Missteps of Ambassador Hoekstra: Fueling a Fire in US-Canada Relations

 The US-Canada relationship, once a beacon of neighbourly cooperation, is buckling under tariffs, annexation rhetoric, and the harmful diplomacy of US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra. Since taking his post in April 2025, Hoekstra has inflamed tensions with tone-deaf criticisms, threats to NORAD, and an inappropriate lecture on Canada’s defence budget. His actions, coupled with a recent incident where a US border officer sped toward a Canadian tourist, yelling, “Never come to the U.S. again!” paint a grim picture of a partnership in peril.

 An audio recording from the Pacific Northwest Economic Region summit on July 21, 2025, in Bellevue, Washington, captured the Ambassador calling Canadians “mean and nasty” for avoiding U.S. travel, further ignites public resentment. Hoekstra’s missteps began to draw attention on September 18th at a Halifax Chamber of Commerce event, where he expressed “disappointment” in Canadians for lacking enthusiasm for the US-Canada bond. He labeled the recent federal election campaign, won by Mark Carney’s Liberals, “anti-American” for its “elbows up” slogan - a direct response to punishing US tariffs on steel (50%), aluminum (50%), and autos (25%) that have cost Canada $12 billion in GDP and 16% of its US exports since April 2025. At a Banff forum on September 25, he criticized Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne for calling the trade dispute a “war,” deeming it “dangerous.” The irony is stark: Canada didn’t start this fight. The US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which once ensured duty-free trade in steel, aluminum, lumber, copper, autos, and parts, has been shredded by President Trump’s “national security” tariffs, not Canadian aggression. Canada’s restrained $8 billion retaliatory tariffs are a fraction of the damage, yet Hoekstra casts us as the problem.

 Since late 2024, Trump has called for Canada to become the “51st state” eight to ten times - in settings from the Super Bowl to a Time magazine interview - tying it to trade relief or the “Golden Dome” missile defence plan, which demands Canada pay $61 billion or join the US. A September 2025 Angus Reid poll shows 68% of Canadians find this “offensive.” Prime Minister Carney’s retort at the June 2025 NATO Summit in Alberta - “Canada will never be the 51st state” - resonates deeply. Yet Hoekstra seems more irritated by Canada’s defence of its sovereignty than by his president’s provocations.

 The F-35 saga is another flashpoint. On May 21, 2025, in a CTV Power Play interview, Hoekstra warned that if Canada doesn’t buy 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, it could “threaten NORAD,” the binational defense pact critical to continental security. He escalated this in August on the Jasmin Laine Podcast, stating, “You can’t afford two fighters, two different fighter jet programs. Canada should just decide what they want. Do they want F-35s? Do they want some other product? That’s your decision to make, but you can’t afford both of them.” He reiterated this on September 15 in the Ottawa Citizen, calling a potential “two-fighter” solution (e.g., F-35s plus Saab’s Gripen E) an “irritant.” As Canada’s Department of National Defence nears a September 30 decision on the $21 billion F-35 deal (up from $19 billion due to US-reported overruns), Hoekstra’s lecture is not just pressure - it’s an inappropriate intrusion into Canada’s sovereign fiscal choices.

 It’s not the US ambassador’s place to dictate what Canada can afford. The F-35’s costs - potentially $70 billion over its lifecycle, with $35,000 per flight hour versus the Gripen’s $4,000 - are daunting, especially amid tariff-induced economic strain. A September 3, 2025, US GAO report flagged F-35 upgrades as $6 billion over budget and five years late, fueling Canada’s review of alternatives like the Gripen, pitched in an August Arctic defense pact.

 NORAD has operated with mixed fleets—Canada’s CF-18s alongside US F-15s and F-22s - for decades, debunking Hoekstra’s interoperability scare as “nonsense,” per Carleton’s Elinor Sloan. His rhetoric smells of a US push to lock Canada into its supply chain, not a genuine defense concern. Besides, Canada can buy twice as many Gripen fighters for the same money as F-35s.. 

 All of this comes on the heels of a shocking pattern of hostility at the US-Canada border. A CBC report from September 20, 2025, detailed an incident where a US border officer sped toward a Canadian tourist in a vehicle, yelling, “Never come to the U.S. again!” Just as a Quebec man, Edouard Lallemand, says he nearly drowned after the U.S. Coast Guard rammed his boat, causing it to capsize and then arresting him for fishing in what he claims were Canadian waters. Lallemand, who was jailed for nearly two hours in wet clothes, said he had never seen anyone so angry and that he was given a “dirty” blanket. These incidents are a microcosm of the hostility Canadians face, from top diplomats to border guards.

 Perhaps Ambassador Hoekstra would rather be at a different diplomatic post? His tenure reads like a Trumpian playbook - condescending, dismissive, and blind to the damage US policies inflict. From accusing Canadians of disloyalty to threatening NORAD and meddling in our defense budget, he’s alienating a partner reeling from tariffs, annexation taunts, and now border hostility. Diplomacy requires respect, not ultimatums. If Hoekstra can’t grasp why Canadians are pushing back - elbows up - he might find a better fit elsewhere. As Canada awaits its F-35 decision and braces for the next US salvo, we deserve a neighbour who builds trust, not division.