Doug Ford finally gets Donald Trump’s attention Artwork

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Closer Look - Insightful, credible, unfiltered conversations that matter

Doug Ford finally gets Donald Trump’s attention

October 24, 2025 • Village Media Inc.

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Doug Ford never did secure a one-on-one meeting with Donald Trump — but the U.S. president definitely knows who he is.

In a fiery social media post late Thursday night, Trump abruptly cancelled all trade talks with Canada because of the Ontario government’s anti-tariff commercial featuring the voice of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Trump said the ad “fraudulently” claimed that Reagan opposed tariffs “when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.”

Ford announced Friday afternoon that the province will run the ads as planned this weekend — including during the World Series — but then hit the pause button.

“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a statement. “We've achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”

VIDEO: Why Doug Ford is spending $75M on U.S. ads starring Ronald Reagan

Joining us on tonight's episode of Closer Look is Julian Karaguesian, an economics professor at McGill University and former special advisor at the federal Finance Ministry.

The episode was recorded Friday afternoon, right before Ford announced the ads would be paused.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

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