Full text: U.S. ambassador Pete Hoekstra talks about future of U.S.-Canada relations

On June 3, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra spoke at an event organized by the Empire Club of Canada. Below is his full speech, followed by an interview with Lisa Raitt, vice chair of Global Investment Banking at CIBC Capital Markets.  Thank you. It’s great for Diane and I to join you today. Thank you to many of you who expressed a warm welcome. Diana and I have felt nothing but a warm welcome since we arrived in Canada five, I think, five weeks ago. Not that anybody is counting, but we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity that you provided with me being the ambassador to go to Mackinac Island for three — for three days — last week. Those of you who have been to Mackinac Island, I think you can appreciate how beautiful that is, especially when the weather is nice. For those of you that haven’t been: Please go. It is an awesome place. But the great thing today is, for me, as an immigrant to America, is to make America’s case to you, to talk about what’s going on and why it is so important, not only for us as American citizens, but for you as Canadian citizens, and the deep relationship and the friendship that we have shared for so long. People call Donald Trump a transformational president, especially in this second term. You know, I couldn’t agree more. I got my start in politics in 1993, and I learned a little bit about transformational politics —about the — with the last transformational figure in American politics. Some of you may remember. Some of you weren’t even born in 1993, but Newt Gingrich, who became the Speaker of the House. I ran against a Republican incumbent as a Republican in a primary in 1992 I was working in the private sector. I was having a great career, and one night, I woke up and I rolled over to Diana, I said, you know, I think I’m going to run for Congress. And she said, ‘Go back to sleep and you’ll feel better in the morning.’ Well, you know, I didn’t feel any better in the morning. And I started talking to some friends and some people that I really trusted, and I’d say, ‘I think I’m running for Congress.’ And they’d start laughing, and they said, ‘You’ve never talked about politics.’ And then I told them why I thought I might be qualified, and that I’ve never done anything political, and they said, ‘Maybe that’s what we need right now.’ So in 1992, I ran against a 26-year Republican incumbent. If you know anything about politics in America, winning and unseating an incumbent is almost impossible. I spent about $50,000, he spent three quarters of a million. On election night, I had 48 per cent. You think that’s bad? No, it’s good. We had a third candidate in the race. He had 42, so I went on in a solid Republican district, to become the next congressman. Got to Washington, and one day, Newt Gingrich called me in my office. They were thrilled. Freshman Republican, you’re in the minority, you don’t count. But Newt Gingrich is calling, and I go and I see Newt, and Newt says, ‘Pete, what do you do every day?’ That’s kind of like, ‘Well, excuse me, Newt, I’m a congressman. I vote. I go to committee hearings. I meet with constituents.’ And he says, ‘I want you to stop all of that. Don’t do any of that.’ He says, ‘You’re a marketing guy. I need you to work with me on a project so that, in 1995, when you come back, Republicans will hold the gavel. We will be in the majority.’ So I became involved working with Newt on the Contract with America. The rest is history. Transformational. For the first time in 40 years, Republicans controlled the House of Representatives. We did the Contract with America with certain urgency: a hundred days. Cut taxes, we grew the economy, and we did something that people laughed when we said we were going to do it, but we balanced the budget for four years straight, we transformed the American political landscape, at least for a period of time. Donald Trump is coming in and trying to do exactly the same thing, and is having phenomenal success as we go through this process. You know, if you don’t remember anything else I talk about today, remember three words. What is Donald Trump? What did he promise the American people? I’m going to do everything that I can to bring more prosperity to all Americans. I’m going to bring more security to us as a nation, and I’m going to make you safer. That is the agenda — the transformative agenda — that Donald Trump is pushing: prosperity, security and safety that is good for America and that is good for our neighbours to the north. The more prosperous we are, the more safe we are, and the more secure we are, you will also feel the same. What has he done? We secured our border in less than a hundred days. Doge saved us $175 billion. We’re working on a tax bill that we think will reduce the deficit but stimulate economic growth. Those are things that — we become a stronger economy, you will feel the benefits, and the benefits for North America will be even greater as your government — and I’ve listened to Prime Minister Carney talk about this — seems like your government. The government that you elected recently, is focused on the same things: more security, more safety and more prosperity. Transformative politics. Yeah, they create tension because you’re changing the status quo. But the same way that we transformed the United