- Ontario aired an anti-tariff ad starring Ronald Reagan.
- Trump announced he would raise tariffs in response.
- Carney says he didn’t want to go ahead with the announcement.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday he had apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump for an anti-tariff political ad and told Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to run it.
Carney, speaking to reporters after attending an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea, said he had privately apologized to Trump when they both attended a dinner hosted by the South Korean president on Wednesday.
“I apologized to the president,” Carney said, confirming comments Trump made on Friday.
Carney also confirmed that he had reviewed the ad with Ford before it aired, but said he had objected to using it.
“I told Ford I didn’t want to move forward with the announcement,” he said.
The ad, commissioned by Ford, an outspoken conservative politician who is sometimes compared to Trump, uses a quote from Republican icon and former President Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disasters.
In response, Trump announced that he would increase tariffs on goods from Canada, and Washington also halted trade talks with Canada.
Upon leaving South Korea earlier this week, Trump commented that he had a “very pleasant” conversation with Carney at that dinner, but did not elaborate. On Friday, Trump continued to say that the United States and Canada would not restart trade talks, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney apologized to him for a political ad in Ontario in which former President Ronald Reagan said tariffs spelled disaster.
“I like it a lot, but what they did was wrong,” said the American president. “They apologized for what they did with the commercial because it was a fake commercial.”
Meanwhile, Carney said his talks on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping were a turning point in relations after years of tensions.
The last formal meeting between the leaders of Canada and China occurred in 2017 when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a brief exchange with Xi at a meeting in San Francisco.
The Asia trip was part of efforts to reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, Carney said.
