The Ford government is rolling out a fresh marketing campaign targeting United States President Donald Trump and his allies, only a few months after conceding its initial “charm offensive” was over.
Shortly after Trump was first elected, with the threat of levying massive tariffs and turning Canada into the 51st state, Premier Doug Ford’s office greenlit a budget of more than $50 million to blast key Republicans with commercials.
Advertisements told them Ontario was a “secure economic partner in an insecure world” and “an economic partner that helps employ millions of American workers.”
Months later, however, Ford’s man in Washington, D.C., David Peterson, said the “charm offensive” had ended, with a slew of tariffs still in place.
“I think the charm offensive has been over for quite a while,” he told Global News in March. “We’re talking business and we’re talking mutual economic development.”
Now, Ford has announced Ontario will try the same approach again.
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On Tuesday, the premier unveiled a new commercial quoting former U.S. president Ronald Reagan in his opposition to tariffs.
“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,” Reagan’s voice says in the commercial Ontario unveiled.
“And 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.”
Ford said Reagan, his favourite American president, will be easily identifiable to Republicans, and they will hear the message that tariffs will end up hurting Americans.
“We’re going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country,” Ford said.
“We’re just going to speak the truth. That ad, it’s not a nasty ad, it’s actually very factual and coming from a person like Ronald Reagan, every republican is going to identify that voice.”
The commercial will begin airing first on Newsmax and Bloomberg this week, with advertising buys on Fox, NBC, ESPN and CBS, among other networks.
In total, the government will spend $75 million on the campaign.
Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser said the money could have been more effectively spent within the province, rather than sending the money to U.S. broadcasters.
“If you want to look at the value of that $75 million, what could you do to make our schools better?” he asked.
“What could you do to make health care better? What could you do to make sure that people who are losing their jobs because of tariffs right now have greater opportunities?”
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