Do you suppose I’m guilty of intervening in a foreign election?
asserted
I → suppose → election
I would never have thought so, but earlier this week the American ambassador to Canada went on a Canadian podcast to warn against Canadian “interference” in U.S. midterm elections.
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ambassador → think → elections
The example that got up Pete Hoekstra’s nose furthest was apparently the Ontario government’s October 2025 Ronald Reagan-themed television ad, which ran for two weeks on the four “major” U.S. broadcast networks and ESPN’s postseason baseball coverage.
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which → get → networks
The ad was nothing more than a (harmlessly edited) 1987 quotation from a radio editorial delivered by President Reagan.
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ad → edit → Reagan
Viewers were made emphatically aware that the spot was paid for by Ontario.
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spot → make → Ontario
It accurately expressed Reagan’s core beliefs, in Reagan’s own voice, about the virtue and importance of international free trade.
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It → express → trade
If the ad had quoted almost any other historic statesman, listeners would be safe in assuming that it had been written by someone else, possibly for ephemeral reasons of partisan advantage.
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it → quote → advantage
In other words, Ontario made a revered American statesman speak from the grave, with undoubted sincerity, on an urgent contemporary issue.
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statesman → make → issue
Canadians are, apparently, supposed to feel bad about this: it might be “foreign election interference.”
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it → suppose → this
This simply reminded me that talk of “foreign election interference” annoys the living hell out of me.
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talk → remind → me
It’s a category that some social scientist or historian will figure out how to break into usable components, into well-defined words conducive to the underlying problem.
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scientist → ’ → problem
For now, it’s used for name-calling and race-baiting as often as for any other purpose.
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it → use → purpose
The phrase “election interference,” at one extreme, includes violence, kidnapping and criminal intimidation by foreign agents.
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phrase → include → agents
(In this manifestation, it’s a problem that Canada has a lot more of than the United States, but it’s merely one aspect of a wider “the state won’t solve, address or even just oppose crime” problem.)
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state → ’ → crime
It can include political corruption and foreign compromise of officials and legislators.
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It → include → officials
But at the other end of the spectrum, “interference” might and does include lots of open, fair, ethical, democratic persuasive activity like the Reagan ad.
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interference → include → ad
It seems to me this kind of thing ought to be welcomed among sovereign states as a healthy alternative to espionage, corruption and media conspiracy.
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kind → seem → espionage
Did Ontario create the ad intending to shift American votes and political sentiment?
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Ontario → create → votes
Is there anything reasonable for an American to object to about the ad, given its explicit and friendly foreign provenance?
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American → object → provenance
I’m damned if I can see it.
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I → ’m → it
It is for Americans to judge whether to be convinced by purely persuasive appeals from legitimate foreign interests that declare themselves as such.
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that → judge → themselves
In the case of the Reagan ad, no Canadian person is heard from or quoted at all.
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person → hear → ad
The damn thing is practically an “American Heritage Minute” paid for by Canadians.
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thing → pay → Canadians
Me, I was never happier to see a government dollar spent.
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dollar → see → ?
Anyway, it occurred to me that I may be a nasty foreign interferer.
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I → occur → me
I’ve written many columns about the Trump administration’s practice of protectionist economic policy.
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I → write → policy
They don’t always include a giant banner reading “AMERICANS ABSOLUTELY HAVE THE RIGHT TO DECIDE TRADE POLICY FOR THEIR OWN COUNTRY,” but I will never write a word on the subject without having this in mind.
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I → include → mind
I don’t, however, attack President Donald Trump’s jazz-improv tariffs from a Canadian point of view, or in explicit defence of Canadian interests.
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I → attack → interests
Mostly I am trying to contrast current American policy with the text and spirit of the American Constitution, as a knowledgeable and admiring foreigner.
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I → try → foreigner
I do this (in the NATIONAL Post) in order to inform Canadians, who are 99 per cent of my audience, and to make better forecasts about America.
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who → do → America
But am I aware of having a small American following when I write this stuff?
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I → have → stuff
Do I harbor flickers of hope for influencing Americans in favour of the great classical-liberal cause of free trade?
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I → harbor → trade
Reader, I confess my crime.
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I → confes → crime
I am a foreign election-interferer, casting his laughable iota of weight into the maelstrom of American democracy.
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I → cast → democracy
Let the drone strike come though the heavens fall.
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heavens → let → ?
The Aporia
