Canada rejects U.S. ambassador's accusation of election interference

OTTAWA · Industry Minister Mélanie Joly has firmly denied a suggestion from the United States ambassador that Canada is interfering in American politics ahead of next month's midterm elections. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said American officials are closely watching Canadian activities and suggested comments by politicians and an Ontario government ad could be inferred as election interference. Joly told reporters in Ottawa that Canada would never do that and would never accept that also being done to us in Canada. She said her recent work in the United States has been focused entirely on attracting investment to Canada.

In an interview on The Really Big Show podcast, Hoekstra cited Joly's comments about targeting retaliatory tariffs in politically sensitive states and an Ontario TV ad criticizing U.S. tariffs. It appears that some of this, from our perspective, in the way we view our elections, could be inferred to be election interference, the U.S. ambassador said. He warned Canadian politicians to keep your nose out of American politics and said the U.S. is monitoring it and will respond if it becomes interference. The U.S. embassy posted a clip of the interview on social media on Wednesday.

Joly pushed back on the accusation, saying it was absolutely not fair for Hoekstra to suggest Canadian interference. She detailed her recent travel to several U.S. states where she met with business leaders and politicians from both major parties. Fundamentally, what I've done in the U.S. is to attract investments, Joly said, adding she hopes to soon announce good news of investments by different American companies to Canada. She made the remarks after participating in a defence summit hosted by The Globe and Mail.

READ MORE: U.S. embassy accuses Canadian politicians of plans to influence American politics

READ MORE: Canada threatens legal action against Stelco owner over planned layoffs

The ambassador's comments follow a similar warning last month from Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to President Donald Trump, who told Canadian lobbyists to get the hell out of the U.S. Trump himself criticized Canada again during a campaign rally in Arizona on Wednesday, repeating his claim that Canada treats the United States very badly. He said Canada will end up being the 51st state because that's the only way it works. The president has been actively campaigning in battleground states ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, which could end Republican control of Congress.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Canada's relationship with the U.S. has changed permanently and the country must plan as if tariffs are here for good. Speaking in Toronto, Ford predicted Trump could lose control of Congress in the midterms. We need to continue building relationships because President Trump is not going to last forever, Ford said. The Republicans face difficult races with the cost of living and U.S. tariffs on foreign goods as prominent political issues.

With files from The Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail and CityNews