Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday apologized to President Donald Trump over a controversial political advertisement that quoted former President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 radio address criticizing trade barriers.
The advertisement, which aired on U.S. television networks, showed clips of Reagan warning that tariffs lead to trade wars and economic disaster. The ad used Reagan’s words to criticize Trump’s tariff policies toward Canada, drawing swift condemnation from the White House. The White House accused Canada of taking Reagan’s words out of context.
In response, Trump canceled trade talks with Canada and increased tariffs on Canadian imports by 10%.
“I did apologize to the president,” Carney said Saturday, speaking to reporters after attending an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea, according to Reuters. He noted that he had made the apology privately to Trump during a dinner hosted by South Korea’s president on Wednesday.
On Friday, Trump acknowledged Carney’s apology, saying, “He was very nice. He apologized for what they did in the commercial,” according to Reuters.
Carney revealed that he had reviewed the ad with Ontario Premier Doug Ford before it aired but was opposed to running it. Ford, who commissioned the ad, is a conservative politician.
“I told Ford I did not want to go forward with the ad,” Carney stated. Ford described the Oct. 14 campaign ad as an attempt to “take Ronald Reagan’s words and blast it to the American people” on major U.S. networks. He maintained that the ad wasn’t nasty and was “very factual.”
Despite the backlash from the White House, Ford stood by his position last week, calling it “the best ad I ever ran,” as reported by Newsweek.
Previously, Trump criticized the ad on Truth Social, accusing Canada of deception. “They fraudulently took a big-buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote in a social-media post last week after the ad’s release.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Reagan’s legacy, claimed the ad campaign used “selective audio” that “misrepresents” Reagan’s address.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-gets-apology-from-canadian-pm-after-anti-tariff-reagan-ad-backfires
