The question of whether or not the prime minister and his chief of staff saw and approved — either directly or tacitly — an Ontario government anti-tariff ad that set off U.S. President Donald Trump followed Mark Carney to Singapore on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister’s Office said there would be no further comment on the television ad, which last week led to the meltdown of sectoral trade negotiations with the United States.
Speaking on background, a senior federal official continued to place the responsibility for the marketing campaign on the government of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, despite the prime minister’s assurance that Ottawa is in charge of negotiations.
“This decision was made by the government of Ontario, and the federal government was not involved in the production or distribution of this ad,” said the official.
For his part, Ford defended the call on Monday, saying the ad was put before the prime minister and his senior advisers before it was booked.
“He saw the ad before I put it out and so did his chief of staff,” Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park. “They both saw it and we moved forward on it.”
The television spot, Ford insisted, achieved its objective to raise awareness among Americans about the effect of tariffs.
“Mission accomplished,” Ford said. “It was done. They are talking about it in the U.S. and they weren’t talking about it before we did it.”
Ford defends anti-tariff ad, says he’s not planning more — yet
Asked on Monday at the closing of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur whether Trump’s cancellation of trade talks was truly prompted by the ad — which selectively quotes a four-decade-old speech former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — or some other irritant, Carney said: “I would suggest you take the president at his word for his reasons.”
The prime minister underlined that, in the end, the federal government is calling the shots in relations with the United States.
“I’ll just re-emphasize that it is the responsibility of the government of Canada to have these negotiations,” Carney said. “Others will have opinions and others; [we] welcome free advice, unsolicited advice. This is entirely appropriate. Every Canadian is a stakeholder in these negotiations.”
Trump seemed content to blame Carney, telling reporters several times over the past three days that he has no intention of meeting the prime minister at the next international summit, APEC in South Korea.
“Whether it’s provincial or Canada itself — they all knew exactly what the ad was. The prime minister knew. Everybody knew,” Trump said.
Additionally, Trump accused Canada of interfering with U.S. domestic legal processes, saying the ad campaign was timed to influence the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case regarding his tariff powers.
The U.S. president also said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10 per cent, but did not set a date.
“They shouldn’t have done it. And they’ve apologized,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, as he flew to Tokyo from Malaysia, after also attending the ASEAN summit.
It’s not clear who apologized to Trump. Carney said Monday the two hadn’t spoken, although he wasn’t clear about whether the two had exchanged texts.
Carney wasn’t expected to speak with the media on Tuesday. He spent the day touring the Port of Singapore, a major global hub for maritime trade and one of the world’s busiest ports in terms of container volume and tonnage.
The prime minister also met with the CEO of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund which manages more than $1.1 trillion US in assets across the globe.
