Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an announcement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the Darlington Energy Complex in Courtice, Ont., on Oct. 23.Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney said he advised Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to run a TV ad critical of Donald Trump’s tariffs that resulted in the U.S. President cancelling trade talks and threatening higher levies.
Speaking to reporters at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Mr. Carney also confirmed he had apologized to Mr. Trump for the advertisement.
“The President was offended by the ad and it’s not something I would have done, which is to put in place that advertisement, and so I apologized to him.”
He said the apology was conveyed to the U.S. President Wednesday evening when the pair and other leaders attended a dinner hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. The meal was in Mr. Trump’s honour.
Mr. Carney, who had viewed the ad before it went to air, said he had advised the Ontario Premier not to broadcast it. “You saw what came of it,” he said of the fallout from the advertisement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he told Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to run an advertisement about tariffs after watching them. U.S. President Donald Trump says the ad is why he has suspended trade talks with Canada. Carney says he apologized to Trump because the president was offended by the ad. (Nov. 1, 2025)
The Canadian Press
Mr. Ford has defended the TV spot, but Mr. Carney noted Saturday “there are other premiers who have different views in terms of the utility of those ads.”
In Detroit, where sympathy for Canada runs high, residents are divided on Reagan anti-tariff ad
Mr. Ford’s office declined to comment on Saturday, and pointed to the Premier’s previous comments defending the ad. Mr. Ford has not directly said whether Mr. Carney told him not to run the ad.
When asked last week if the Prime Minister approved the ad, Mr. Ford said, “They know what I was doing, and I said I was going to stop it on Monday. It was very successful.”
Canada has been negotiating with the Trump administration for more than six months in hopes of getting the U.S. President to reduce a slew of tariffs he has imposed on Canadian goods.
Mr. Carney said the two sides had been making progress before talks were suspended last week.
On Friday, Mr. Trump told reporters he did not plan to restart trade talks with Canada despite the fact that he is fond of Mr. Carney and regardless of the fact that the Canadian Prime Minister apologized for the TV ad. “I have a very good relationship. I like him a lot. But you know, what they did was wrong,” the U.S President said.
Asked what his next move was, Mr. Carney said it’s the federal budget on Nov. 4, in which he will introduce measures to help refashion the Canadian economy for an era of U.S. protections where businesses in Canada need to find alternative markets.
“We can spend our time watching Truth Social,” Mr. Carney said. Or, Canada can restructure its economy, he said.
“We’re focusing on what we can control, which first and foremost is how we build at home.”
What you need to know about Ontario’s anti-tariff ad
The U.S. President broke off trade talks with Canada last week, citing the Ontario government TV ad. After it aired during Game 1 of the World Series, he announced that he would boost tariffs on Canadian imports by another 10 per cent.
The 60-second TV spot used footage from nearly 40 years ago of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan decrying American protectionism, saying such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.
Mr. Trump has not yet issued any executive order to enforce the threatened 10-per-cent hike. It’s not clear if this new levy would apply to all Canadian imports or a selection of them. And he has announced no date for this increase.
In addition to U.S. tariffs on goods not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, Mr. Trump has imposed a number of sectoral tariffs that affect Canadian industry disproportionately, including a 50-per-cent levy on steel and aluminum and a 25-per-cent levy on automobiles. Softwood producers are facing levies totalling more than 45 per cent.