LeBlanc says U.S. midterm won't change Ottawa's plans as leaders react to blue wave

The Liberal government's push to diversify trade won't change direction now that Democrats are preparing to take control of both houses of Congress following Tuesday's midterm elections, Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Wednesday.

LeBlanc said recent talks with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration have been productive and he looks forward to speaking more with his American counterparts in the coming days.

While LeBlanc told reporters on Parliament Hill that Tuesday's election results were interesting, he refused to interpret them and said the new Congress won't change the federal government's trade agenda.

"What the new Congress might decide to do when they're seated two months from now is an interesting discussion at a faculty club luncheon at Mount Allison University today," LeBlanc said.

"That's not going to change the work that we have to do in the next two weeks. The American Congress will act in the interests of the American Congress. Our work will be focused on what we can do here at home."

Drew Fagan, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs, said while the election results show Americans are fed up with the effect of Trump's policies on the cost of living, all of Canada's tariff woes still stem from the executive branch.

"It's finally, after a decade of Trump, hard pushback against his abuse of the of American democracy. That's got to be a good thing and good for Canada being on its border. But it doesn't mean that the trade stuff solves itself overnight," he said.

Fagan cautioned that some Democrats will still be protectionist and voters' cost-of-living concerns were being driven primarily by the impact of the war in Iran.

Trump, who has more than two years remaining in his term, is expected to face a far rougher ride domestically when the Democrats take control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in January. What it means for his foreign policy is still up for debate.

He spent much of the final weeks of the campaign railing against Canada in stump speeches.

Trump's tariffs were a factor in races in battleground states such as Maine and Michigan, where unsuccessful Republican candidates spoke out against the president's attacks on Canada.

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who has insisted Canada and the United States are not in a trade war, recently warned Canada not to attempt to to influence U.S. elections.

The U.S. embassy cited past comments by Industry Minister Mélanie Joly when it argued last month that Ottawa was looking to influence the midterms' outcome.

At a news conference on Aug. 25, Joly said Canada would use retaliatory tariffs to exert "political pressure" on key U.S. states.

"We're also targeting products that will target states in the U.S., and so we're being wise and strategic to put political pressure," Joly said at the time.

But LeBlanc insisted Wednesday Ottawa's countertariffs were not designed to pressure to Republicans in battleground states.

"The reasons we put in countertariffs were to protect Canadian industries and not create an unfair playing field, where suddenly an export to the United States of a particular product was facing a huge, in some cases prohibitive, tariff and the same product would come in tariff-free to the Canadian market," LeBlanc said.

"How they were interpreted by American voters is up to Americans to discuss."

Lori Turnbull, a political-science professor at Dalhousie University, said LeBlanc likely has a strategic motive for pushing back on the suggestion that Canada's countertariffs were politically targeted.

"Minister LeBlanc now it looks like is going to be going back to the table and he's at that table, right? Minister Joly is not, so she might answer questions differently on this," Turnbull said.

"So he goes to the meeting with (U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard) Lutnick and he goes to the meeting with (U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson) Greer and he can say, 'Look, these aren't politically motivated,' and it gives them a bit of a space to work at that table and potentially find a common ground more easily."

Formal trade talks were stalled when Canada walked away from negotiations in Washington in August. Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday official trade discussions with the United States have been taking place in recent days.

Carney returned to Ottawa in the early morning hours of Wednesday after travelling to Antigua and Barbuda for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders. He has not yet made a public comment about the midterm results.

But Ontario Premier Doug Ford was effusive about the outcome.

"I was doing cartwheels down the street, and you were seeing a big guy like me doing cartwheels," he told reporters in Toronto.

"I was jumping up and down when the results were coming in. But it's very simple. The American people spoke. The American people spoke on a couple issues: cost of cost of living, cost of gas, the war in Iran. But most important is tariffs, because that's all tied into the cost of living."

Ford said he is directing his ministers to start connecting with the newly elected U.S. representatives, senators and governors, particularly ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline when Trump has said he will impose new tariffs on Canada.

"But let's be under no illusion that this trade war is done," he said. "It's not done. It's not even close to being done because the president still has the power. The January tariffs are still on the on the table."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Wednesday the midterms outcome clearly "demonstrates that Americans hate tariffs."

"A tariff on Canada is a tax on Americans," Poilievre told reporters outside the Parliament buildings.

"What (Carney's) got to do is take advantage of the immense leverage that Canada has had all along with the goodwill of the American people to get tariff-free trade with our biggest market in the world."

The Conservative leader said he intends to travel back to the United States soon to advocate for tariff-free trade, but did not provide any specific dates.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said the midterm results show her province was on the right path in the trade war.

“It is a vindication of our approach when it comes to tariffs,” Smith said during question period at the legislature Wednesday. “We always have objected to tariffs. We know it hurts us. It hurts the Americans.”

Smith has refused to use oil and gas exports as a trade weapon, though Alberta briefly halted purchases of U.S. liquor in 2025.

Smith said her government met recently with Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff of California to discuss expanding trade ties and keeping California wine on Alberta shelves.

Aaron Ettinger, a Carleton University political-science professor, said the midterm result doesn't give Canada conventional leverage because Trump doesn't need Congress for his steel, auto and aluminum tariffs. 

He also said he sees signs of momentum in the Canada-U.S. trade file.

"It seems that this strategy, walking away from the table back in August, as ballsy as it was, as gutsy as it was, is actually working," he said.

"That's not very common in Canada's interactions with the United States, but it seemed to work in this case, and so we've got to ride this moment as far as possible."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2026.

- With files from Allison Jones in Toronto

By David Baxter and Kyle Duggan | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.