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U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s expletive-laced tirade toward Ontario’s trade representative was “absolutely unacceptable” and “unbecoming of an ambassador,” said Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday.
It comes days after Hoekstra was seen in a heated rant toward David Paterson, Ontario’s trade representative, at a Canadian American Business Council event in Ottawa on Monday, multiple witnesses told CBC News.
Sources at the event spoke with CBC News on the condition that they not be named.
The heated exchange, allegedly laced with f-bombs, mentioned Ford by name and appeared to have been spurred by Ontario’s anti-tariff ad that ran on television in the U.S. until Monday — something that has infuriated U.S. President Donald Trump.
While Ford doubled down that the ad was “the right thing to do,” he urged Hoekstra to apologize to Paterson and get negotiations back on track.
“Pete [Hoekstra], you’ve got to call Dave [Paterson] up and apologize. It’s simple,” said Ford at an unrelated news conference Wednesday. “I get heated sometimes, but just call the guy up and bury the hatchet.”
U.S. President Donald Trump called an Ontario government ad using Ronald Reagan talking about tariffs ‘fake’ saying it misrepresents the speech. For The National, CBC’s Ashley Fraser breaks down how it compares and why Trump’s so upset.
Ford said the ad was his way of fighting back against multiple attacks by Trump toward Ontario and Canada.
“What do they expect me to do? Sit back and roll over like every other person in the world?” he said, adding the video was “successful” with over 11.4 billion impressions.
“So why doesn’t the president start being nice? Play nice in the sandbox to his biggest customer in the entire world and everything’s hunky dory,” Ford said.
The intention of the ad was not to “poke the president,” but to start a conversation and “wake up the Democrats,” Ford said.
The ad features an anti-tariff speech by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, which Ford said is a stance the well-known Republican leader spoke about on several occasions.
“Ronald Reagan is telling the truth. A tariff on Canada is a tax on the American people,” he said.
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton discusses where trade talks go after Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s U.S. ad, with the Sunday Scrum panel of Globe and Mail reporter Ian Bailey, CBC Radio’s The House host Catherine Cullen and Toronto Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief Robert Benzie. Plus, P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz, former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. Frank McKenna and Justin Trudeau’s former deputy chief of staff, Brian Clow, join the show to discuss trade negotiations.
In spite of the conflict, Ford called Hoekstra “a good guy” who he had a bet with for the World Series with the loser wearing the winning team’s jersey.
Hoekstra made headlines in the past for some of his blunt remarks about the Canada-U.S. relationship.
He described Canadian retaliation against Trump’s tariffs as “nasty,” calling out American booze boycotts and Canadians choosing to vacation anywhere but the U.S.
Hoekstra also tried to downplay Trump’s taunts about Canada becoming the 51st state, describing it as a term of endearment.
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