US Embassy Accuses Canada of Election Interference Ahead of Midterms — Carney and Ford Reject Claims
It takes a special kind of diplomatic week when your biggest trading partner accuses you of trying to rig its election — while you stand on Parliament Hill announcing a rescue package for the industries its trade war is crushing. That's where Canada found itself Wednesday, as the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa released a formal fact sheet accusing Canadian officials of scheming to influence America's midterm elections.
The document, titled "Monitoring Canadian Activities in U.S. Politics," landed less than two weeks before Americans vote on November 3. Its language is blunt. The embassy says the Canadian government "brushes off concerns about potential interference in U.S. elections, even as its ministers and premiers openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances." Ottawa's response, delivered within hours, was equally blunt: absolutely not.
What the embassy's fact sheet actually says
The fact sheet reads like a greatest-hits compilation of every Canadian statement Washington has found irritating. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is quoted five times: her meetings with U.S. Democratic officials in Boston and Chicago last September, her answer when asked what a Democratic midterm win would mean for tariffs — "That's exactly why I'm meeting so many governors and potential presidential candidates" — and her August remarks acknowledging Canada was "targeting products that will target states in the U.S." to apply political pressure.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford gets his own section: an August letter urging Carney to consider retaliatory tariffs on imports from "politically significant states," plus the province's C$75-million anti-tariff ad campaign that ran during last year's World Series. Other exhibits include Liberal MP Anthony Housefather reportedly campaigning for a U.S. Democratic congresswoman, and the embassy's claim that at least 11 Canadians were charged or sentenced this year in U.S. unlawful-voting cases. It closes with a warning: "All Canadians should refrain from attempting to participate in or influence U.S. elections in any way. Americans decide America's elections."
Carney and Ford fire back on Parliament Hill
Carney and Ford were standing side by side when the questions came — they had just unveiled a nearly C$9-billion federal-provincial package to shield Ontario's steel, auto and critical-minerals industries from U.S. tariffs. Flanked by Joly herself, Carney turned the accusation around. "The United States initiated a series of trade actions," he said. "We've responded to those to protect Canadian jobs, to protect Canadian companies and develop our economy. All of our actions are in the interests of Canadian workers, Canadian families and the future of this economy."
Ford, quoted in the embassy document, was even more direct about the election claim. "I have no interest at all interfering in American elections," he said. "I'll tell you what the American people want. They want certainty, they want stability." He noted he spent 20 years living in the United States, said he loves the American people, and added that his focus stays on Ontario: "The people of the United States will make that determination in the midterms."
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The fact sheet is the formal escalation of a warning U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has been making all month. Earlier in October he said American officials were "closely watching" Canadian politicians, and suggested Ontario's Reagan ad — the one that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to kill trade talks last fall — could count as interference. Hoekstra has become a lightning rod himself: a petition demanding his removal has gathered more than 280,000 signatures. The irony isn't lost on Canadians — this is the government that spent years warning about foreign interference in its own elections, including documented Chinese meddling. Now it stands accused by its closest ally of doing the influencing.
Why the midterms make this explosive
The timing is everything. The November 3 midterms will decide whether Republicans keep control of Congress, and Canada's tariff-response playbook — counter-tariffs calibrated to hurt politically, an ad campaign aimed at American voters, ministers openly courting governors and presidential hopefuls — looks, from Washington's perspective, less like trade defence and more like electioneering. From Ottawa's perspective, it's the opposite: a small country using the only leverage it has against an economic assault.
My read: both things are true at once. Canada is genuinely trying to protect its workers, and its tactics are genuinely designed to move American politics. Whether that crosses the line into "interference" is a judgment call — and it's one Washington gets to make unilaterally, which is exactly the problem. With trade talks frozen and the embassy now keeping a formal list of Canadian quotes, the relationship isn't just strained. It's being documented.
Sources
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