Ontario PC Leader Doug Ford appears at a campaign event at NRS Brakes in Scarborough, Ont., on Feb. 7.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Both Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie aimed television ads at the province’s voters watching the Super Bowl, amid an election campaign focused squarely on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs and absorb Canada.
The Ontario Liberals unveiled two 30-second spots intended for local broadcasts of the American sports spectacle on Sunday night, as the party seeks to capitalize on Mr. Ford’s recent hot-mic admission that he supported Mr. Trump as recently as his November election.
The Liberal ad shows the footage of Mr. Ford, as captured on camera last week, saying he was “100 per cent” happy with Mr. Trump’s victory. (He has since said he would never support the U.S. President again, calling him a “disaster.”) The other Liberal ad focuses on the province’s struggling health care system, saying it is in crisis and warning that Ontarians are afraid to get sick.
The PCs’ Super Bowl ads included a new 60-second version of a fast-paced PC Party spot already in rotation that uses clips from Mr. Ford’s recent U.S. cable news appearances to portray him as a leader who will defend the province from Mr. Trump’s threats.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles has her own ads running on TV and radio, but the party did not buy time on the Super Bowl broadcast.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump said he would impose 25-per-cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports the next day, including those from Canada, and he repeated his threat about making Canada the 51st state.
All of the Ontario parties target messages and videos to potential supporters online and via social media. But the U.S. National Football League championship, with domestic ads swapped in place of much more expensive high-profile American ones for U.S. viewers, is usually a TV ratings giant on both sides of the border.
The game was also just 2½ weeks before Ontarians go to the polls on Feb. 27, in an early election called by Mr. Ford. He has argued he needs a new mandate to take on Mr. Trump, despite winning a majority just under three years ago that was set to last until June, 2026.
The PC Party has been running TV spots – including many targeting Ms. Crombie – on hockey broadcasts and elsewhere for months. It has far outspent both its Liberal and NDP rivals, over whom it has long dominated in fundraising – and in the polls.
But the Liberals, trying to rebuild under a new leader after two punishing electoral defeats that had left them with just nine seats in the legislature, believe their Super Bowl ads will get more voters to question Mr. Ford’s priorities.
In the Liberal ad about Mr. Ford’s Trump comments, the voiceover says: “Was he happy Canadians might lose their jobs? Or does he just care so little about the people of this province that he saw an attack on Ontario as an opportunity for himself?”
Several published opinion polls in recent weeks have put the Liberals ahead of the NDP, which has been the province’s Official Opposition since 2018. But the Grits still lag behind the PCs. Ontario Liberal Party spokesperson Bahoz Dara Aziz says the Super Bowl ads show how party fundraising has recovered. She wouldn’t say how much the ads cost.
Ms. Dara Aziz said Mr. Ford’s hot-mic comments reveal that despite knowing Mr. Trump was again threatening tariffs, Mr. Ford still maintained his support for the U.S. President until just months ago.
Mr. Trump has “been campaigning on waging a trade war for a very long time. We knew this was the case ...” she said in a phone interview. For Mr. Ford “to still want Trump to win, I think that says everything,” she added.
PC campaign spokesperson Ivana Yelich dismissed the Liberal attack, citing a recently published opinion poll that she said suggests Mr. Ford’s hot-mic comments have had little negative impact on his support.
“We’re happy to have the Liberals waste their money,” Ms. Yelich said in an interview.
NDP spokesperson Mayeesha Chowdhury said her party was focusing on more targeted ads and on having thousands of volunteers knock on doors across the province, rather than using expensive Super Bowl airtime.
“The challenge for the current Liberal Party is to rebuild their brand,” she said. “For us, the focus is on talking to people.”