trump ended trade talks between the two countries and promised an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canadian imports.