In order to study the differential expression of plant hormone-related genes in resistant and susceptible poplar varieties infected by the canker pathogen (Lonsdalea quercina subsp. populi), and to provide the experimental basis for explaining the defense response mechanism of poplar’s resistance to canker disease, in this study, the resistant variety ‘Populus tomentosa’ and the susceptible one P. deltoids cv. ‘Zhonghe 1’ were respectively inoculated with the canker pathogen for 1 d, 3 d, 6 d and 9 d, quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the differential expression of twelve genes related to SA and JA signal transduction. The results showed that in resistant variety, the expression of PR1-1, PR1-2, NPR1-1, NPR1-2, TGA1, TGA2, MYC2-1 and MYC2-2 was higher than that in susceptible one, especially the genes PR1-1, MYC2-1 and MYC2-2. While, JAZ1, COI1-1 and COI1-2 were expressed lower in resistant variety than that in susceptible one. The expression of JAZ2 did not show significant difference after the inoculation. It suggested that the reason for resistance against canker disease in Populus tomentosa was related to the up-regulated expression of PR1-1, PR1-2, NPR1-1, NPR1-2, TGA1, TGA2, MYC2-1, MYC2-2 and the down-regulated expression of JAZ1, COI1-1 and COI1-2, which could start the SA and JA signal transduction to defend the disease.