US Embassy Accuses Canada of Midterm Election Meddling

The United States Embassy in Ottawa has accused Canadian politicians of election meddling ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, releasing a fact sheet that treats public statements about tariffs as attempts to influence American voters. In the document, titled "Monitoring Canadian Activities in U.S. Politics", the embassy says Canadian ministers and provincial premiers "openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances." Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford rejected the accusation the same day it was published.

The fact sheet quotes Industry Minister Mélanie Joly five times, drawing from her public remarks about Canada's retaliatory tariff strategy. According to the document, Joly met with Democratic officials in Boston and Chicago in September, and when asked by La Presse Canadienne what she expected for tariffs if Democrats won the midterms, she replied that it was "exactly why" she was meeting "so many governors and potential presidential candidates." At an August 25 press conference, Joly said Canada was "targeting products that will target states in the U.S." as a way to put "political pressure" on Washington, and in remarks to the Toronto Star in March last year she said Canada was "doubling down on products that will have an impact politically in Republican states."

Ford is cited for an August letter to Carney urging Ottawa to consider further retaliatory tariffs on imports from "politically significant states to the current administration's base of support," and for a seventy-five-million-Canadian-dollar advertising campaign that aired clips of former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs during the World Series last October. According to the fact sheet, the ad's message would be repeated "to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country." President Donald Trump called off trade talks with Canada after the ad aired.

The document also names Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who campaigned in Florida in August for Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz ahead of her primary, and Canadian consul general Bernadette Jordan, who appeared on October 13 at a Vermont roundtable on tariff tensions alongside Democratic Representatives Becca Balint and Jim McGovern. For its final section, the document cites the US Department of Justice in stating that eleven Canadians have been charged or sentenced for illegal voting in American elections held between 2012 and 2024, though it presents no evidence connecting those cases to any Canadian government effort.

Ottawa says it is a trade response, not interference

Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, Carney said the United States had initiated the trade actions against Canada, and that Ottawa had responded "to protect Canadian jobs" and "to protect Canadian companies." The remarks came as Carney and Ford announced an aid package worth nearly nine billion Canadian dollars for workers and businesses hit by American tariffs. Ontario's steel and auto sectors are among those hardest hit.

Carney has said Canada does not involve itself in American elections and expects the same in return. Joly told reporters Canada would "never engage in election interference" and would not accept foreign interference in Canadian elections either, adding that her recent US meetings were about attracting investment to Canada. Ford said he had "no interest at all" in interfering in American elections, adding that American voters want "certainty" and "stability," and that "the people of the United States will make that determination in the midterms."

The buildup to the accusation

The fact sheet follows weeks of warnings from Washington. US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said in an interview released October 14 that American officials were "closely watching" Canadian politicians for signs of interference, warning them to keep their "nose out" of American politics in the weeks before the vote. In the same interview, Hoekstra pointed to Ontario's Reagan ad and to comments by Joly and former prime minister Justin Trudeau, who told an audience at Brown University that the tariff fight was "driving up prices" for American consumers.

The clash lands less than two weeks before a midterm election that will decide control of Congress, and it opens a new front in a trade war that has run since Trump returned to office in 2025. The fight over voter registration and ballot rules has also heated up, including a Supreme Court ruling affecting college voters in New Hampshire. CTV News, reporting on the Canadian Press wire, noted that both Carney and Ford attended the Wednesday announcement that prompted the embassy's release.