Oh Canada! Reagan’s Ghost Just Sent Ottawa into Trump’s Penalty Box
A ghost from the 1980s, a $75-million ad buy, and one furious president: Canada’s trade reset takes an unexpected turn.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is terminating trade negotiations with Canada following new anti-tariff ads from the Ontario government that features the voice of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. In a rebuke Friday morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said “Reagan knew that we are stronger together.” On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote late Thursday: “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.” In a separate post to X on Thursday, The Ronald Reagan Foundation said the ad “misrepresents” a radio address on free and fair trade from April 1987 and “the government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks.” But the advertisement does appear to accurately quote Reagan, who supported free trade and delivered the remarks to explain new duties on Japanese products as a response to Japan’s violation of a trade agreement on semiconductors. After the ad caught the attention of Trump earlier this week, Ford defended the move, saying the aim is to “blast” the message to Americans, particularly Republican districts where Trump draws his support. The ad, which Ford previously said cost $75 million, has been running on most major U.S. networks. In a new post to Truth Social on Friday morning, Trump doubled down on his claims of fraud, saying Canada “fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.” “Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country. Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer,” Trump also wrote. - CTV
In response to Trump’s move to cancel trade talks, Ontario Premier Doug Ford stood firm by the ad paid for by his government. “Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies,” Ford said in a post on X on Friday, including a video of Reagan’s full radio address from 1987 that was used in the ad. “President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together. God bless Canada and God bless the United States.” Separately, sources tell CBC News that Trump’s decision last night took the Carney government by surprise. Trump’s decision is genuinely a reaction to Ontario’s ad, the sources said. It’s not simply a pretext or some deeper negotiating tactic. The ad angered Trump, full stop. The sources also said that the Carney government can be expected to pressure the Ford government to have the ad taken off the air - CBC
Hot Take: Time for Mark Carney to Put His Elbows Up
Canadian prime minister Mark Carney needs to drop the polite diplomacy and start playing like it’s the third period.
Donald Trump’s zigzags on trade and foreign policy make him a deeply unreliable partner — yet Ottawa still behaves as though cozying up will somehow shield Canada from the turbulence ahead. It won’t. Instead of buttering up a volatile White House, Mark Carney should be leaning hard into diversifying Canada’s trade and diplomatic portfolio — especially toward India and China — and accelerating the shift of commerce from the traditional north-south axis to a bold east-west corridor. (Hopefully his upcoming Asia trip, which includes the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, will help this defensive goal).
Yes, there will be short-term pain: renegotiations, retooling supply chains, recalibrating tariffs, inevitable layoffs - but as Canadians we’re used to the penalty box. But the long-term gain — true economic sovereignty and resilience — will be worth every bruise. If Canada keeps over-relying on the U.S. economy, it’s not just playing a dangerous game; it’s skating on thin ice.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the United States and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales. According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters on board a return flight from Oman, Erdogan said Hamas was abiding by the agreement. “Gaza is a test for the Islamic world. God willing, we will pass this test with flying colours and take our place alongside our brothers and sisters in the strongest possible way,” he said, adding that Turkiye remains ready to support the planned Gaza task force in any way needed. Recent reports indicate that Netanyahu has foreclosed on the possibility of Turkish personnel being involved on the ground in the Gaza Strip. Since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza, already strained relations between the two countries have cratered, with Erdogan frequently condemning Israel - Al Jazeera
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The military balance in Myanmar is shifting, in favour of the military junta. it has responded to the early advantage enjoyed by the opposition in the use of inexpensive drones, by buying thousands of its own drones from China, and training its forward units how to use them, to deadly effect. It is also using slow and easy-to-fly motorised paragliders, which can loiter over lightly-defended areas and drop bombs with high accuracy. And it has been bombing relentlessly with its Chinese and Russian supplied aircraft, causing much higher numbers of civilian casualties this year. At least a thousand are believed to have been killed this year, but the total is probably higher. On the other side, the fragmented opposition movement has been hampered by inherent weaknesses. It comprises hundreds of often poorly-armed “people’s defence forces” or PDFs, formed by local villagers or by young activists who fled from the cities, but also seasoned fighters from the ethnic insurgent groups who have been waging war against the central government for decades. They have their own agendas, harbouring a deep mistrust of the ethnic Burmese majority, and they do not recognise the authority of the National Unity Government which was formed from the administration ousted by the 2021 coup. So there is no central leadership of the movement. And now, more than four years into a civil war that has killed thousands and displaced millions, the tide is turning once again - BBC
