Jon Liedtke joins 610 CKTB’s Gene Valaitis for his regular weekly segment, Liedtke’s Got a Take!
Jon Liedtke discusses U.S. claims that Canada is interfering in midterm elections, dismissing the allegations as Republican panic over border-state economic fallout. Liedtke defends Ottawa’s cautious diplomatic retreat and warns that post-election retaliatory tariffs remain a tangible risk for Canadian businesses.
Transcript (ChatGPT Generated):
Gene Valaitis: Yeah, there’s South Park, that famous song, Blame Canada. You know, the Republicans are not doing well in the midterm elections. If you take a look at the polling numbers, they’re coming up next week, and they may, might, they just might be crushed. So, it is time for Liedtke’s Got a Take on Blame Canada. Good morning, Jon.
Jon Liedtke: Good morning. Morning, Gene Valaitis.
Gene Valaitis: Hey, listen, the United States government is claiming Ottawa is meddling in its midterm elections. Now, as somebody sitting right on the border, there across from Detroit City, what’s your first reaction to this blame Canada, blame Canada routine?
Jon Liedtke: Well, Gene, listen, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, they wrote this exact musical number in 1999, but it was hyperbole. And now the U.S. embassy has, the U.S. government has officially adopted South Park as official foreign policy. Sitting here in Windsor, looking across the border at Detroit, the idea that Canada is some sinister geopolitical puppet master rigging US elections is absurd. And columnist Andrew Coyne nailed it on Twitter yesterday. He said, if Canada pulls off flipping the Congress and stopping Trump’s agenda, every Canadian across the country who travels abroad will have their drinks covered for life.
Gene Valaitis: Okay. Now, to be clear, the Trump administration has called out Doug Ford in Ontario for running those ads featuring a Ronald Reagan speech and Canadian ministers pushing back on tariffs. So, I mean, come on, is buying an ad or defending trade actually election interference?
Jon Liedtke: It’s a thirty-second commercial spot with Ronald Reagan clips praising free trade. Is foreign interference? Words mean nothing, Gene. Real foreign interference includes bot farms, hacked servers, laundering dark money. What Canadians did, Canadian politicians, was buy airtime on television to say, hey, don’t wreck your integrated supply chains and spike your own prices. That’s called public diplomacy. Every trading partner does this.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Well, you’re across the river and from Detroit and Michigan, and the Republican candidate, Mike Rogers, who Donald Trump really likes his rear end, but that’s a story for another day, he ran ads saying, Canada is not our enemy. It’s interesting, how much of this is Washington panic and fear of losing border states like Michigan, like Ohio, like Maine?
Jon Liedtke: Oh, it’s a big deal, Gene. This is pure panic for them. I mean, down here on the border, and you guys know this in your region as well, but primarily on the Ambassador Bridge, we see auto parts cross the Ambassador and now the Gordie Howe half a dozen times before a car is finished. We’re completely integrated. When Washington slapped those tariffs on Canadian steel and parts, they didn’t hurt Ottawa, they hammered Michigan tool and die shops and auto workers as well. So Mike Rogers isn’t running ads saying Canada isn’t our enemy because he loves butter tarts. He’s doing it because his internal polling is on fire. Washington’s not mad that Canada is speaking up. They’re terrified that Michigan voters have eyes and ears and know exactly who drove up the tariffs and their cost of living.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. The US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, couple of days ago, put up an official US government website telling Canadians, and politicians from Canada to get their nose out of their elections. They put down quotes from various ministers, the prime minister, and they named a whole twelve people, Canadians, who apparently voted illegally in US elections. Not like twelve people are gonna make a big difference. And CTV was reporting yesterday that in a private lunch, Hoekstra again said, if the United States loses in these midterms, the Republican Party, I mean, that they’re gonna blame, blame Canada. Interestingly, after that website went up, and this kind of surprised me, made me a little irritated, Global Affairs Canada told all of our diplomats in the US to steer clear of US campaign events entirely. Now, do you think Ottawa overreacted by going full bunker mode, and was this the right call? I mean, Trump has been making fun of Canada and interfering in our elections for over a year now.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, Trump undoubtedly has been interfering in our elections, and I’ll respectfully disagree with you. It was a drastic decision, but I think it was the right move. When an administration in the United States, any administration, is desperate for any excuse to play the victim, don’t hand them matches and gasoline. Having an MP or a diplomat knocking on doors in Florida or a consul general standing next to a Democrat at a trade mixer gives bad faith actors the exact ammunition they need to manufacture a headline to go through, I would, I guess I would admittedly say right-wing ecosystems first, because they’d be the most to align with the president on this. But of course, it’d be picked up by CNN and on the left-wing outlets as well. So Global Affairs Canada slammed the blast doors shut to starve Washington of oxygen right before this vote. It looks defensive, but it killed the trap.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Now, we can play pretend here if the Democrats take Maine and Michigan, two very important states for the GOP, and in general, if the Republican Party takes a beating. I’m just wondering how Trump will react. I mean, will he tariff Canadian air flowing across the border and everything else?
Jon Liedtke: It’s gonna go one of two ways, Gene. He’s either gonna lash out if the House and the Senate, either one of them flip, quite frankly, and wake up Wednesday morning looking for a scapegoat. He’s not gonna be able to fire American voters, because that’s, they get to choose how they vote. But we’re sitting right across the border with a giant target on our back, a wounded, politically cornered president with nothing left to lose. He’s got an executive pen and a bruised ego, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he slaps on spite tariffs before lunch, regardless of whether it blows up his own economy.
Gene Valaitis: You know, final question. John, at the end of the day, are Canadian businesses facing a real imminent economic threat here, or is this just classic Trump bluster that’ll all just vanish the day after the midterms?
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, you know, it’s both, because Trump, Trump probably doesn’t even know what he’ll do until he picks up his phone at 6 a.m. after the vote. The threat is real because border town jobs get hit within 48 hours of an executive order, but we’ve also seen this movie for a decade. Scream bloody murder, threaten total destruction, accuse the neighbor of treason, and then two weeks later sign a slightly tweaked press release and declare total victory. Canadian businesses need to brace for impact, but nobody should mistake Washington’s temper tantrum for a coherent economic strategy.
Gene Valaitis: All right, great take this morning. We will talk to you again tomorrow, 9, 9:15.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: All right, there we go. Jon Liedtke with Liedtke’s Gotta Take.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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