OTTAWA – U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that Ottawa could be blamed if key races in next week’s midterm elections go against U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
According to three sources with knowledge of the discussions, Hoekstra delivered the message at a private business lunch hosted at his official residence in Ottawa.
The sources said Hoekstra expressly mentioned races in Michigan and Maine, where the Republicans need to win if they hope to hold on to the U.S. Senate.
The ambassador told the business crowd that if those U.S. states fall to the Democrats, it will likely get more difficult for Canada after the midterms because the president will not be happy and Canada could be blamed.
CTV News is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to disclose details of the off-the-record meeting.
A U.S. embassy spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News that the “reported comments are grossly taken out of context from a broader discussion.”
However, they declined to share what that broader context was.
“The ambassador has consistently said that the Canadian media is attempting to overstate the relevance of Canadian issues in American elections. As we have previously stated, Americans will decide American elections based on issues that are important to them,” the spokesperson said.
In a statement, Beth Burke, CEO of the Canadian American Business Council, which helped organize the lunch, noted that the event was meant to be off the record.
“The ambassador spoke very positively about the U.S.-Canada relationship and his hopes that a deal will be reached,” she said. “These comments are being taken out of context and don’t reflect his overall message.”
Tariffs take election spotlight
Trump’s tariffs against Canadian products have become a key issue in the midterms, not just in border states but also further south. On Friday, the president reversed some tariffs affecting Maine in a bid to save Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election bid. In Michigan, Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers is campaigning against the tariffs.
Public opinion polling shows Trump is facing an increasingly hostile electorate, and prospects for the Republicans are eroding with the vote less than one week away. As of Tuesday, the non-partisan Cook Political Report said the U.S. House of Representatives was leaning to the Democrats and listed the Senate as a toss-up.
Hoekstra’s remarks are the latest in a string of statements seeking to deflect blame for Trump’s poor polling and unpopular tariff policy away from the White House. In the last few weeks, he accused Ottawa of election interference and warned Canada to “keep your nose out.”
Hoekstra’s pre-emptive blame game is happening at the same time as trade talks between the two governments intensified over the last week. As CTV News first reported on Thursday, Ottawa believes the political pressure created by the midterms has led to an opening in trade talks. However, officials are cautious about where the discussions will lead, and sources say they remain skeptical.
The U.S. ambassador has a sometimes-combative persona in Ottawa, but in public appearances this week, he has struck a conciliatory tone.
At a Canadian American Business Council event on Monday, he said the United States wants to get to a deal “as soon as possible” and by this time next year, the same crowd would be able to toast the bilateral relationship with Kentucky Bourbon.
Then on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy posted a video of Hoekstra at his official residence with Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mark Wiseman at a tree-planting ceremony. The tree is one of 250 that Ottawa gifted the U.S. to mark its 250th anniversary.
