Natasha Bulowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Canada’s National Observer
BC Premier David Eby’s office confirmed he has not consulted with Prime Minister Mark Carney on a planned anti-tariff ad campaign set to roll out next month — and despite the massive blowback to Ontario’s anti-tariff advertisement, intends to press on with his own ads.
Last week, Eby announced the province will launch a digital ad campaign to inform the American public about the “unfair and absurd” tariffs on Canada’s softwood lumber.
BC’s ads will be digital and “a fraction of the cost of Ontario’s campaign,” Manveer Singh Sahota, communications manager at the premier’s office, said in an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer. He said more details will be confirmed in the coming days.
Anti-tariff ads have been a hot-button topic ever since Oct. 23, when US President Donald Trump halted trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff advertisement launched by Ontario. Ontario’s $75 million ad campaign used audio of former US president and free trade proponent Ronald Reagan’s criticisms of tariffs to speak to American audiences during the baseball World Series. This drew the ire of Trump, who along with halting trade talks also threatened to increase tariffs by a further 10 per cent. In the aftermath, the drama continued: US ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra reportedly berated Ontario’s trade representative Dave Paterson at a Canadian-American business event on Monday in Ottawa.
So far, Eby appears undeterred and has voiced his support for Ontario’s TV ad. At the time of writing, he had not spoken with Carney about his forthcoming online ad campaign.
“I certainly haven’t, and I can’t speak for the premier. I don’t believe he has spoken directly to the Prime Minister,” BC Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview on Wednesday.
“The reason we’re put in the position to consider running an ad is because of the fact that we are dealing with dire circumstances of 45 per cent duties and tariffs on our softwood lumber,” Parmar said. Due to the increased tariffs, Russia has better access to the US softwood lumber market than British Columbia, Parmar said, adding “I think it’s important for American lawmakers to know that.”
Eby’s staff confirmed that “Premier Eby and Prime Minister Carney have yet to meet about this,” in an emailed statement to Canada’s National Observer. “However, Premier Eby met with federal ministers and they agreed to hold an emergency summit on forestry.”
Carney is out of the country from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, 2025 travelling to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea. Staff at the Prime Minister’s Office did not return a request for comment.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the prime minister’s office tries to talk them out of it, just to not throw fuel onto the fire,” Julian Karaguesian, international trade expert and lecturer at the University of McGill, told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview.
“If these advertisements were going to advance our interests in some way, great, maybe the federal government should help. But I just don’t think they will,” Karaguesian said.
The planned emergency softwood lumber summit in Vancouver next week is an opportunity for the province and federal government to confer on the digital ad campaign and support for the forestry sector. According to Parmar, logistics are still being worked out but Minister of Internal Trade Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson and Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Gregor Robertson are expected to attend the emergency meeting, targeted for next week.
These sorts of ad campaigns technically fall under provincial jurisdiction, so in terms of how Canada’s federation works there is no obligation for premiers to run these decisions by the federal government or get federal approval, said Diya Jiang, an expert and lecturer on the politics of trade and US-Canada relations at McGill University.
However, Trump’s harsh reaction to Ontario’s ad makes this a “much more delicate issue that requires intergovernmental communication,” Jiand said.
Jiand noted BC has a long history — starting in the early 2000s — of running ad campaigns to convey that duties on softwood lumber hurt Americans, too.
“I don’t think it is the ad itself that’s going to be so different, but rather the circumstance that has changed quite a bit,” Jiang said, nodding to the Supreme Court case that could, potentially, strike down Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, given how polarised US politics is and the American public really are,” she said.
With midterm elections coming up next fall, there could be a benefit to trying to win over the American public on free trade, but at the same time, tariffs are an immediate threat and given the severe backlash over Ontario’s ad, this potentially does more harm than good to the Canada-US negotiations, Jiang said.
Karaguesian questioned the efficacy of such an ad campaign, particularly in a non-election year.
“I don’t think it advances our interests,” he said.
“If you’re going to fight back, you want to be able to gain some kind of advantage, you don’t want it to just be you … leaning against a hurricane.”
At the same time, a lower-budget, online ad campaign is very different from Ford invoking the words of Reagan on primetime TV, during the first two games of the World Series, Karaguesian said. It’s possible online ads about the impacts of softwood lumber tariffs may not even register on Trump’s radar or prompt any reaction, he said.
“But I do think that we should keep our powder dry,” he added.
Carleton University professor of international affairs Fen Hampson is of the same mind.
“Whatever you put out, whether it’s on television or social media or YouTube, tread carefully,” warned Hampson. “You don’t want to make things worse in an environment where clearly there’s a fair bit of friction,” he said, referencing Hoekstra’s expletive-laced outburst and the suspension of trade talks.
Premiers like Eby have a political imperative to show that they are defending Canadians’ interests but the mayhem spurred by Ontario’s ad demonstrates how that can backfire, Hampson said.
Trump and his administration is more likely to respond to the concerns of industry, like the US National Association of Home Builders, which has already warned that lumber tariffs will increase the cost of new homes, Hampson said. The tariffs are causing a shortage of softwood lumber in the US, he said.
“There’s obviously a growing political backlash,” Hampson said. “Bottom line: the US housing sector is the best point of leverage for Canada getting some kind of tariff relief on lumber.”
Canada supplied about 25 per cent of US softwood lumber in 2024, comprising the vast majority of total US softwood lumber imports.
