Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed on Saturday that he apologized to U.S. President Donald Trump over a controversial anti-tariff ad aired using former U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s speeches to criticize tariffs.
The ad infuriated Trump, derailing trade talks and triggering a new 10 percent increase in tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S.
“I did apologize to the president,” Carney told reporters on Saturday, following an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea. The Canadian leader said he had privately apologized during a dinner on Wednesday.
Carney’s remarks came a day after Trump told reporters that the Canadian prime minister had expressed his remorse. “I have a very good relationship [with Carney]. I like him a lot, but what they did was wrong. He was very nice. He apologized for what they did with the commercial,” Trump said.
Carney said he had told Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to air the controversial ad featuring Reagan, which was intended to target American audiences and was broadcast during baseball’s World Series.
“I told Ford I did not want to go forward with the ad,” said Carney.
Ford, however, boasted that the ad campaign was “very effective” because it had upset Trump. “You know why President Trump is so upset right now? Because it was effective. It was working, it woke up the whole country,” said Ford.
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