The ad infuriated Trump, who ended trade talks with Canada and said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%.
When asked on Saturday what Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s response was to being asked not to run the ad, Carney said, “Well, you saw what came of it.”
“It’s not something I would have done,” Carney added at a news conference as he wrapped a nine-day trip to Asia.
Ford is a populist Conservative while Carney is a Liberal. As premier, Ford is the equivalent of a U.S. governor.
“I’m the one who is responsible, in my role as prime minister, for the relationship with the president of the U.S., and the federal government is responsible for the foreign relationship with the U.S. government,” Carney said.
A spokesperson for Ford didn’t immediately respond when asked if Carney told Ford not to run the ad.
Ford previously said Carney and Carney’s chief of staff watched the ad before it was released.
Ford pulled the ad last Monday but allowed it to be shown in the first two games of the baseball World Series.
Trump said the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president and a beloved figure in the Republican Party. But Reagan was wary of tariffs and used much of the 1987 address featured in Ontario’s ad spelling out the case against them.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., and nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
