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Former Canadian public safety minister Marco Mendicino has fired back at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa's allegation that Canadian officials are interfering in the American midterm elections, arguing the embassy's own letter shows Canada defending its economy against tariffs — and turning the charge around on President Donald Trump.
Speaking Wednesday night on CTV News Channel's Power Play with Vassy Kapelos, Mendicino — identified on-screen as the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Mark Carney — said the embassy's October 21 fact sheet actually documents Canada "properly advocating to lower tariffs, which harm both economies," rather than any foreign interference. Then he reversed the accusation: "If we were to apply the standard in the letter, the president himself is a serial offender because he has repeatedly endorsed foreign candidates, foreign parties in foreign countries."
Mendicino served as Canada's public safety minister under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and later became chief of staff to Carney; he is now a regular member of the Power Play Front Bench panel.
The embassy's document, titled "Monitoring Canadian Activities in U.S. Politics" and released Wednesday, says Canadian ministers and provincial premiers "brush off concerns about potential interference in U.S. elections, even as [they] openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances." It singled out Industry Minister Mélanie Joly — for discussing retaliatory tariffs aimed at American states and for saying of her meetings with U.S. governors and would-be presidential candidates, "That's exactly why I'm meeting so many governors and potential presidential candidates" — and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, for calling for tariffs targeted at states important to the administration and for Ontario's 2025 anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan. It also named 11 Canadians charged with or sentenced for illegally voting in U.S. elections between 2012 and 2024, while presenting no evidence linking them to a Canadian government effort, and ended with a warning that all Canadians should refrain from attempting to influence U.S. elections: "Americans decide America's elections."
Ottawa has rejected the claim. Carney, speaking Wednesday alongside Joly and Ford while announcing roughly C$9 billion (US$6.2 billion) in support for tariff-hit sectors, said it was Washington that initiated the trade actions and that Canada's response exists to "protect Canadian jobs, to protect Canadian companies." Ford said he has "no interest at all" in interfering in American elections: "The people of the United States will make that determination in the midterms." Joly has said Canada would never interfere in another country's elections and would "never accept that also being done to us in Canada," describing her U.S. visits as investment promotion.
The dispute is already spilling into diplomacy. Ottawa has told Canadian diplomats in the United States to avoid meetings and public appearances with candidates in the November 3 midterms, and to steer clear of even incidental situations that could suggest partisan involvement, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Hill. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has said Washington is "monitoring" Canadian politicians and warned them to keep their "nose out" of American politics.
A fact-check of a related viral claim noted there is no evidence Trump himself personally made the interference accusation — the charge came from the embassy's fact sheet — while analysts said the sheet's evidence supports a narrower conclusion: Canadian officials have openly lobbied on U.S. trade policy, which does not establish a coordinated government effort to manipulate an election.