‘Cheese slipped off the cracker’: Ford calls for apology after U.S. ambassador hurls ‘insults and swore’ at Ontario trade rep

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra to apologize for lashing out at Ontario’s trade representative at an event in Ottawa on Monday.

“You got to call (Dave Paterson) up and apologize. It’s simple,” Ford said while speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Toronto. “The cheese slipped off the cracker. I get it. You’re ticked off. But call the guy up because you’re a good guy.”

According to two sources in the Ontario government, there was an “unpleasant exchange” between Hoekstra and the province’s trade representative in Washington, David Paterson, during which Hoekstra hurled “insults and swore” over Ontario’s anti-tariff ad.

Paterson, meanwhile, “remained calm” during the tirade, sources say.

The Ottawa Sun was the first to report on the tense exchange.

While Ford said he “liked” Hoekstra and called him a “good guy,” the premier insisted it’s time to “bury the hatchet” and described the ambassador’s behaviour as “unacceptable” and “unbecoming of an ambassador.”

“He knows what to do,” Ford said. “(Hoekstra has) been around before Moses. Call the guy up and apologize. Let’s start getting back on track.”

Ford, meanwhile, referred to Paterson as his “champion,” saying he is “instrumental in these trade deals down in Washington.”

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada over Ontario’s anti-tariff commercial that featured the voice of former Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

Then on Saturday, Trump announced an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canada because the Ontario government didn’t immediately pull down the ad, which continued to run in U.S. markets until Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Malaysia on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said trade talks with the U.S. “had been making progress” on affected sectors like steel and aluminum until Trump’s anger over the ad.

Hours before Hoekstra scolded Paterson at the Canadian American Business Council gathering in Ottawa, he gave a keynote address to the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses Canada, during which he said he didn’t foresee a new security and economic deal between Canada and the United States before the new year.

“We have stopped negotiations with Canada,” Hoekstra said. “I don’t see any way that there will be an agreement before American Thanksgiving.”

Asked by event attendees whether he sees any way to get negotiations back on track, such as an apology for the ad, Hoekstra said: “No.”

Speaking more broadly about the state of negotiations, Hoekstra laid the blame at Canada’s feet for the soured relationship.

“Canada burnt the bridges with America,” he said. “Donald Trump did not slam the door.”

He also said the ad amounts to foreign interference, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to start hearing arguments on the legality of Trump’s tariffs on Nov. 5, as well as some gubernatorial and state legislative elections happening next week.

CTV News reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Canada, and officials there declined to comment.

Ford: Ad not meant to ‘poke the president in the eye’

Ford has repeatedly defended the ad, saying it accomplished what he’d hoped, surpassing a billion impressions and reaching American voters.

On Wednesday, he reiterated his stance.

“What do they expect me to do? Sit back and roll over like every other person in the world. I’m going to fight like I’ve never fought before,” Ford said.

The premier also said his “intention wasn’t to go poke the president in the eye.”

“My intention was to get a conversation going. Wake up the Democrats a little bit down there, and my goodness, it woke them up all right,” Ford added.

Did Carney see Ontario’s ad before it aired?

Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday, Ford said both Carney and his chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, saw the ad prior to it airing.

When asked again on Wednesday about how he knew whether the prime minister saw the advertisement in advance, Ford simply said, “I was with him.”

Since Ford’s remarks on Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office has not confirmed or denied whether Carney or his chief of staff knew about the commercial ahead of time.

A federal government source would only tell CTV News on Monday that the “decision was made by the Government of Ontario, and the federal government was not involved in the production or distribution of this ad.”

Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade on Wednesday.

When asked whether she has received any feedback on Ontario’s ad or British Columbia’s own anti-tariff advertisement, Hillman said, “I have not.”

“I have not had any feedback personally on a potential British Columbia ad campaign,” Hillman said. “And the feedback that has been received on the Ontario ad campaign, I think is quite public, so people will have seen that.”

Hillman also insisted the relationship between Canada and the U.S. is “strong” and that “channels of communication are open.”

“Over the course of the last four or five days, our entire team here has been continuing to work at senior levels with all of their counterparts, whether they’re at the State Department or Department of Homeland Security or the White House, the Energy Department, the Environment Department,” Hillman said. “All of these are still happening, including right up to the most senior levels.”

With files from CTV News’ Chief Political Correspondent Vassy Kapelos and CTV News’ Spencer Van Dyk