British Columbia Premier David Eby said Monday that his government won’t launch its anti-tariff digital ad campaign in the U.S. this month as previously promised, and will wait until its communication strategy is “aligned” with Ottawa.
Eby said the ads, which were meant to protest rising U.S. tariffs on softwood lumber, were raised during a meeting he convened in Vancouver on the future of the forestry sector with federal government ministers.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Housing Minister Gregor Robertson were among the ministers present for the summit.
“One of the things that I heard Minister LeBlanc say is that for his side, he wanted an integrated approach between the federal and provincial government,” the premier told reporters after the meeting.
“That means that going forward, we’re going to ensure that our communications are aligned. When the time comes to speak with the Americans, we will do it in partnership with the federal government…. We will not be running the ads by ourselves.”
Eby said last week the province still planned to launch the upcoming ads despite U.S. President Donald Trump terminating trade negotiations with Canada over the Ontario government’s anti-tariff ads on American TV.
Trump has also threatened to raise his tariffs on Canada because the ad was not pulled sooner.
While Eby acknowledged at the time that the B.C. ads were different in scope — they were to be launched on digital platforms only and did not quote former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — he said he “unambiguously” supported the Ontario campaign and that provinces “reserve the right” to speak with Americans directly about the costs of Trump’s tariffs.
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On Monday, the premier said he offered to hold the ads on his own and that LeBlanc, who had been helping lead the negotiations with the U.S. before the talks were paused, did not ask him to do so.
He said the decision reflected commitments the federal government made to align with the province on supports for the forestry sector.
“Minister LeBlanc did not have to ask,” Eby said. “I knew that it was a source of anxiety for many people, including potentially the federal government, given the reaction to the Ontario (advertisements).
“One of my commitments to the federal government was that if they came to the table with us, if they sat with us, that we would work with them on communications, on strategy, on how to support the sector and on how to move forward.”
He said the commitments for support reached at the table made him feel “heartened.”
“It felt like we were going it alone there for a while,” Eby said. “To know that we have this federal team in our corner is hugely helpful to me, and resulted in our commitment to work forward, in terms of any communications with the Americans, with the federal government.”
LeBlanc said softwood lumber had been raised frequently in trade negotiations with the U.S., and will be again “if and when” the talks are resumed.
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed over the weekend that he apologized to Trump for the Ontario ads, which Ontario Premier Doug Ford has continued to defend.
Ford told reporters Monday that Carney asked him to remove the anti-tariff ad “a couple of times” before the premier ultimately did so.
“He wasn’t angry at all,” Ford said in recalling his conversations with Carney. “I fully understand the position he’s in; he’s trying to talk to the president, but the president was going to give us a terrible deal.
“I’ll tell you what, I’d never apologize to Donald Trump. Donald Trump’s trying to destroy our province, destroy our country.”
Trump said Friday he still has no plans to resume trade talks with Canada despite Carney’s apology, which happened while the two leaders were in South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that Trump’s threat of an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canada remained a possibility.
“We’ll see,” he said, before once again criticizing Ford over the ad.
“I do think it was a big setback for the Canadian government and the premier of Ontario should be ashamed.”
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