Ottawa launches anti-tariff ad campaign across 12 red states, plus a patriotic TV spot at home

Verity Stevenson · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 21, 2025 5:01 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

Canada is trying to triumph the hearts and minds of Americans with an ad campaign against U.S. tariffs targeting 12 Republican-voting states.

Speaking connected CNN Friday morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said the national authorities paid for ads connected integer billboards on cardinal highways successful reddish states — states wherever the bulk voted for President Donald Trump — including Florida, Nevada, Georgia, New Hampshire, Michigan and Ohio. 

"Canadians are sending the connection that there's nary winners successful a commercialized war. There volition beryllium occupation losses connected some sides of the border, peculiarly successful the U.S.," Joly said successful an interrogation with CNN's Pamela Brown. 

The authorities besides launched a tv advertisement run astatine home. It is voiced successful English by Rick Mercer and successful French by Remi-Pierre Paquin with euphony by Vancouver stone duo Japandroids.

The ad, which has been posted to the national government's societal media accounts, features footage from crossed the state arsenic good arsenic archival video of hockey games and key moments successful Canadian history. 

"Canada, it's clip for much us," the advertisement begins. "We're much than conscionable a spot connected a map. We're an cognition — 1 with much empathy than ego."

"The much we take to basal up arsenic our astir flag-flying, maple-leaf-buying, section adventuring selves, the much we are the True North, unbreakable, beardown and free," Mercer tin beryllium heard saying. 

CBC News did not instantly perceive backmost to a petition to cognize however overmuch the authorities is spending connected the ads. They come only days earlier Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and telephone a national election.

The national Conservative Party launched an onslaught advertisement against Carney connected X Thursday.

On CNN, Joly said Ottawa was turning to "hard-working" Americans to unit their lawmakers to region U.S. tariffs already successful spot connected alloy and aluminum and forestall the wide-ranging tariffs planned for April 2. 

This winter, pursuing Trump's archetypal tariff threats citing borderline information and amerciable fentanyl, the Canadian authorities pulled retired each the stops to summation the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) beingness on the border. Joly said it's wide that didn't work. 

"We saw that each the enactment we were doing successful bully religion was not needfully having an interaction connected President Trump himself," the she said. 

Brown asked Joly to respond to Trump's annexation threats, astir precocious made successful an interrogation with Fox's Laura Ingraham this week, erstwhile the president said Canada was "meant to beryllium the 51st state" and called it "one of the nastiest countries to woody with."

"Americans and Canadians are champion friends, are champion neighbours, champion allies. We ne'er started this commercialized war," Joly responded.

WATCH | Joly told Rubio 'Canada's sovereignty is not up to debate':

Joly said "the rhetoric coming retired of the White House is — however tin I say — absurd," and added that Canada was opening to crook to different allies successful Europe and the United Kingdom for commercialized and defence. Earlier this week, Joly confirmed to CBC's Power and Politics big David Cochrane that Canada was successful talks with the European Union to beryllium portion of a caller defence accumulation partnership. 

Canada has already retaliated with a 25 per cent tariff connected astir $60 cardinal worthy of U.S. goods, and is threatening much counter-tariffs if Trump follows done connected his plans to taxation much imports connected April 2. 

Joly said she has been successful interaction with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who she met astatine the G7 overseas ministers' gathering successful La Malbaie, Que., past week.