If you watched the World Series over the weekend, when the Los Angeles Dodgers came back to level the series against the Toronto Bluejays, you’ll know the Fall Classic is balanced on a knife edge.
And if you caught the ads during the game, you’ll also know that the much bigger contest between the U.S. and Canada is just as finely poised.
In an extraordinary move, Ontario’s regional government launched a 60-second spot taking direct aim at the Trump administration and its tariffs on Canadian trade.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build,” Premier Doug Ford, Ontario’s populist leader behind the ad, insisted last week in a statement.
Ontario is especially vulnerable to American tariffs because of its deep economic dependence on U.S. trade – over 77% of the province’s goods and 60% of its services export to the United States. Its manufacturing sector is particularly exposed, with import prices for raw materials and export prices for finished vehicles likely to increase significantly under the new tariffs.
And don’t underestimate the role of wily Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in all this.
This campaign presents him with ingenious political leverage in the ongoing negotiations with President Trump. By allowing Doug Ford’s provincial government to take the fight public without formally involving him, Carney shifts from a binary conflict with Trump to becoming a third-party who can provide diplomatic restraint and bargaining power from the sidelines. The campaign becomes a tactical decoy enabling Carney to argue both sides at once: conciliatory with Trump, supportive to Ontario.
President Trump’s response was predictably vituperative. The ad was “FAKE” in misrepresenting Reagan’s views. “ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” he announced.
Still seething about the ad over the weekend, Trump announced a further 10% increase in Canadian tariffs, directly because of Ontario’s commercial.
Trump is clearly rattled. And that might prove a risky outcome in the era of “don’t fuck around with America.” But the ad has certainly delivered on its stated goal of initiating a conversation with the U.S. about tariffs while demonstrating to Canadian voters that something is being done. It may not be up there with “Morning in America” but this is astute, high stakes political advertising.
Strategically, it’s clever stuff.
The use of Reagan’s voice and free market philosophy is the kind of positioning judo we rarely see in modern marketing. The spot itself, created in-house by Ontario’s own communications team, is a slick combination of slow fades and piano with a solid emotional charge.