LaPointe: Tariff ad turned trade dispute into international public shaming.

Breakup by broadcast

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An Ontario ad opposing U.S. tariffs drew the ire of President Donald Trump.

When a television commercial can prompt the world’s most powerful man to throw a tariff-triggering hissy fit, you know as a country you have a relationship problem.

As any psychologist would say, humiliation is a bad strategy. Ontario’s tariff ad turned a trade dispute into a public shaming. British Columbia looks poised to repeat the mistake.

Sure, in a relationship you can say you don’t feel the same love, tell your friends the partner has changed, even admit your eyes are wandering, yet still be committed to work it out.

But any expert will tell you not to get so complacent about reconciliation that you let a best friend spread an embarrassing message. One that admonishes and demeans your partner to your circle of friends, acquaintances, and even those who never thought much about your long bond. (Like Mark Carney let Doug Ford do.)

Think for a second, will you? Oh, right, we’re past that now. Now, what?

Your bestie can crow the whole world now knows of the mistreatment, that the salvo will pressure your partner to his senses, shake him into recognizing he doesn’t appreciate you, and expose the unjust pain he’s causing, given your history.

In fact, you’ve revealed yourself in making things worse. You’ve given up on reasoning in private and resorted to scoring points in public. You’ve decided you’re the better person, that your partner is wrong and needs to be blamed and corrected.

That’s the dynamic Ontario unleashed by buying American prime time to scold the White House about tariffs. The reaction was swift. Politics in Washington hardened. Talks were terminated, and the admakers were scolded for liberties with Ronald Reagan’s words. Ontario then paused the campaign, too late to stop the splash. The aftertaste remains.

Translate this back to the therapy room. Shaming triggers predictable counter-moves such as defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt. Bring a third party into the conflict, whether friends, family or social media, and you get triangulation. The fight stops being about solving the problem and becomes a performance. The actual partner? He digs in. In geopolitics, the “friends” are cable networks and partisan feeds that reward heat over light. They don’t mediate; they monetize.

Another version may be coming. British Columbia is preparing a U.S.-facing campaign on softwood lumber, with the (economically sound) claim that American consumers pay the price for protectionism. It risks playing the same emotional chords below the border: as a public scold framed as interference, with a political class happier to swat than study, resulting in a negotiation space that shrinks once the video rolls. A sequel lets Washington call it a pattern and respond to “foreign propaganda” instead of the policy case.

B.C. has a solid brief. Our economies are braided. Tariffs gum up supply chains; costs climb for builders and homeowners; jobs shift or stall. Those facts persuade when the audience is ready to hear them. TV attacks don’t create readiness. They create reaction.

And reaction has a calendar. America is always in an election somewhere. Congress is always close to a hearing. Add the approaching review of the continental trade pact and you’ve got a room full of accelerants. In that room, buying airtime looks less like persuasion and more like a dare, especially when the last dare ended badly.

Cleaner, proven tools don’t set off the smoke alarm. Enlist American validators, work statehouses, and feed aides evidence. If your audience is homeowners, don’t preach during sports. Find builders, retailers, and insurers to explain how tariffs pad project costs and delay rebuilds after storms.

Ask for specific relief tied to housing or disaster recovery. In relationship terms, make a repair attempt, not a grand speech. Stay away from broadsides. Quiet memos beat loud commercials. No one likes being cornered in front of their family, least of all a superpower with an itchy temperament.

Catharsis isn’t strategy. Ads feel good because they let us perform our righteousness. But they also lock both sides into roles of the injured and the injurer that are hard to escape without “losing.” If we believe in the relationship, we shouldn’t try to win it on the jumbotron or the American-owned social network. We should meet in smaller rooms, define success for both, bring receipts, data and concessions, and leave with next steps, not zingers.

Ontario’s episode is the parable. If B.C. insists on more airtime to lecture Americans about tariffs, we’ll get more of what we just got, including a harder opponent and colder talks. If we want results, we’ll pick the boring tools that move needles precisely because no one is watching. Keep the ads off the air.

Kirk LaPointe is a Lodestar Media columnist with an extensive background in journalism. He is vice-president in the office of the chair at Fulmer & Company.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.