States in 1995-96 and the years after — America became — we didn’t balance the budget by cutting spending. How did we balance the budget? Working with Bill Clinton. We brought more prosperity to the United States. And as amazing as it sounds in America, we as politicians, couldn’t spend the increased revenues coming into the federal government fast enough. There was more money coming in than we could we could spend. We ended up balancing the budget Donald Trump has put together, I think, a remarkable team of people who know how to make agreements. They know they’ve all been transformative in their personal lives and in the businesses that they have run. I have no doubt that they will bring prosperity to America. They will negotiate agreements, and they work on these things. And you can read this from what Donald Trump has said: a win win. They will negotiate, recognizing the best agreements are where we win, and we make America great again, but we’re also working with folks that will benefit by signing and negotiating with us and moving forward. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. We have so many things that we can work together on. Can we work together on security? Absolutely. Can we work on more safety? Absolutely. Prosperity? Absolutely. It’s dealing with things like critical minerals. It’s about dealing with defence spending — Golden Dome. You go through the whole list of things, the list of things that we can work on is much bigger and much longer and much more important than the things that we’re debating right now. I think you can leave here today, and hopefully you will leave here with a perspective that a relationship with — and our relationship with America — will not only make America more prosperous, more secure and safe, but as we transform — or as you transform your Canadian government and partner With the United States of America — you will feel exactly those same kinds of benefits. Had a great meeting with your premier this morning, Premier Ford, and we talked about this: things that we can do together and that we will benefit from together. With that, I think I’m going to have a discussion with Lisa, maybe take some of your questions, but again, thank you for allowing me to be here today. I am optimistic about where this relationship is. I’m more optimistic about where I believe this relationship is going. So thank you very much for inviting me. Lisa Raitt: Thank you very much ambassador. Appreciate that they even have little name tags, telling us which of us is where. That was very impressive, Ambassador, not a single note, no. That’s how you speak. Pete Hoekstra: I speak, and I covered about 70 or 80 per cent of what I wanted to, but I like to think that it’s sometimes more effective if people sense that it’s coming — you know — from how I strongly feel and that I’m passionate about these things. Rather than, ‘Oh, someone could write him a great speech, and he can read it.’ Raitt: Yeah, that makes sense. Now there’s a lot of politicians in the room who would never attempt what you just tried to do. Hoekstra: Great. Thank you for the compliment. Lisa Raitt: I want to start with first of all by saying, Welcome to Canada. Of course, you’ve been here for five weeks, which isn’t a lot of time. We’re big country. You’ve got a lot of places, — but I understand that you brought your skates with you, and you like tulips. You’re in the right place in Ottawa. Hoekstra: We’re in the right place. I bought the long skates, the racing skates, not that I anticipate I’m going to go very fast, but I bought them when Diane and I were in the Netherlands. I was anticipating skating through my parents’ province on the frozen canals, you know, looking at the windmills and all of those types of things. They never froze. They didn’t freeze. They didn’t freeze, but they have a big ice skating rink that’s partially enclosed, and so I had the opportunity to practice. So I am thrilled. I was thrilled when I read that the canals — or the canal — in Ottawa froze for 10 days. Yeah, I wasn’t quite as thrilled when I read that it was frozen for 10 weeks. Okay, it’s kind of like, ‘Hey, I want to skate, but I’m not sure I want to skate for 10 weeks.’ Raitt: So you get tough winters in Michigan. Hoekstra: Yes, we do. So we get a lot of snow, but not as much ice. Raitt: This is not a big surprise The — so one of the quirks about Canada and probably in other countries too, is our title. So as ambassador, you can be your excellency as well. I get to be honourable for life, although there’s probably a number of people in here who question that. But there’s a really cool one for mayors that I understand, that you heard about as well. Do you know what mayors are called, in terms of, in terms of their — Hoekstra: Yeah, your Worship. Raitt: What do you think about that? You think it’s — Hoekstra: I want to be one, yeah, OK? I kind of like that, yeah. We have a few things to learn, yeah. Raitt: I agree. That’s a good one to be. And when I was speaking with your wife, Diane, welcome as well. You have family — Diane has family in Smithers, B.C. —And she indicated, she said, ‘Do you know where Smithers is, Lisa? And I said, Actually, I do. But she said, You know, it’s 700 miles away from Vancouver.’ And immediately in my Canadian brain, I’m going ‘700 miles is 1100 kilometers, 12 hour drive.’ That’s how we know. So when we say how far you are, ambassador, we don’t measure in terms of miles or kilometers. You have to tell the person how far away it is in terms of where you want to drive to. Hoekstra: Smithers is a long way, been there. Raitt: It is indeed. It is indeed. Any plans to try other parts of the country. Hoekstra: Yeah, during COVID, we had another ambassador to the U.S., who was in the Netherlands, to OPCW, and Diane was gone, and Ken and I, we talked. I said, ‘Hey, let’s bike around the Netherlands.’ And so on a Saturday, we got on the bikes. We hit every single province without cheating, like putting the bikes on the back of a truck or anything like that. And after seven days, we had biked around the Netherlands and we had touched and gone into every single province. So I’m going to try that in Ottawa. Okay, I think maybe I can start from Ottawa. Seven days later, I’ll still be in Ontario. Maybe seven days after that, I’ll still be in Ontario. But no — we hope to, we hope to see a lot of the country. It’s a beautiful country, a lot of important business centres. But obviously, you know, when you’re in Quebec and Ontario, you’re at — I’ll just stop there. I’ll just get in trouble with all the other provincial leaders and those things. But no, we, we look forward to visiting a lot of these provinces again. Raitt: Yeah, it’s, it’s a beautiful country, and we hope that you take advantage of the ability to see it all. When you — when you  — got here five weeks ago, you came as an ambassador in a different time than other ambassadors, and there’s a lot of ambassadors in the room here tonight, actually. Can you give me an idea of what you encountered when you came to Canada? Was it what you expected in terms of the state of the relationship? Hoekstra: Well, I mean, obviously, for the last number of months, we’ve been watching the state of the relationship and those types of things and, yeah, I’m, I’m disappointed that some of the rhetoric has gone to where it has, OK? But that’s why I come and I, you know, I give an optimistic message, OK? I talked to the President, I talked to Howard Lutnick, and they’re — they’re — going to be the people that put together the tariff. And the good news for Canada is, you know, this is not, this is being settled at the highest levels of the U.S. government, with the involvement of the highest-elected officials, principally with Donald Trump. So when you get to an agreement, you know, again, if it’s Donald Trump being actively involved with his team on setting the parameters for an agreement, it can happen relatively quickly, much better than, you know, having 100 technocrats negotiating a — I don’t know how long USMCA was, but I know how much I know how long NAFTA was — that takes a long time to put that together, but the broad parameters — your Prime Minister, my president — they can do this quickly if they have the will and the direction to do it, and as long as they’re focused on what I talked about, prosperity, security and safety. As a leader, who wouldn’t want those three things and recognize that if they worked on these things together, we will all benefit? Raitt: In your — in your — time as ambassador in the Netherlands, and your time as — sitting as a congressman. Did you ever encounter time at the G7? Is this gonna be your first time being the ambassador when a G7 is happening in the country that you’re affiliated with? Hoekstra: Yeah. Raitt: It’s a lot. There’s a lot going on. I remember when we hosted the G8 last time. There’s a lot of people that come up here from the United States. Hoekstra: There’s a huge contingent coming with the President. I’m not sure exactly how many Cabinet members he will be taking with you, but there will be a number. Yeah, so I will see the president. I’ll have an opportunity to talk with him, but you know, the transformative policies that the President is working on, he is keeping his finger on that. You know, our Secretary of Commerce is keeping his personal finger on that. And you know, they’re not delegating that out to a lot. It’s kind of like, ‘No, this is transformative. The relationship with Canada is so important, as President, and as Commerce Secretary, I personally want to set that direction.’ That is the message that you know we’re getting from Secretary Lutnick, and most importantly, that is the direction that we are getting from the President. Raitt: Yeah, you mentioned at the beginning about rhetoric. Rhetoric goes both ways. You hear us talking about stuff up here and and, you know, bills are being put in place or proposed that may be in irritant. I think you call it a pebble in the shoe that have to be worked through. But I’m — you know, there is — you’ve answered this question many times, Ambassador, but I’m gonna, I’m going to ask you to wade into it one more time, if you don’t mind, just because — it would have been OK but for the fact that it came up in the media again last week — and the notion of Canada and its sovereignty. Hoekstra: I mean, the President and your Prime Minister had a great discussion. You saw, what, two or three minutes of the 34 minutes that they had the press scrum in the Oval Office. But you know, in the substantive portion of the meeting, the lunch where, you know, 12 of us — 12 of us — could leave and say, ‘Wow, I had lunch at the White House today.’ There were two people that could leave and say, ‘We had a serious, substantive discussion about the future of our countries, and we are very positive about where the future of America, Canada, individually, where we can go, but also what we can achieve together,’ and so and you know, I think the first time I was asked about that, after that meeting, I said, ‘Well, you know, as far as I’m concerned, you know that discussion, if it continues, it will be between the Prime Minister and the President.’ I misspoke, OK? I should have said it’s going to — it’s going to — be between the President and the Prime Minister and the media — OK? Raitt: Yeah, that’s true. Hoekstra: The media — media can bring up things whenever they want, whether the — I’ve met with a lot, a lot of you — and thanks to many of you for the time that you and your companies have shared with me to learn more about Canada. We’ve done the same thing on the other side of the border. On Monday, had three meetings with Michigan business — or three meetings that included a number of Michigan businesses — the week before we did it on Mackinac Island, select U.S.A. And what I consistently hear from the business community, from people, everyday people on the streets, but also from, you know, from the politicians, the people that are setting the framework — I wish they’d say it a little louder sometimes, but it’s, you know, they’re talking about — ‘We want this to really be a really, really positive relationship, and many in the business community believe they will come out of this — that this relationship will come out stronger, rather than damaged. And I feel the same way. Again, when you talk about the areas: confronting China, national security, Arctic, you know, critical minerals, energy, and you go right down the list, a number of those things, they’re just starting now, OK? And how we deal with them is our huge business opportunities and national security opportunities moving in the future, and with — I know, on our side — with a president that is focused on economic growth and prosperity. He’s going to be looking to make those agreements that generate benefits to the American people. And you know, the President expects that those he negotiates with are going to be doing the same thing for their countries. That’s fine. That’s good. That’s — you know, when I was in the private sector, we always liked smart competition, alright? Because if you had dumb competition, they sell below cost, they compete, and they would drive the whole industry down. If you were competing with really smart competitors, you’d sharpen your pencil to win the contract, and sometimes you’d win and sometimes you’d lose, but you wouldn’t drive the rest of the industry down the tubes. Raitt: In prosperity, safety and security, what politician doesn’t love that? What person doesn’t love that? That makes a whole bunch of sense. But in advancing prosperity in the United States, one of the tools that the President is using is tariffs, and that has an impact on us here in Canada, and a negative impact in a lot of ways. How should we be thinking about what you just showed — talked to us — about, which is, eventually we’re going to get somewhere where we’re better? But the pain right now can be kind of acute. Hoekstra: The pain right now is being felt, you know, in the tariffs that the President has put in place on 232, some of those — anti-dumping — because the President believes it is absolutely essential that there are certain core industries in America that America can rely on domestically. You know, the opportunity for Canada may be that some of those industries and some of those products, actually — if you get them from Canada, they can be done in such a way that there will be — U.S. can view that as a positive to us. Yeah, they’re working through, they’re working through the framework. And again, it’s a talented group. I’ve met a number of your folks who have done this in the past. They are a talented group. And I think when smart people get in a room and negotiate, they will come out with a good income — or, excuse me — a good outcome, that all of us are going to look at and say, ‘Hm, things in here that I really like. I might be uncomfortable with a couple, but there’s some stuff in here that is — I’ve never thought about. These folks worked it out in out in a really positive way.’ Raitt: As a former congressman representing Michigan, knowing the Ontario, Michigan relationship in the auto sectors is unheard of. I mean, it’s an incredible relationship. How should we be thinking about our auto sector here? Should we be worried? Hoekstra: No, I think the, you know, hopefully, as they go through these negotiations — that our chief competitor here is China. How do we use the strengths of the U.S. auto industry? How do we use the strengths of the capabilities of Canada, and how do we bring those together in such a way that we’re beating China and not each other. And again, I really believe, I mean, you have a secretary of commerce — that is his job. OK? How do — how do we win in these types of situations? And I’ve got a tremendous amount of confidence in our Secretary of Commerce that that’s exactly what those are, the types of things that he’s thinking about. Raitt: Yeah. Ambassador, we only have a few minutes left. We could spend a lot of time — I appreciate the time you’ve given us — but there are some questions from the audience, and one of them that has made it to the iPad in front of me