Ontario Premier Doug Ford may have sparked a cross-border brouhaha when his government funded and aired an anti-tariff advertisement that infuriated U.S. President Donald Trump, but Ford is now trying to play the role of peacemaker after a high-profile, public spat over the ad.
Ford responded on Wednesday to reports that the American ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, angrily confronted Ontario’s representative in Washington, David Paterson, at the Canadian American Business Council gala in Ottawa on Monday.
According to a report in the Globe and Mail, sources present said Hoekstra unleashed an expletive-laden tirade directed at Paterson over the ad which cooled trade talks between the nations just as a deal seemed imminent.
Ford said Hoekstra, who he likes, owed Paterson a personal apology.
“Come on, ambassador … Pete, you’ve gotta call Dave up and apologize, it’s simple,” he said during a Ring of Fire announcement on Wednesday. “The cheese slipped off the cracker. I get it, you’re ticked off, but call the guy up because you’re a good guy and Dave’s my champion,”
Ford said Paterson is “instrumental” in trade talks with Washington and didn’t deserve the public dressing-down.
“You know something, people get hot, they get heated,” Ford said. “I get heated sometimes, but just call the guy up and bury the hatchet because the ambassador is a good guy, actually.”
“He knows what to do,” he added. “Come on, Pete, you’ve been around before Moses, call the guy up and apologize and let’s start getting back on track.”
Ford faces fallout from controversial ad
The ad in question, featuring audio of Ronald Reagan explaining the perils of tariffs, didn’t just raise the ire of Trump — it prompted the president to announce he would raise existing tariffs on Canada by 10 per cent. Trump also said he was halting negotiations between the two nations right when they appeared to be inching towards a deal.
Ford ultimately agreed to pull the ad, but not until after it ran during the World Series — garnering incredible attention that infuriated Trump.
Liberal MPP John Fraser laid into Ford about the ramifications of the ad during question period at Queen’s Park on Monday.
“Ontarians paid for those ads,” Fraser fumed. “They are going to pay for them with their jobs. The premier has decided that he wants to be Captain Canada and he’s going to do anything he wants.”
Ford defended the ad, which his office said cost $75 million, and accused Trump of bluffing about the additional 10 per cent tariff.
“The tariffs aren’t going up and they aren’t going to go up, we want zero tariffs and that’s what I’m fighting for,” he said Monday.
“What it did do was create a conversation with every republican, democrat, governor, congressperson and senator; that’s what it created.”
