‘KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT’: U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra warns Canada as midterms loom

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OTTAWA — Mind your own business.

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That was the warning this week from U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra, who warned Canadian politicians to stop meddling in American affairs as U.S. President Donald Trump faces crucial midterm elections next month.

“Keep your nose out of American politics, four weeks before an election,” Hoekstra said in an episode of the Really Big Show podcast on Wednesday. 

“We are closely watching Canadian activities, because it appears that some of this, from our perspective and the way we view our elections, could be inferred to be election interference.”

Hoekstra was responding to questions by co-host Jim Csek about how much influence the U.S. Democratic Party has on Canadian politics, pointing specifically to Prime Minister Mark Carney appointing Maia Johnson as the PMO’s Chief Operating Officer (Johnson, an American and registered Democratic Party member, had previously worked on the campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris), as well as U.S. speaking tours by former PM Justin Trudeau and former Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland.

Midterms will define second half of Trump’s term

Americans head to the polls on Nov. 3 for the midterm elections, where all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and about a third of U.S. Senate seats will be up for grabs.

Several states will also hold gubernatorial and local elections on that day.

With paper-thin Congressional Republican majorities on the line, the midterms will determine if Trump retains legislative authority to pass his key policies, or ends up facing the last two years of his final term facing down intense Democratic legislative oversight and subpoena threats.

This has Republican lawmakers on edge, particularly after two years of essentially unchecked policy power from the Donald Trump White House.

On the podcast, Hoekstra accused Ontario Premier Doug Ford of meddling in American affairs by running what he described as anti-Trump political ads during the 2025 World Series.

“It’s never happened in America before,” Hoekstra claimed.

“Canada decided that they would test the waters and see how far they could go.”

He also accused Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly of interference by using retaliatory tariffs to target “politically-sensitive states.”

“We see all of that, we’re monitoring it, we’re evaluating it, and if some of it becomes election interference, then America will respond to it,” he said.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume

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