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U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra addresses the Global Business Forum in Banff, Alta., in September.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The American ambassador to Canada delivered an expletive-filled dressing-down to Ontario’s representative in Washington during a prestigious event in Ottawa on Monday, according to two sources, who said the tirade focused on an anti-tariff ad commissioned by the province.
U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra confronted David Paterson, a former General Motors auto executive now working as Ontario’s representative, at the annual Canadian American Business Council gala at the National Gallery of Canada.
The sources told The Globe and Mail that Mr. Hoekstra began to swear at Mr. Paterson over the Ontario ad, which has riled up U.S. President Donald Trump. The President cited the ad as the reason he abruptly cancelled trade talks with Canada last week. He later threatened to impose another 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian goods.
The Globe is not identifying the sources, who were not authorized to discuss the matter.
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The sources say Mr. Hoekstra was loud and using expletives as he railed against the Ontario commercial in front of more than 200 invited participants, many of whom were prominent U.S. and Canadian business executives.
The ambassador was overheard saying Canada was close to a tariff deal on steel, aluminum and energy, but that Ontario Premier Doug Ford had scuttled that goodwill.
U.S. embassy spokesperson Ariel Pollock declined to comment, as did Mr. Paterson. Mr. Hoekstra hung up when The Globe called his personal cellphone.
Monday’s CBAC event is off the record and included a fireside chat with Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade. Canadian Ambassador to Washington Kirsten Hillman gave a toast at the event, but Mr. Hoekstra declined to, according to a third source with direct knowledge.
The Globe is not revealing the identity of the source, who was not authorized to discuss the private event.
The Ontario ad, which cost $75-million, featured pro-free-trade remarks by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan. It had 11.4 billion impressions over the past week through earned media such as news coverage and social media. An ad impression is the number of times an advertisement is shown to users, regardless of whether they click on it.
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Mr. Trump originally said he would have run the ad as well, but later called the Reagan remarks false and announced an immediate end to trade talks with Canada. Later he said the U.S. would impose another 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian goods when the ad was not immediately pulled on Friday.
Mr. Ford did pull the ad on Monday, but allowed it to run during the first two games of the World Series over the weekend, which apparently set off the mercurial U.S. President.
Mr. Ford went on U.S. TV shows Monday to defend the ad and said that Prime Minister Mark Carney had viewed it before it aired.
In Tuesday’s Question Period in the House of Commons, the leaders of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois pressed Mr. LeBlanc to confirm whether the Prime Minister had seen and approved the commercial in advance.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre demanded to know why Mr. Carney would not have pressed Mr. Ford to stop the ad if it was going to endanger a trade deal.
“He has a duty to say whether or not he saw the ads he says blew up the so-called deal he had,” Mr. Poilievre said in the House, but Mr. LeBlanc would not answer directly.
“Our government is committed to doing the serious work necessary to get a deal with the United States,” Mr. LeBlanc replied. But he declined to confirm or deny that the Prime Minister or his staff had approved the Ontario ad.
Asked Monday at the closing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia whether the President’s scuttling of tariff talks was prompted by the Reagan ad, Mr. Carney replied: “I would suggest you take the President at his word for his reasons.”
Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday, Mr. Ford was asked whether the federal government had approved the commercial.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to the media during a press conference at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Monday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
“They know what I was doing. And I said I was going to stop it on Monday. It was very successful,” he said.
Asked about Mr. Carney’s comments that Mr. Trump should be taken at his word as to why talks stalled, Mr. Ford said it’s up to the Prime Minister to meet with the U.S. President.
“I can tell you one thing, if it wasn’t this, he’d pick something else that he wasn’t happy with,” Mr. Ford said.
“Negotiations have been going on month after month after month … We need to sit down and start focusing on it, in my opinion. I’d take no deal instead of a bad deal. And President Trump wants to annihilate our steel sector, our manufacturing sector. He wants to take the auto sector out of Ontario, and life sciences sector, and we have to stand up and fight for the jobs here in Ontario.”
Mr. Ford said the Prime Minister “text messaged me a few things” since Monday. Asked whether Mr. Carney is happy with him, Mr. Ford said, “He’s happy. Why wouldn’t he be happy? We’re his closest friend and ally, just like the U.S.”
Last week The Globe reported that a trade deal on steel, aluminum and energy could be ready for Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump to sign at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this week. That is unlikely to happen now unless Mr. Trump has a change of heart when he arrives at APEC on Thursday.
With a report from Laura Stone
