Trump administration chews out Ontario representative over Ford ad campaign

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra tore into Ontario’s representative over Premier Ford’s anti-tariff Reagan ad.

Source: X

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra tore into Ontario’s representative over Premier Ford’s anti-tariff Reagan ad, which resulted in the Trump administration terminating all trade negotiations between the two countries and threats of increased tariffs, as the countries were close to reaching a trade deal.

Former General Motors executive David Paterson was reportedly scolded by Hoekstra in Washington during the annual Canadian American Business Council gala at the National Gallery of Canada on Tuesday.

Hoekstra’s expletive-filled rant was on display in front of more than 200 attendees, the majority of whom were leading business executives from both Canada and the U.S.

According to the ambassador, Canada was close to reaching an agreement with tariffs on steel, aluminum and energy before Ford’s ad campaign hit U.S. networks.

Multiple sources confirmed to media outlets that Hoekstra could be heard swearing at Paterson and also mentioned Ford by name.

Meanwhile, the Ontario premier has called on Hoekstra to apologize for his rant, saying that it was “unbecoming of an ambassador.”

“Pete, you’ve gotta call Dave up and apologize. It’s simple. You know, the cheese slipped off the cracker. I get it, you’re ticked off, but call the guy up, because you’re a good guy and Dave’s my champion,” Ford told reporters on Wednesday.

The fallout stemmed from a $75 million ad campaign launched by the Ontario earlier this month, airing a commercial across U.S. networks featuring excerpts from a speech by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan in 1987 called “Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade.”

The ad compiles some of Reagan’s comments warning that protectionist policies lead to “trade wars,” job losses and economic collapse.

Upon being informed of the ad, Trump decided to end all trade negotiations with Canada. The U.S. president also threatened to increase the tariff rate on Canadian imports by 10 per cent as a punitive measure for Ford’s ad campaign.

Ford has promised to cease airing the ad after the weekend; however, Trump said that it should have been pulled immediately and not aired during U.S. broadcasts of the World Series.

On Wednesday, Ford revealed that Prime Minister Mark Carney was present in the room with him when reviewing the controversial Reagan ad

“I was with him. Everyone’s obsessed. Just think of that 11.4 billion impressions or views, like that means every leader in the world saw it. And you know, it’s just real. It’s a real ad. It was the most successful ad ever,” Ford said. “I don’t know any ad that’s ever hit 11.4 billion in every single country in the world; their leadership and population were watching it because it’s real. Ronald Reagan is telling the truth.”

Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre demanded to know why the prime minister would have allowed Ford to threaten Canada-U.S. negotiations.

“Carney approved the ad, then he claimed, after the ad started running, that the ad was the reason that no deal happened. It’s time for Mark Carney to come clean,” Poilievre told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.

“Now Mark Carney is looking for someone to blame for his broken promises, and he’s blaming an ad that he approved.”