ManitobaManitoba Premier Wab Kinew repeated his support on Monday for the Ontario government’s $75-million ad campaign targeting American audiences with an anti-tariff message that roiled U.S. President Donald Trump into pausing trade talks with Canada last week.Kinew holds news conference to repeat support days after putting out own video endorsing anti-tariff messagingBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Oct 27, 2025 9:10 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesPremier Wab Kinew speaks to reporters on Oct. 27, 2025, in the Manitoba legislative building. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)Manitoba’s premier is repeating his support on Monday for the Ontario government’s ad campaign targeting American audiences with an anti-tariff message that roiled U.S. President Donald Trump into halting trade talks with Canada again.Wab Kinew released a video of his own on Friday espousing support for Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s $75-million ad campaign. On Monday, Premier Kinew doubled down during a news conference he called in his office.”I think it’s good that President Trump has to squirm and that he’s being reminded that Republicans and Mr. Reagan were totally against tariffs,” Kinew told reporters. “If we want to make the case to the American people the tariffs are wrong and we should get back to a better relationship between our two countries, yeah, there’s going to be times where the president lashes out.”The ad that drew the ire of Trump last week used an anti-tariff message spoken by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. Trump responded on Thursday with a post on his Truth Social platform calling off trade talks with the Canadian government. A still image from a Government of Ontario advertisement currently running in U.S. markets that uses part of a 1987 radio address by then-president Ronald Reagan to make a case against tariffs. (Government of Ontario)He cited a complaint by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute suggesting a clip of Reagan used in the Ontario ad was “selective.”Kinew’s video in support came out on Friday and suggested the Ontario ad accurately represents Reagan’s views on tariffs. He said Trump’s tariffs run counter to Reagan’s legacy.Ontario Premier Ford said the ad was effective and received over a billion impressions.”We generated a conversation that wasn’t happening in the U.S. — now every single local media, every large media, medium-sized media in the U.S. is talking about it,” Ford told reporters in Toronto on Monday. After having a conversation with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ford pulled the ad Monday hoping to enable Canada and the U.S. to get back to the negotiation table.Trump has also threatened to levy a further 10 per cent tariff against Canada for not pulling the ad more swiftly.Prime Minister Mark Carney said he believed Canada and the U.S. were close to an agreement before the ads ran.“There were a series of very detailed, very specific, very comprehensive discussions … up until the point of those ads running,” he said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, where he’s attending the ASEAN summit. In a post on the social media site Instagram on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew appears in the screen of a vintage TV set, applauding an anti-tariff ad from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government. (Instagram/Wabber)Kinew said Trump threw a “long history of no tariffs … out the window.” He thinks Ford got his money’s worth. “They got more value by President Trump drawing attention to this thing,” he said. “We need to keep pushing. I mean, there was no deal that was about to happen here.”Kinew did not appear during question period on Monday.Leader of the Official Opposition Obby Khan accused of Kinew of grandstanding and “putting his giant ego and fake smile ahead of Manitobans.””The premier would rather film a commercial acting as Ford’s puppet on his lap instead of doing the hard and serious work for Manitobans,” Khan said during question period. “This trade conflict with the United States is a serious issue … or does this premier think everything is a joke?”Official Opposition Leader Obby Khan during question period at the Manitoba Legislature on Monday. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce HoyeWith files from Julia Alevato and Kate McKenna
Manitoba’s premier doubles down on support for Ontario anti-tariff adds that roiled Trump
