Ontario Premier Doug Ford and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are raising the stakes on this year’s World Series, which tees off as President Donald Trump stews over an Ontario ad campaign that invoked former President Ronald Reagan to argue against his tariffs.
The pair made a friendly wager over the result of the series — while ripping Trump’s trade policy — ahead of the matchup pitting the Los Angeles Dodgers against Canada’s lone Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays.
“If the Blue Jays win, I’ll send you some of Ontario’s finest maple syrup in a proper tin can, the way it’s meant to be enjoyed,” Ford said in a Friday video, released just before Game 1. “The tariff might cost me a few extra bucks at the border these days, but it’ll be worth it for a Jays win.”
Newsom responded by referencing Canadian provinces’ ban on U.S. alcohol sales — launched this year due to Trump’s tariff levies.
“I’ll send you a bottle of California’s championship-worthy wine,” he said. “And hey, can you do me a favor, think you can put it on the liquor store shelves?”
The Blue Jays started the series with a bang Friday night, mashing three homers and 14 hits en route to an 11-4 comeback win in Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
But all is not trending up in the Great North. Trump on Thursday halted U.S. trade negotiations with Canada over the C$75 million ad campaign, whose message Ford had promised would be shared in every Republican district in the country.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” the president wrote Friday on Truth Social. “They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.’
Ford swiftly announced plans to pull the ad on Monday. And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who himself challenged Trump with a bet on the eve of the World Series, has been stuck in damage control mode.
“A lot of progress has been made, and we stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions,” he said Friday morning.
Ford and Newsom, a longtime archrival of the president, are leaning into their own relationship with Ottawa and Washington increasingly under strain. Newsom has long worked to position California as a welcoming state for Canadian visitors, even as many have pulled back on travel to the U.S. to express their anger at Trump.
“Here’s to a great World Series, and a tariff-free friendship between Ontario and California,” the two said in the Friday video.
