More than 27,000 sign petition calling for Hoekstra’s removal

  • U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra invited Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Lich to the July Fourth party at the ambassador’s residence, a move that stunned some Canadians.
  • More than 27,000 people signed a citizen’s e-petition in Parliament calling for a review of Hoekstra’s conduct and possible recall.
  • Hoekstra defended his approach, saying he represents President Trump’s agenda and “didn’t come here to be liked.”
  • Prime Minister Mark Carney has ruled out expelling Hoekstra, saying “we take the administration as it is.”

A no-holds-barred ambassador tests Canada’s patience

OTTAWA — The July Fourth party at the U.S. ambassador’s residence on the Ottawa River typically draws a who’s who of Canada’s diplomatic, business, and political circles. This year, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s invite list stunned some Canadians.

Posing for photos at the Edwardian mansion, known as Lornado, was Tamara Lich, who is under house arrest for leading the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations by truck drivers that blockaded Ottawa and several U.S.-Canada border crossings in protest of pandemic restrictions. In a social-media post from the party, Lich said she thanked Hoekstra for supporting the self-described convoy, which galvanized the MAGA right but paralyzed the Canadian capital for weeks.

The State Department said Lich attended the party as a journalist under the same rules as a Wall Street Journal reporter. Lich is a contributor to the far-right Rebel News organization.

Lich’s attendance marked another provocative gesture from America’s top diplomat in Ottawa since he arrived in Canada in April 2025. The former Republican congressman from Michigan has become a household name by embracing Trump’s blunt tone, often casting Canada’s dismay over Trump’s 51st-state talk as beyond comprehension. He has called Canada’s response to Trump’s attacks “nasty” and “disappointing.”

Hoekstra demanded an apology from Canada’s national newspaper for a column critical of victorious U.S. Olympian hockey players who attended Trump’s address to Congress. Months earlier, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had urged Hoekstra to apologize for directing an expletive-laden tirade at a provincial official at a gala, which Ford called “unbecoming of an ambassador.”

“I don’t think there has been anyone in the history of Canadian diplomacy who has been quite so outspoken and critical, openly critical, of Canadians and their government,” said Fen Osler Hampson, an international politics professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. “He really has, shall we say, opened a new page in undiplomatic behavior.”

In an interview, Hoekstra defended his approach. “I didn’t come here to be liked, OK?” he said. “I came here to represent the president of the United States and his agenda, and that’s what I do to the best of my ability each and every day.”

More than 27,000 people signed a citizen’s e-petition in Parliament calling on the government to review Hoekstra’s conduct and take action, including requesting his recall if it finds it harmful to Canada’s interests.

“I felt that bullies need to be stood up to,” said Hugh Winters, the citizen who filed the petition.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has ruled out booting Hoekstra. “We take the administration as it is,” Carney said.

The post of U.S. ambassador to Canada has historically been one of the most coveted in America’s diplomatic corps. The neighbors share the world’s longest undefended border and one of its largest trading relationships. But those bonds have been severely stressed. Trump’s tariffs and 51st-state threats have pushed Canada to rethink its dependence on the U.S.

MSI previously reported that Carney has called for reducing Canada’s economic ties with the U.S. over Trump’s tariff policies. The uncertainty looms over the future of North America’s free trade pact, and several provincial governments have pulled U.S. liquor from store shelves in retaliation — a move Hoekstra has cited as one of his foremost irritants.

A Pew Research poll last month found that 35% of Canadians see the U.S. as a reliable partner, down from 83% in 2022 — a number Hoekstra called “a problem.” He blames Canada’s political establishment for running a year of “anti-American messaging.” Asked if Trump’s rhetoric might be a contributing factor, and if he had ever asked Trump to tone down the 51st-state talk, Hoekstra said he wouldn’t “get into pointing the blame at anyone” and that Trump is “very effective in putting out his own messaging.”

“We don’t tell the president what to say,” Hoekstra said.

Hoekstra isn’t the first envoy to stoke outrage in Canada, which has been on the receiving end of harsh talk from Chinese diplomats known as “Wolf Warriors.” But it is unusual for such brusque rhetoric to come from one of the country’s closest allies.

Scott Reid, who was communications director for former Prime Minister Paul Martin, said U.S. envoys were not dismissive of Canadian concerns or abrasive even during disagreements such as the Iraq war. He said Canadians have come to expect nothing less from the Trump administration.

“This is a president who refers to Canada as the 51st state,” Reid said. “So naturally he is going to provide us with an ambassador who is half envoy and half insult comic.”

Despite the friction, Hoekstra has also been described as constructive and charming in private meetings. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said, “You know exactly where you stand with him.”

Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, first met the ambassador at a National Hockey League playoff game last year. Hoekstra spoke about how Canada had liberated his parents’ Dutch town from the Nazis during World War II. Hyder said he gets “the emotion of it all” but called criticism of Hoekstra misguided.

In remarks to the crowd at the July Fourth party, Hoekstra acknowledged that the U.S. and Canada have “a few little issues to work out” and offered assurances that “we’re going to get over this.” But he couldn’t resist a final poke: “Next year, hopefully we can all take a toast of American bourbon legally in the province of Ontario.”