President Donald Trump departs Friday on the riskiest foreign trip of his second term. Unlike his highly choreographed foreign trips to Europe and the Middle East, where leaders were eager to fête the president, his weeklong trip through Asia is replete with potential pitfalls. An anticipated meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea could defuse yet another economy-roiling trade war between the two nations, but the outcome — or whether the meeting will even take place — is far from certain. Trump could return celebrating deals that will strengthen U.S. ties in the region — or, if talks with Xi collapse, confronting an escalating trade war likely to rattle markets, ripple through supply chains and expose how dependent the U.S. remains on China for critical minerals. The White House has said the two leaders will meet Thursday, but China has yet to confirm the meeting. But China isn’t the only potential trouble spot. Malaysia, which is hosting one of the two summits Trump will attend, is trying to drum up a peace ceremony for the president to preside over between Cambodia and Thailand. But the two countries haven’t resolved the simmering border dispute that boiled over into intense fighting in July, and Beijing’s role in supplying the weaponry that Phnom Penh deployed in that conflict has heightened tensions. Trump is also eager to solidify investment pledges from South Korea and Japan even as South Korea is still negotiating its $350 billion pledge and Japan’s new prime minister has threatened to pull out of their deal with the U.S., which includes a $550 billion investment package, if she feels it is unfair - Politico
European Union leaders have stopped short of a deal to use frozen Russian state assets to fund Ukraine, after Belgium -- where most of the money is held -- raised legal and technical concerns about the proposal. At a summit in Brussels on October 23, leaders asked the European Commission to continue working on a plan to turn roughly €140 billion ($162 billion) in immobilized Russian central-bank reserves into support for Kyiv’s military and budgetary needs, but several diplomats said a final agreement remained elusive. Most of the assets in question are held in Belgium, whose prime minister, Bart De Wever, said he still has several concerns. De Wever has insisted that, to move ahead, Belgium needs firm guarantees from all other EU states that they will share the liability if Moscow comes calling. He also wants other EU countries to promise to start tapping Russian assets frozen in their territories. “I’m only poor little Belgium, the only thing I can do is point out where the problems are and to gently ask solutions for the essential problem,” De Wever told reporters after the summit. He warned that unless those conditions were met, he would do all in his power “politically and legally, to stop this decision.” - RFE/RL
Steve Bannon has claimed “there is a plan” for Donald Trump to secure a third term as president of the United States after the next election, scheduled for 2028. Despite the U.S. constitution’s 22nd amendment barring candidates who have already successfully fought two elections from taking office for a third time, Bannon said the Trump administration will find a means to re-install the Republican leader. “He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that”, Bannon told The Economist in a video interview. Asked if the 22nd amendment could prove to be a hard barrier to remaining in the White House, Bannon expanded: “There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there is a plan, and Trump will be the president in ‘28.” Only one U.S. president has ever served more than two terms – Franklin D. Roosevelt – who was elected for a third term in 1940 and a historic fourth term in 1944, during which he died while in office - The Independent
Agricultural workers are already among the most vulnerable to extreme heat, and pregnant workers are coming under greater risk as temperatures rise because of climate change. Many in the U.S. are low-income Latino immigrants who toil under the sizzling sun or in humid nurseries open year round. Heat exposure has been linked to many extra risks for pregnant people, and while protections exist, experts say they need better enforcement and more safeguards are needed. Compounding these risks is the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Many people are too afraid to seek medical and maternal care, according to research and interviews with advocates and health care providers, and are increasingly fearful of retribution if they advocate for safe work environments - AP
Programming Note:
Catch me live on CNN (U.S. and Canada) this Saturday — I’ll be joining anchor Fredricka Whitfield from Moldova to discuss the latest developments in Russia’s war on Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s high-wire effort to keep Western military and humanitarian aid flowing.
📺 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT
The journals….
