OTTAWA – Canada’s former ambassador to Venezuela says Ottawa is “parroting” Washington’s anti-democratic line by giving air to the idea of fresh elections in Venezuela.
Ben Rowswell, who served as Canada’s envoy to Caracas, says Canada should instead be working toward helping install the leaders voters chose in the stolen 2024 election.
Rowswell is reacting to a statement issued Tuesday by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand which said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes Venezuelans should have a chance to elect their own leader “in the future” following the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro.
Anand said that in a G7 foreign ministers call on Tuesday, Rubio spoke of the importance of democracy in Venezuela and the release of political prisoners.
The views Anand attributed to Rubio differ from those of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said that the U.S. captured Maduro for economic gain and to stop drug trafficking.
Rowswell, now a consultant with the group Catalyze4, says it’s not helpful to raise the idea of fresh elections, particularly when the U.S. is “a hostile force to democracy in our hemisphere.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 7, 2026.
