Canada Preparing for Far-Right Victory in U.S. Election: Foreign Minister

Mélanie Joly, Canada's foreign affairs minister, said her country's government has been working on a game plan if the United States takes a far-right turn as a result of 2024's presidential elections.

The Canadian Press reported Joly made the comments during a Wednesday interview with the French-language radio station 98.5 FM Montréal, adding that she didn't provide any specific details about the plan.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who appointed Joly to her current position in 2021, had a rocky relationship with the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination, Donald Trump, during the former president's administration. Trump once called Trudeau "two-faced" in 2019 after footage emerged of the prime minister seemingly mocking Trump with other world leaders. Meanwhile, Trudeau blamed Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.

Though Joly reportedly did not specifically cite Trump in relation to Canada's game plan, the Canadian Press reported that she did use the Trudeau administration's work with Trump regarding trade deals as an example during the discussion.

Joly said that due to Ottawa's long-established ties with Washington, D.C., her country's government has had to "certainly prepare several scenarios."

"In general, there is our game plan, precisely to be able to manage what could be a rather difficult situation," she said, according to the Canadian Press' translation. "I will work with my colleagues and with the mayors, the provincial premiers, with the business community, with the unions, with everyone in the country, so that we are ready regardless of the election outcome."

Newsweek reached out to Joly's office via email for comment.

Joly's statements have caused debate on X, formerly known as Twitter, with some people criticizing her for making the public admission.

Canadian journalist Lorrie Goldstein wrote on Friday: "Imagine if the White House had said it was preparing for the defeat of the Trudeau government in the next election. This is amateur-hour stuff..."

Thomas Juneau, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, replied to Goldstein's post by writing on X that "amateur hour would be for Canada not to plan for democratic backsliding in the US."

"That said, it would be much better for Canada (and its equally anxious democratic allies) to be more discreet. There is nothing to gain from provoking a future Trump administration," Juneau added.

Goldstein followed up with a later post in which he wrote that he doesn't fault the Trudeau administration for preparing for a scenario of a right-wing victory in the U.S. election in 2024.

"What you don't do, if you're the Trudeau government, is have the foreign affairs minister publicly suggesting, in effect, that it thinks Biden and the Democrats are going to lose a presidential election that's 15 months away," Goldstein wrote.