The late President Ronald Reagan was famous for many things, including his ability to deliver speeches with his weathered baritone voice, having honed his delivery over the course of 53 Hollywood films and thousands of political speeches.
Few would have predicted that that same voice would end trade talks between the U.S. and Canada.
On Thursday night, President Donald Trump abruptly pulled the plug on tariff negotiations with America’s northern neighbor after the government of Ontario aired an ad critical of tariffs that drew from a 1987 radio address by Reagan on free trade. The spot—centerpiece of a $75 million campaign that Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on October 16—was aimed at Republican voters aired on channels including Fox, Bloomberg, and Newsmax.
On his Truth Social account, Trump condemned the ad as “fraudulent” and “fake.”
The president’s anger appeared to stem as much from Ontario appropriating the voice of Reagan—long a messianic figure for the Republican party—as from its anti-tariff stance.
“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,” echoes Reagan’s voice over the ad’s stock footage of a welder, a family at the dinner table, and similar Americana. “Sometimes, for a short while, it works—but only for a short time. But over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker and consumer.”
It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.
Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.
Watch our new ad. pic.twitter.com/SgIVC1cqMJ
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 16, 2025
The Reagan Library was quick to post on X that government of Ontario was “using selective audio” in the spot that “misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address” and, further, that the ad’s creators—reportedly Ford’s own team—used the audio without permission and may be met with legal action as a result.
The Canadians do not appear to be afraid of either a library lawsuit or of President Trump.
Fighting Trump’s fire with traditional Canadian affability, Ford took to X to call the U.S. a friend, neighbor, and ally. “President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together,” wrote Ford. “God bless Canada and God bless the United States.”
Former Alberta premier and Canadian defense minister Jason Kennedy was more pointed, claiming that the spot took nothing out of context. He called it “a direct replay of his [Reagan’s] radio address, formatted for a one minute ad.”
No genre of advertising gets down in the mud quite like political ads, which can sway national opinion and elections alike. Historians often cite the infamous “Daisy” ad—which shows a little girl counting down to a nuclear blast—for Lyndon Johnson’s defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964.
More controversially, in 1988, a PAC supporting George H.W. Bush aired the notorious Willie Horton ad, which featured a child murderer enjoying weekend passes from prison to depict challenger Michael Dukakis as soft on crime. Though widely derided as a racist dog whistle, the ad nonetheless played a key role in keeping Dukakis out of the White House.
If not as venomous, the Government of Ontario’s ad certainly echoes the shrewdness of these examples. It also takes a page from Trump’s own playbook of using advertising to send a message to another country. Earlier this year, U.S. Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem appeared in an ad that ran on Mexican television.
“If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” the Trump official said. “If you come here and break our laws, we will hunt you down.”