The Ontario election, for all anyone is paying attention to it, is supposedly over who can best handle the United States and Donald Trump. So, perhaps it is fitting that at least two of the main parties chose to battle it out with competing ads during CTV’s broadcast of the Super Bowl.
Bonnie Crombie’s Liberals ran two 30-second ads during the broadcast, while Doug Ford’s PC Party chose to run one 30-second ad and a full 60-second commercial.
It’s no wonder why the parties targeted the biggest sporting event in the United States; it’s also a big deal here in Canada. Last year, more than 10 million Canadians watched the game while a total of 19 million watched at least part of it, meaning they tuned in for the half-time show.
Crombie’s Liberals spent a little more than $200,000 to run two 30-second ads. One looks at the promises on health care, including a promise to connect every Ontarian to a family doctor within four years. The other is an attack ad aimed at Premier Doug Ford, who was recently caught on a hot mic saying that he was happy Trump won the American election.
“Was I happy this guy won? 100% I was,” Ford is quoted in the ad.
What the Liberals leave out of their ad is the next sentence Ford uttered, showing his disgust at Trump’s tariff attacks on Canada.
“Then the guy pulled out the knife and f****** yanked it into us,” Ford said.
The Liberals, who are well behind Ford in the polls, are hoping to close the gap by pointing to the premier’s comments saying he was happy Trump won. Trump is deeply unpopular in Canada at the moment given his tariff threats and talk of annexing Canada, issues the Liberals hope their ads remind voters of.
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Ford’s PCs, meanwhile, are pointing to Ford’s role as “Captain Canada” in pushing back against Trump’s tariff threats. No premier has shown up on American television more than Ford – on Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC, News Nation, Newsmax and more – to push back against Trump’s tariff agenda.
They also point to a poll from Abacus Data showing that for most voters, 65%, the hot mic moment either has no impact or makes voters more likely to vote for Ford’s PCs.
As the PCs and Liberals battle it out in the ad department in the middle of the big game, the NDP will be absent. A party official said that they are focused on having their full slate of candidates connect with voters at the door, noting the Liberals still don’t have a full slate.
“The Super Bowl ad is an expensive stunt that won’t move votes. It’s designed to distract from the Liberals lack of local campaigns, weak volunteer numbers and low number of candidates,” a New Democrat official said.
It’s an odd attack for the NDP, given that Crombie’s team announced Sunday that they had approved a full slate of candidates. The Liberals say they are able to make this big buy because fundraising in the middle of the campaign is going so well.
While the NDP and Liberals battle each other, Doug Ford’s PCs will use their dominant position in the polls, and in fundraising, to push their message. The party will spend more than $300,000 to run a 60-second and 30-second ad, both with the same message – Doug Ford is the man to protect Ontario.
Ford’s ad effectively used clips of his American TV appearances and his position as Chair of the Council of the Federation to hammer home the message that he is fighting Trump’s threat.
The PCs, having raised far more money than the other parties, pretty much double the other two parties, and are now blanketing the province with ads in local newspapers, on radio, online and on screens big and small. The NDP couldn’t afford a Super Bowl ad, the Liberals stretched for one and will gamble for results, but Ford’s PCs will barely notice this when the full accounting comes in.