Stephen Smysnuik
Should Ottawa kick out America’s ambassador to Canada?
Should Ottawa kick out America’s ambassador to Canada?
Image: Flickr, U.S. Embassy in Ottawa
The Topline
- A House of Commons petition asking Ottawa to remove Pete Hoekstra as the U.S. ambassador to Canada and expel him from the country has collected over 220,000 signatures in less than a month.
- The petition, which accuses Hoekstra of making statements "inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations" and of normalizing Trump's 51st-state rhetoric, will be presented this fall to the House of Commons by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, after which the government will have 45 days to formally respond.
- The news comes days before the U.S.'s new 50 per cent tariffs on select Canadian goods will kick in, amid the troubled renewal of the USMCA trade agreement.
- An international trade expert told CTV News the petition cannot legally force the government to remove Hoekstra, but still sends a strong message that Canadians are “kind of fed up.”
- A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa declined to comment to CBC News on the petition except to say the embassy is aware of it.
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He’s a malignant troll
The case against Hoekstra is simple, really. Absolutely nothing he’s said or done these last 18 months has been in good faith or in the spirit of cooperation that has characterized relations between the two countries over the past century.
If anything, it’s been the complete opposite.
When Trump revived his "51st State" rhetoric via Truth Social back in June, Hoekstra joined in, reposting the message on X. He later told reporters annexation would be "a great discussion" for Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney to have.
This is clearly a pattern, not a gaffe.
Last summer, Hoekstra suggested Canadians could take the 51st-state talk as a "term of endearment” and a signal that Trump was inviting Canada onto his "team."
Then, last September at a Halifax Chamber of Commerce event, he called Canada's federal election campaign "anti-American" and said he was "disappointed" so few Canadians spoke positively about the relationship.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association and a member of Carney’s Canada-U.S. relations council, responded to Hoekstra’s comments by telling CBC News, “When you kick the dog, you can't blame it for snarling back.”
But still, the ambassador clearly missed the drift. After Trump abruptly suspended all trade talks with Canada over Ontario's $75-million anti-tariff ad featuring a 1987 Ronald Reagan speech, Hoekstra delivered an expletive-laced tirade against David Paterson, Ontario's trade representative in Washington.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the tirade "absolutely unacceptable" and "unbecoming of an ambassador.”
Ford’s right. Ambassadors carry symbolic weight –– they're the human representatives of a foreign government's posture and attitude toward the host country. Tolerating their lousy behaviour only normalizes it.
But if Canada sends him packing, it would set an unmistakable example that Ottawa considers these “terms of endearment” real-world threats –– threats that are unacceptable diplomatic conduct, regardless of who's making them.
This isn’t a fringe grievance, either. Over 220,000 signatures –– gathered in less than a month –– represent a genuine and widespread frustration among Canadians, many of whom have no appetite for this kind of rhetoric or behaviour inside our borders.
Canadians may be polite, but we're not pushovers.
It would be a strategic blunder
However satisfying it might feel, expelling Hoekstra would hand the Trump administration exactly the pretext it’s been seeking for further retaliation against Canada.
Canada has never expelled a U.S. ambassador, or vice versa, in the history of the two countries’ relationship. The economic or political fallout has never been deemed worth it by either side, regardless of how testy that relationship has been over the years.
That approach is still worth sticking to — especially since expulsion is serious business, typically reserved for espionage, security threats or serious violations of diplomatic protocol.
The petition cites the Vienna Convention, which says diplomats have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host country. But Hoekstra’s behaviour is nowhere close to China's Zhao Wei, who was expelled after allegedly targeting the family of MP Michael Chong.
The White House points out Canada is one of only two countries (alongside China) that "have chosen to retaliate against President Trump’s tariffs rather than negotiate a deal with the United States" and uses that to justify the newest 50 per cent tariffs on select Canadian goods that will kick in this week unless a trade deal is signed.
So, expelling the ambassador over his public statements — however grating for Canadians — would do nothing but give Trump more ways to paint Canada as a “nasty” aggressor that prefers to escalate rather than cooperate.
That’s exactly the narrative Canada needs to counter right now.
The U.S. is Canada's largest trading partner by a gargantuan margin, which leaves us especially vulnerable. Like it or not, they hold the cards.
We’re not well-positioned to absorb any backlash that expelling Hoekstra would likely cause –– whether that's steeper tariffs or an even more hostile trade negotiation than is already underway.
Plus… well… it wouldn’t actually change anything.
Hoekstra is a mouthpiece, and expelling him wouldn’t undo the tariffs, wouldn’t reposition Trump’s hostile views of Canada and most likely wouldn’t lead to anything positive — diplomatically or economically.
Instead, Ottawa needs to protect both its negotiating leverage with Washington and its domestic political capital for any last-minute trade talks that might actually save our economy — rather than spending either one on a symbolic expulsion.
Sure, removing Hoekstra could temporarily quench Canadians’ thirst for retaliation against the irritant in the Oval Office –– but then what?
Winning the battle over Hoekstra’s trolling isn't worth losing ground in the war over trade.
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