Fact Check: Did Ontario’s Reagan Anti-Tariff Ad Misuse the Gipper’s Words?
9/17/1982 President Reagan during his Saturday Radio Address in the Oval Office
When Ontario Premier Doug Ford invoked Ronald Reagan’s voice in a U.S.-targeted ad warning about tariffs, critics pounced. The Reagan Foundation accused Ford’s team of “selective editing.” President Trump called it “fraudulent propaganda.” But the real question is simple: did the ad misrepresent Reagan’s views?
Claim: Reagan’s 1987 speech warned that high tariffs destroy jobs.
Verdict: True.
The Ford government’s ad features Reagan declaring, “High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation… Markets shrink and collapse, and millions of people lose their jobs.”
That line comes directly from Reagan’s April 25, 1987 Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade, available in full on the Reagan Library’s official website. Reagan delivered the remarks as Congress debated protectionist bills aimed at Japanese and European imports. His administration was pushing for freer global markets through GATT and early talks that would later shape NAFTA.
In context, Reagan’s message was unambiguous: tariffs harm the very workers they claim to protect. “History shows,” he said, “that protectionism is destructionism.” No selective editing required.
Claim: The ad distorts Reagan’s intent by using his voice against Trump’s policies.
Verdict: Misleading.
Reagan’s warning applied to any administration tempted by economic nationalism. The speech wasn’t partisan—it was philosophical. Reagan tied America’s prosperity to openness, calling free trade “an economic freedom as sacred as freedom of speech.” While Ford’s campaign aimed its message at Trump’s revived tariff threats, the principle remains identical.
Ironically, Reagan’s White House battled similar populist pressures in the 1980s, when steel and auto industries demanded protection. Reagan resisted. His logic—that trade barriers invite retaliation—was as true then as now.
Claim: The Reagan Foundation didn’t authorize use of the material.
Verdict: True but irrelevant.
The Reagan Foundation confirmed it hadn’t granted permission. That’s a legal issue, not a factual one. The 1987 radio address has been in the public domain for decades—as is typical of nearly all U.S. government content. Unless explicitly restricted by federal statute, material created by or for the U.S. government is automatically public domain and available for free use worldwide.
Ford’s ad uses publicly available presidential remarks, edited for brevity but not distortion. The Foundation’s objection appears less about accuracy than about optics. As a nonprofit institution, the Reagan Foundation is understandably cautious about being drawn into modern partisan conflicts. Its criticism likely reflects a desire to avoid being used as a political football, not an assertion that the ad misrepresented Reagan’s message.
Claim: The ad is foreign interference in U.S. politics.
Verdict: False.
The C$75 million campaign aired mainly on U.S. business networks to influence trade attitudes, not elections. Ottawa and provincial governments have long marketed Canadian economic messages to American audiences—just as U.S. states do abroad. The Ford government’s argument that tariffs punish both sides is well supported by decades of cross-border data.
Bottom Line
Factually, the Reagan audio is authentic, the message is faithful, and the context is sound. The outrage surrounding Ontario’s ad says more about 2025’s fragile political egos than about 1987’s economic wisdom. In Reagan’s own words, “We should not be afraid of the future… we should shape it through free and fair trade.”
Verdict: Ontario’s Reagan ad passes this fact-check with flying colors.
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