{"id":347080,"date":"2025-11-01T03:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T03:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347080\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T03:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T03:37:11","slug":"ford-the-bully-carney-the-conciliator-the-dream-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347080\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford the bully, Carney the conciliator: the dream team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an announcement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford at the Darlington Energy Complex in Courtice, Ont., on Oct. 23.Laura Proctor\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.<\/p>\n

As culturally incongruous as it may seem, the dust-up over the Government of Ontario\u2019s anti-tariff television advertisement<\/a> that enraged U.S. President Donald Trump suggests that once in a while Canada needs a bully.<\/p>\n

And it has found one in Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a>. Suddenly, Mr. Ford\u2019s chronic unvarnished brashness, which for years has rubbed many Ontarians the wrong way, has become an asset when it comes to fighting fire with fire. <\/p>\n

With the ad, featuring clips of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan talking about the dangers of tariffs<\/a> for America and its workers, Mr. Ford succeeded in out-bullying the man who relishes his role as the biggest intimidator in the global schoolyard. <\/p>\n

In many respects, Mr. Ford is the first Canadian leader to put Canada first in terms Mr. Trump can understand, as odious as that may be for some. <\/p>\n

The ad<\/a> was not subtle. It was not equivocal. It was a cheeky, smart, in-your-face, poke-the-bear, stick-that-in-your-pipe-and-smoke-it message that said even the U.S.\u2019s polite, fair-minded, reasonable neighbours and allies to the north have limits. <\/p>\n

In Detroit, where sympathy for Canada runs high, residents are divided on Reagan anti-tariff ad<\/a><\/p>\n

The fact that it featured comments from Mr. Reagan, perhaps the most beloved Republican in modern U.S. history and someone Mr. Trump admires, was delicious icing on the cake. To rub Mr. Reagan\u2019s words in Mr. Trump\u2019s face was, well, a bit like sticking your head in the mouth of an angry lion.<\/p>\n

So effective was the ad in getting under Mr. Trump\u2019s skin, he did what any good bully would do. He picked up his ball and went home in a huff, cutting off trade talks and threatening even more sanctions on Canada. Bullies don\u2019t like games they can\u2019t win. <\/p>\n

Mr. Ford eventually agreed to pull the ad, but not before it had aired nationally in the U.S. and Canada during World Series<\/a> broadcasts. The point had been made for millions of viewers on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

But beyond the anti-tariff message itself, what seemed to really frost the leader of the free world the most about the ad was the fact that he didn\u2019t think of something like it himself.<\/p>\n

The brilliance of Mr. Ford\u2019s gambit is that he used a tactic right out of Mr. Trump\u2019s own deal-making tool box \u2013 a lesson Mr. Trump trumpeted in his 1987 book, Trump: The Art of the Deal.<\/p>\n

One of Mr. Trump long-standing fundamental negotiating strategies is to build up one\u2019s own strengths while denigrating your opponent \u2013 making them feel weak, unworthy and outgunned, even insulting them.<\/p>\n

Opinion: This isn\u2019t just a hissy fit from Trump \u2013 it\u2019s his \u2018Art of the Deal\u2019 playbook<\/a><\/p>\n

All these years later, Mr. Trump has remained faithful to that posture. Remember, this is the man who delights in calling his adversaries names: \u201cCrooked Hillary\u201d (Clinton). \u201cLyin\u2019 Ted\u201d (Cruz). \u201cLow Energy Jeb\u201d (Bush). \u201cSleepy Joe\u201d (Biden). And \u201cLittle Marco\u201d (Rubio), the man who is now Mr. Trump\u2019s Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

Few things could make Mr. Trump appear weaker in his position on tariffs than Mr. Reagan\u2019s words painting a wholly contrary picture. For the GOP faithful, it\u2019s like having the Almighty say, \u201cYou\u2019re wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

As entertaining as it has been to watch Mr. Trump pout about being upstaged by Mr. Ford, bully-to-bully standoffs rarely lead to constructive outcomes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, while Canada needs a bully right now, it also needs a counterbalance.<\/p>\n

Enter Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a>, who met Mr. Trump in South Korea and, according to the latter, played the good cop to Mr. Ford\u2019s bad cop. Polished, credentialed, measured, Mr. Carney is a skilled negotiator who speaks a language Mr. Trump understands \u2013 business and money. <\/p>\n

As unlikely bedfellows as they may seem, together, Mr. Carney and Mr. Ford actually make a pretty good tag team in the rollicking and often bizarre wrestling match with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump says Carney apologized for Ontario anti-tariff ad, but talks still off<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Ford can take on Mr. Trump with bare knuckles in the alleyway, then tap Mr. Carney, who can do his thing in the boardroom, a.k.a. the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Going forward, Canadian leaders should pay close attention to the effectiveness of the Reagan anti-tariff ad in putting Mr. Trump on notice that Canada won\u2019t simply roll over. The so-called \u201celbows up\u201d posture isn\u2019t just a slogan.<\/p>\n

While the fallout from the ad may cause some short-term pain, eventually Mr. Trump will come back to the table. In a weird way and at some level, Canada earned a bit of respect in the fracas. <\/p>\n

Mr. Trump may not like being showed up by the leaders of a place he thinks should be the 51st state, but he now knows that Canada has some sharp sticks, too.<\/p>\n

The Carney-Ford tag team should draw on the experience of the Reagan ad. Together, they might just be an unlikely but effective weapon in Canada\u2019s arsenal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an announcement with Ontario Premier Doug Ford at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":347081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-347080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}