Trump’s abrupt termination of trade talks is unsurprising to most Canadians, said Mahmood Nanji, a fellow at the Ivey Business School at Western University and former associate deputy finance minister in Ontario.

The US president had made a similar threat earlier this year after Ottawa announced it would impose a digital services tax on US technology firms.

“His posts tend to be full of theatrics and hyperbole,” Mr Nanji said.

And while some might appreciate Ford standing up for the Ontario industries hardest hit by tariffs, the timing and tone of Ford’s advert campaign has not helped Canada’s case, causing an “unnecessary distraction”, Mr Nanji added.

It is unclear if trade talks will indeed resume now that Ford has pulled the ad, and Trump is yet to respond to the announcement that it will stop running.

The White House signalled frustration with what it called “Canada’s longstanding, unfair trade barriers” on Friday, adding that efforts to address these issues “have not led to any constructive progress”.

Carney has made some appeasements to keep talks going, including removing retaliatory tariffs and dropping Canada’s digital services tax. But he has repeatedly said that he is searching for “the best deal for Canada”.

Both Trump and Carney are heading to Asia on Friday for the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. The Canadian prime minister told reporters that the focus of his trip would be “developing new partnerships and opportunities, including with the economic giants of Asia”.

But Carney also left the door open to continue trade talks with the US.

Mr Nanji said the advert saga was a reminder that the path to a deal for Canada will not be an easy one, regardless of negotiation methods.

He noted remarks by Carney earlier in the week in which he stated that “the US has fundamentally changed its approach to trade” and that Canada’s close tie to the US had become a vulnerability.

“We have to take care of ourselves because we can’t rely on one foreign partner,” Carney said in a speech on Wednesday to tease his government’s first budget, which will be unveiled on 4 November.

The speech, Mr Nanji said, was also meant to “caution Canadians that this is going to be a really rocky road with the Americans”.