is something that’s actually quite current, and be very nice if you could give us an insight into it, and it has to do with foreign students from post-secondary institutions in the — in the United States. Any — any — thoughts or any words for Canadians who may be trying to go to Harvard right now, like maybe the Prime Minister’s daughter? Hoekstra: Well, I mean, you know the what the U.S. is doing? OK, we cleaned up the border. We’re now tracking down people who are murderers, thieves and rapists, who are in the country illegally, and doing everything to get them out of the country and make America safe. When I was on the intel committee, I would get briefed regularly by the FBI about students from China in our universities who are — and our research institutions — who are stealing our technology or our research, sending it back to China. They would patent it before it ever came out of our research institutions. So what the President is doing is he’s cleaning up that mess. Alright, he’s cleaning up that mess. We recognize that American universities, and probably Canadian universities, are phenomenal bastions of knowledge — OK? — that our enemies want to have access to. This is why we have so many foreign students now. They want the knowledge, and in some cases, they want to steal our research. And so the President is saying, ‘No, we’re going to — we’re going to clean this up.’ We recognize the value of the commodity that we have, which are research institutions. So we still want people coming in, but we want to manage that process, OK. With so many of the things that we’re looking at, America has been negligent. We have not managed our resources well, and we’re being exploited by those who want to destroy the United States and who want to destroy the prosperity and the security of Canada at the same time. They’re not picking and choosing. If they don’t like the U.S., I think there’s a high probability they don’t like you either. Raitt: How should we think about U.S. foreign policy — given what’s happening geopolitically right now — just having heard what you said, and where does Canada play in that for you? Hoekstra: Well, Canada plays wherever it wants. OK, we’re looking for partners in this process. But I think the, you know, the President has clearly indicated he wants to bring stability, OK? And I know he feels passionate about this. He feels passionate that if we had, you know, if he had — if we had — pushed harder on confronting Russia during his first term. They hadn’t built Nord Stream, OK, had funded NATO. And, you know, some of the Europeans laughed at the President’s agenda when I was in the Netherlands. ‘Oh, you think the tanks are going to come across the border, stupid Americans, that’ll never happen. You think the Russians are going to cut off the gas? They need the revenue. Stupid Americans.’ Well, they did both things, and the President now wants to bring peace and stability into the Middle East, and he wants to bring an end to a war, you know. And there are critics of — obviously, of the president on all kinds of things — OK, but critics as to well, you know, Ukraine. Give us — give us — an alternative, other than an endless war, where way too many Ukrainians and way too many Russians have died, and where we, the Canadians, the U.S. and others, have invested way too many precious dollars that could have been used to create long term prosperity, rather than in missiles and bombs. This is a president who wants to stop the killing, and wants to stop it — not only in these two — but put in place a structure of security and stability that minimizes the possibility of these things happening in the future. That is why we are also focused on Iran, the threats that are out there, why we’re also focused on and appreciate Canadian cooperation on China. Stopping the — identifying the middle and long term threats, and putting in place the walls, the obstacles to them, becoming the kinds of problems that we see in Ukraine, in the Middle East today. Raitt: Yeah, and that’s the safety pillar of prosperity, safety and security? Yes. Well, I — what I — take from our conversation today, ambassador, is that you’re optimistic that we are going to get through the rough waters that we’re in right now. Hoekstra: I am. Yeah, I am. And you know, the good thing is, I think one of your ministers is meeting with our commerce secretary today. Yeah, the dialogue is open. The Prime Minister is talking with the President on a regular basis. We should take, you know, yeah, I take great confidence in putting smart people in a room and coming to the right answer. And it’s about all of us helping to inform the people in the room about what this means to them and their companies and their organizations and the, you know, I’ve been with the president now for the last eight-and-a-half, nine years, and, you know, a lot of times, and people don’t like to give him credit for this, a lot of times, most of the time, the President gets to the right answer. He gets to the right answer that will bring us to each one of those things: prosperity, security and stability. Raitt: Thank you, very much, ambassador, thank you. Hoekstra: Great opportunity to be here. Raitt: Ms. Hoekstra for being here as well. We’ve asked Jenna to come on up, and while you’re coming, please a round of applause. Ambassador Hoesktra, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.