Ontario’s rep in Washington says Reagan ad not coming up in talks with U.S. lawmakers

The Ontario government’s representative in Washington says the infamous ad that upset U.S. President Donald Trump and ostensibly pushed him to halt trade talks with Canada hasn’t prevented him from having productive meetings.

David Paterson told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that the Ontario government-backed advertisement — featuring clips of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs — has hardly come up in recent meetings he’s had with members of Congress.

Ontario Treasury Board President Caroline Mulroney was in Washington this week to take part in meetings with Paterson. The Ontario cabinet minister is the daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney who, alongside Reagan, laid the seeds of the original North American free trade deal in the 1980s.

“Maybe one Republican mentioned [the ad] because we were having a discussion about Ronald Reagan and the Mulroney family. So it was very much not on the focus,” Paterson said in an interview airing Sunday on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live.

The ad ran on American television networks — including during the World Series — in October. Trump seemed unbothered when he first saw it, but days later abruptly called off trade talks and blamed the ad.

When asked if thought the ad might have been a mistake, Paterson said it was a success given how much attention it initially garnered — though he said now the focus in Washington is on the upcoming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

“I think it was extremely successful in that regard — not a lot of negativity about it. More people are sort of shifting gears to, ‘OK, well, what will be the role of Congress as we go into next year and we start to renew [CUSMA],’” he said.

Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador to Canada, brought up the ad during a public speaking engagement in Ottawa Wednesday — accusing Canada of interfering in “electoral politics” south of the border.

“Targeting the president of the United States and his policies 10 days before an election, in a couple of weeks before a Supreme Court case would be heard … I'm sorry that does not happen in the United States of America," he said.

“You do not come into America and start running political ads, government-funded political ads … and expect that there will be no consequences or reaction from the United States of America and the Trump administration.”

Hoekstra laid into Paterson with an expletive-laced rant during an event in Ottawa last month, witnesses told CBC News. One witness said the U.S ambassador appeared to be upset about the anti-tariff ad. (Sources at the event spoke with CBC News on the condition that they not be named.)

The incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to publicly call on Hoekstra to apologize to Paterson.

Paterson said Hoekstra hasn’t reached out — but said he also isn’t expecting an apology.

“I just signed my Christmas card to him, and we'll turn the page and keep on working,” Paterson said.