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Re: How a one-minute ad threw Canada-U.S. trade talks into turmoil — Tracy Moran, Oct. 25

Tracy Moran and other critics of current events miss the point. Focusing on sideshows like “Ontario’s Reagan ad behind freeze in U.S. trade talks” only helps President Donald Trump’s con. Premier Doug Ford deserves credit for doing what few dare — standing up to a bully. Negotiating with a cheater is dumb because it is logically premised to fail.

Criticizing Ford for speaking truth to power — which is a virtue of democracy — is a moral and national mistake. The Reagan anti-tariff ad is proof money talks in America. Yes, its veracity got under Trump’s skin — that was the point — to expose his lying contradictions to the Republicans. Reagan’s 1987 words lambasted tariffs as harming “every American worker and consumer.”

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Influencing popular culture is how Trump got elected. The right-wing manosphere hosted Trump’s meandering nonsense, yet it convinced viewers that he was harmless. So it’s time to use popular culture to fight back by winning the American audience.

Clearly Canada needs Ford’s brawler instinct tuned into pop culture memes now more than ever. Getting low-information Americans to pay attention to our just cause is a big deal. Better to lose with truth than win with deceit. Canada is not to blame. Why do we have to cave?

If freedom means having nothing left to lose, then let’s be free. Ford — keep pushing back. Prime Minister Carney, if you pre-approved the ad, great. Canadians of all political parties — keep telling and advertising the truth. History always sides with those who do.

Tony D’Andrea, Toronto

Trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada seemed to be progressing smoothly until Trump abruptly halted them on Oct. 23 because of the anti-tariff Ontario government ad — featuring an excerpt from a 1987 speech by former president Ronald Reagan extolling the virtues of free trade — airing on U.S. media outlets.

Prime Minister Carney did not appear to appreciate Premier Ford’s tactic: The trade talks were not over, Carney said, “but we were close to an agreement. Then there were the advertisements and everything changed.”

Yet according to the premier, Carney and his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, had seen the one-minute video before its release. Knowing Trump’s sensitivity, why didn’t they ask Ford to postpone his plan if the two countries were close to an agreement?

It’s certain that Trump loathed this advertisement. Imagine, his hero, the 40th president, a Republican no less, railing against the much-vaunted tariffs and defending the much-maligned free trade. To top it all off, Trump’s anger piqued the curiosity of many of his fellow citizens regarding the $75-million ad campaign, which, incidentally, comes just as the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments on Nov. 5 regarding the legality of the presidential tariffs. All eyes will be on the majority of conservative judges — three of whom owe their seats to him —and it will be difficult for them to satisfy their president.

If Canada claims victory on this issue, will Prime Minister Carney thank his Ontario counterpart for his forceful response, given that he himself has consistently bowed to the capricious American president since taking office in Ottawa?

Sylvio Le Blanc,........

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