Here's who is behind the Reagan anti-tariff ads that got Trump to ditch trade talks with Canada

By Lukas I. Alpert

Ontario's leader Doug Ford said he would pause the ad campaign to allow talks to resume after sparking a debate between free-trade Republicans and Trump's MAGA supporters

Ontario leader Doug Ford said he was initially excited by President Trump's election last November, but he soon became a vocal critic of the U.S. administration's trade policies toward Canada.

The anti-tariff broadside that angered President Donald Trump so much that he called off trade talks with Canada is the brainchild of someone who might, on the surface, be mistaken for a political fellow traveler.

The ad, featuring the voice of late U.S. President Ronald Reagan warning that tariffs could lead to economically dangerous trade wars, was ordered up by the Ontario provincial government's center-right leader, Doug Ford, a blunt-speaking conservative with a political style similar to Trump's.

Ford said late Friday that he had spoken with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and had decided to pause the ad campaign on Monday so trade talks could resume, but only after the commercials appeared during the first two games of the World Series, on Friday and Saturday night.

"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. We've achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels," he wrote on X.

Ford had announced the $75 million ad campaign at an event 10 days ago and the government of Ontario began airing the ad on U.S. television, focusing primarily on conservative news outlets like Fox News and Newsmax Inc. (NMAX), and on local stations in Republican-led states. (Fox Corp., the parent of Fox News, shares common ownership with MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones's parent, News Corp.)

The ad also appeared during Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners.

The ads apparently irked Trump so much that late Thursday night he declared that he was calling off trade talks with Canada about his administration's efforts to impose a tariff regime on other countries.

Calling the ad "fake," Trump claimed it was an effort to "interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts," on trade policy. He also pointed to a statement from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute that said the late president's remarks, which were part of a 1987 radio address, had been "misrepresented."

Ford, 60, said he was initially excited by Trump's election last November, but that he soon soured on the president's trade policies. He said he hopes the ad campaign will trigger a party war between old-school, pro-Reagan, free-trade Republicans and Trump's MAGA base.

"I heard the president heard our ad. I'm sure he wasn't too happy, but it was real because it was coming from the best president the country has ever seen in Ronald Reagan," Ford told Canada's CTV News. "What I feel is that Reagan Republicans will be fighting with the MAGA, and let's hope that the Reagan Republicans win."

Ford has been sparring with the Trump administration on trade policy for months, ordering U.S.-made alcohol pulled from store shelves in Ontario and tearing up a deal with Trump ally Elon Musk's Starlink in protest of U.S. tariff threats.

In response to Trump's cancellation of trade talks, Ford posted Reagan's full remarks on X, writing: "Canada and the United States are friends, neighbors and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together."

The ad quotes from a 1987 radio address Reagan gave on trade, speaking from Camp David.

"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 said.

He warned that tariffs cause companies to become less competitive, prices to rise, markets to fall, companies to collapse and people to lose jobs.

But Ford's ad leaves out the reason Reagan made the address in the first place - which was to impose tariffs on Japan, which he accused of engaging in unfair trade practices. The Reagan Foundation said it was reviewing legal options regarding the ad. The foundation said it hadn't given permission to use the speech, although as an official presidential address it is part of the National Archives and therefore in the public domain.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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10-24-25 1543ET