The US Embassy in Ottawa has accused Canadian officials of seeking to influence US elections ahead of November’s midterms.
The embassy said Canadian leaders have dismissed concerns about “potential interference” and that ministers and premiers have openly described efforts to shape American politics in official documents and public remarks.
Canadian leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, have rejected the allegations. Relations between the two North American neighbours have become increasingly strained during Donald Trump’s second administration.
The midterm elections will determine which parties control both chambers of the US Congress, potentially affecting the remaining course of Trump’s presidency.
In a fact sheet released on Wednesday, the embassy alleged that 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”.
The document cited meetings with US Democrats and calls for retaliatory tariffs against the US as examples of what it described as interference.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly was asked what Canada intended to do about tariffs if Democrats won the midterm elections. According to the embassy, she replied: “That’s exactly why I’m meeting so many governors and potential presidential candidates.”
The fact sheet also said Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Canada’s federal government to consider additional retaliatory tariffs on imports from “politically significant states to the current administration’s base of support”.
Carney, responding to the allegations on Wednesday, said the US had initiated the trade measures against Canada.
“We’ve responded to those to protect Canadian jobs, to protect Canadian companies and develop our economy,” Carney said.
He added that his government’s response had been “in the interests of Canadian workers, Canadian families and the future of this economy”.
Carney made the remarks while announcing nearly C$9 billion ($6.2 billion) in aid to offset the impact of US tariffs. Joly and Ford accompanied him.
Ford said he had “no interest at all” in interfering in US elections.
“I’ll tell you what the American people want. They want certainty, they want stability,” Ford said, adding that his priorities remain Ontario and Canada.
“The people of the United States will make that determination in the midterms,” he said.
Last week, Joly denied that Canada was interfering in US elections and said Canadians “never accept that also being done to us in Canada”, according to CBC.
She said her recent visits to the US were intended to attract investment from American companies and that she plans to continue them.
