In a fact sheet released on Wednesday, the US embassy in Ottawa accused Canada of brushing off concerns about potential interference in US elections "even as its ministers and premiers openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances."
The embassy singled out Industry Minister Melanie Joly, citing comments she made in August about responding to President Trump's tariffs. "We're also targeting products that will target states in the US. And so we're being wise and strategic to put political pressure," Joly said at the time. The embassy also flagged her meetings with Democratic officials in Boston and Chicago in September. Asked what might happen to tariffs if Democrats won the midterms, Joly said, "That's exactly why I'm meeting so many governors and potential presidential candidates."
Joly rejected the suggestion that her actions amounted to interference, saying Canada would never meddle in US elections and that her meetings with both Democratic and Republican politicians were about attracting investment. "Fundamentally, what I've done in the US is to attract investments," she told reporters on October 14.
The fact sheet also cited Ontario Premier Doug Ford's calls for retaliatory measures on US products and his government's advertising campaign against Trump's tariffs. That campaign, which featured a 1987 radio address by former president Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs, prompted Trump to call off trade talks with Canada in October 2025.
The embassy additionally noted Liberal MP Anthony Housefather's campaigning in Florida on behalf of Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and named 11 Canadians who had been charged or sentenced for voting in US elections between 2012 and 2024. The fact sheet did not explain how those efforts amounted to interference, nor did it present evidence linking individual voters to a Canadian government effort.
The statement came a week after US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said Washington was monitoring Canada for signs of interference. "We're monitoring it, we're evaluating it and if some of it becomes election interference then America will respond to it," he said in a podcast interview.
Canada has rejected the US framing. Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking before Monday's provincial vote in Alberta, said foreign governments should stay out of each other's elections: "Our expectation is, to be absolutely clear, on foreign governments, United States included, is we don't get ourselves involved in their elections, they don't get themselves involved in our elections."
The accusation is the latest strain in a relationship that has frayed badly since Trump returned to office. The two countries have been locked in a trade war since 2025, with Canada responding to US tariffs with import taxes of its own, and Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada a 51st state.