Matt Strauss, the Conservative MP for Kitchener South—Hespeler, announced this Wednesday that he had taken out an Ontario Liberal membership specifically to support Lombardi in the upcoming leadership contest.

Canada has already seen how quickly provincial actions can become entangled with negotiations.

Ontario's previous U.S. advertising campaign featuring former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs triggered a furious response from Trump and became another source of tension between Ford and the federal government over how the U.S. relationship should be managed.

That history may have made Ottawa particularly wary of another provincial intervention becoming a distraction from negotiations.

Van Koeverden added that the benefits extend well beyond high-performance athletes, saying governments should be looking for ways to get children and families away from screens and into community recreation. “As we build Canada strong, we also want to build Canada physically active at the same time,” he said.