Ontario’s premier said he will withdraw the announcement that upset Trump so trade talks between the United States and Canada can resume

TORONTO (AP) — The leader of Canada’s most populous province said Friday he will withdraw the anti-tariff declaration that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to end trade talks with Canada.

After speaking with Premier Mark Carney, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he has decided to pause the ad campaign starting Monday until trade talks can resume.

Trump announced he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada over an Ontario-sponsored television ad that used the words of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs.

Read more: Trump ended trade negotiations with Canada in a social media post after TV ads with Ronald Reagan

“We have achieved our goal, reaching American audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said in a statement.

“Our goal has always been to start a conversation about the kind of economy Americans want to build and the impact that tariffs will have on workers and businesses.”

Ford said the commercials will continue to run this weekend, including during the first World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I directed my team to continue putting our message in front of the Americans over the weekend so we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games,” he said.

On Thursday, Trump posted: “The Ronald Reagan Foundation just announced that Canada fraudulently used a fake ad, showing Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.”

Trump doubled down on his criticism of Ontario’s announcements on Friday and accused Canada of trying to influence an upcoming US Supreme Court ruling on a global tariff regime.

Trump’s call for an abrupt end to negotiations has inflamed trade tensions between neighbors and longtime allies.

Carney said this week that he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the United States because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. He added that Canadian officials are still ready to continue talks to reduce tariffs in certain sectors.

“We cannot control the trade policy of the United States,” Carney said Friday morning before boarding a plane bound for Asia. “We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from what it was in the 1980s.” “We have to focus on what we can control and realize what we cannot control.”

Carney is trying to secure a trade agreement with Trump, but the tariffs have negatively affected the aluminum, steel, automobile and timber sectors.

Carney spoke to Ford on Thursday night and again on Friday.

White House spokesman Khush Desai said the talks with Canada did not lead to any constructive progress.

“Ontario’s taxpayer-funded advertising campaign on U.S. television networks — which misleadingly edited President Reagan’s 1987 radio address on trade — is the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than deal with the administration,” Desai said in a statement.

“As President Trump made clear on Truth Social, further talks will be a futile effort if Canada is not serious.”

The Ontario government said it would pay about C$75 million (US$54 million) to air ads on several U.S. television stations using audio and video of Reagan speaking about the tariffs in 1987.

Ford said earlier this week that he heard Trump had seen the ad.

“I’m sure he wasn’t very happy,” Ford said.

He said the goal was to “blow up” the pro-trade message directed at Americans.

“It’s real because it came from the best president the country has ever had, Ronald Reagan,” Ford said. “I feel like the Reagan Republicans are going to fight with the MAGA group, and let’s hope the Reagan Republicans win.”

Ford is a populist conservative who does not belong to the same party as the liberal Carney.

Manitoba Premier Wab Keino and British Columbia Premier David Eby Ford supported it.

“Clearly, these ads work. If you throw a stone in a lake and don’t hear the splash, you probably missed it. So, to my dear friend Doug Ford, keep the ads on TV. They work, and this country stands behind you,” Keino said.

Daniel Belland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said the announcement backfired “massively.”

Trump has been threatening Canada’s economy and sovereignty with tariffs, most aggressively by claiming that Canada could be the “51st state.”

Jason Kenney, a former minister in the Conservative government under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, described Trump’s posts as “deeply embarrassing.”

“The Ontario ad does not distort President Reagan’s anti-tariff radio address in any way. It is a direct replay of his radio address, formatted as a one-minute ad,” Kenney said on social media.

Kenney also took aim at the Reagan establishment, saying it “now has worthless leadership that can be easily intimidated at the invitation of the White House, another sign of Trump’s deeply destructive influence on the American conservative movement.”