"We Would Never Do That": Joly Rejects U.S. Ambassador's Claim Canada Is Meddling in the Midterms

"Keep your nose out of American politics." That's the message the United States ambassador to Canada delivered this week — and on October 14, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly delivered Ottawa's answer: absolutely not, and how dare you suggest it. The diplomatic spat over who gets to talk about the U.S. midterms has turned into the sharpest Canada–U.S. flare-up in weeks.

It started on a Canadian podcast. Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told The Really Big Show that Washington is "closely watching Canadian activities" ahead of November's congressional midterms. His evidence: comments from Joly about targeting retaliatory tariffs at "politically sensitive states," and an Ontario government TV ad that ran in the United States last year attacking U.S. tariffs with clips of Ronald Reagan. "It appears that some of this — from our perspective, in the way we view our elections — could be inferred to be election interference," Hoekstra said. The U.S. embassy in Canada posted a clip of the interview on X on Wednesday.

Joly's rebuttal: "We would never do that"

Joly wasn't having it. Speaking to reporters in Ottawa after a fireside chat at The Globe and Mail's defence summit, she said Canada would "never" interfere in U.S. elections — and would "never accept that also being done to us in Canada." She called it "absolutely not" fair of Hoekstra to suggest otherwise.

Then she flipped the script. Her recent U.S. trips, she said — Boston, where she met the governor; Illinois, where she met Governor JB Pritzker; NASA in Florida — had one purpose: "Fundamentally, what I've done in the U.S. is to attract investments." She added she hopes to soon announce "good news of investments by different American companies" in Canada. Her pitch: "My job is to convince foreign investors to put their capital in Canada. That's exactly what I'm doing, and that will continue to be my strategy in the U.S. and also around the world."

Why Washington is jumpy — and why Ottawa won't back down

Hoekstra didn't stop at Joly. He cited former prime minister Justin Trudeau's September 22 comments at Brown University criticizing the Trump administration's trade war, and pointed to Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who campaigned in Florida in August for Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. "We see all of that. We are monitoring it. We are evaluating it. And if some of it becomes election interference, America will respond to it," he warned.

The backdrop matters. Trump adviser Peter Navarro told Canadian lobbyists last month to "get the hell out" of the U.S., accusing them of meddling in the midterms. Prime Minister Mark Carney laughed off that one, telling reporters he had "no response." Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is touring Michigan and the Detroit area pushing for a tariff-free auto sector — in Hoekstra's home state, no less. With the cost of living and tariffs dominating the midterm campaign, every Canadian voice in America sounds like a campaign ad to somebody.

The line between normal diplomacy and election meddling has always been blurry, and it's blurrier than ever when trade policy is the ballot-box issue. Washington sees Canadian politicians talking tariffs in Michigan as campaign interference; Ottawa sees ministers doing their jobs — defending exporters and courting investment. Joly drew her line clearly: attracting investment is her job, and no amount of ambassadorial eyebrow-raising will stop her from doing it.

Sources

• The Canadian Press: Canada would never interfere in U.S. elections, Joly says after ambassador's accusation
• National Newswatch: Hoekstra says U.S. watching Canada for signs of election interference ahead of midterms