From ‘kiss my ass’ to cooling tensions: What drove Doug Ford’s sudden change in tone on Trump?

Canada has already seen how quickly provincial actions can become entangled with negotiations.

Ontario's previous U.S. advertising campaign featuring former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs triggered a furious response from Trump and became another source of tension between Ford and the federal government over how the U.S. relationship should be managed.

That history may have made Ottawa particularly wary of another provincial intervention becoming a distraction from negotiations.