Doug Ford says Ontario spending $75M to run anti-tariff ads in U.S. featuring clips of Reagan

Ontario will soon be running an ad on major U.S. networks featuring historic clips of former president Ronald Reagan slamming tariffs.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province will spend $75 million to run ads in the United States slamming the impact of tariffs and featuring clips of Ronald Reagan.

“I’m a big Ronald Reagan fan,” Ford said during a speech at the Empire Club of Canada Tuesday as he was laying out his government’s plan to combat tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

He explained that he got the idea to take Reagan’s words on tariffs “and blast it to the American people.”

“We’re going to launch a $75 million ad, and we’re going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country,” Ford said.

He added that it won’t be a “nasty” ad, just “very factual” when it comes to tariffs.

The ad, which Ford said will run on most major networks in the U.S., features an April 1987 clip of the late president talking about the pitfalls of 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 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,” Reagan says in the clip.

“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. Then the worst happens. Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs.”

The ad, which has not yet aired, overlays Reagan’s voice with images of workers and families.

“Coming from a person like Ronald Reagan, every Republican is going to identify that voice,” Ford said. “Maybe the younger Republicans can’t remember, but he was just the best president the country’s ever seen in my in my opinion.”

Ontario has previously targeted U.S. audiences with ads highlighting the negative impact of tariffs on trade. The province released a volley of ads in December 2024 highlighting the importance of trade with Ontario. Then in March, Ford said that the province would be launching more ads “to inform the American people” about the impact of tariffs.

U.S. President Donald Trump has framed tariffs as a way to make other countries pay for what he sees as imbalanced trade relationships. But messaging from Ontario and other districts has described them as an added tax on American consumers and businesses.

Ford’s office said the ads will start running this week.

He noted that CNN may not approve the ad for air, but most networks are expected to.