U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is shown at the United States Embassy in Ottawa, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Justin Tang /The Canadian Press via AP)
No more poutine for you!
Tens of thousands of Canadians want to boot U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra from the Great White North.
More than 171,000 people so far have signed a petition calling for Hoekstra’s ouster.
Hoekstra has “normalized” President Donald Trump’s aggression to Canada, according to the petition:
U.S Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has repeatedly made public statements undermining the Canada-U.S. diplomatic relations, including characterizing the 2025 Canadian federal election as “anti-American”;
Ambassador Hoekstra has normalized the Trump administration’s threats to annex Canada as the “51st state,” describing such rhetoric as a “term of endearment”;
Ambassador Hoekstra has accused Canada of interfering in U.S. domestic politics while himself making repeated interventions in Canadian political discourse inconsistent with diplomatic protocol;
Ambassador Hoekstra has been linked to a Michigan-based voter identification app used by the Alberta separatist Centurion Project, while claiming no knowledge of its use; and
The Alberta Prosperity Project met with U.S. State Department officials three times between April 2025 and January 2026, with Hoekstra claiming no knowledge of those meetings, raising serious questions about U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian unity.
We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
1. Formally declare Pete Hoekstra persona non grata and request his removal as U.S. Ambassador to Canada;
2. Raise with the United States the pattern of conduct by Ambassador Hoekstra inconsistent with the Vienna convention on Diplomatic Relations; and
3. Direct a parliamentary committee to review U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian domestic affairs.
Hoekstra was confirmed as America’s Canadian ambassador in April 2025.
The Calgary woman who launched the petition said the response has floored her.
“It’s beyond what I expected out of this,” Lee Walker told CBC News.
“It tells me that it’s not a fringe issue, and that a lot of Canadians are uncomfortable with how Hoekstra has been repeating Trump talking points about our sovereignty and Canada as a whole.”
The petition comes as Trump has created a consistently contentious relationship with Canada in his second term.
Whether it’s slamming Canada for smokey air drifting into the United States from wildfires, the trade war or disputes over the Gordie Howe Memorial Bridge connecting Detroit, Michigan with Windsor, Ontario, Trump has been less than friendly with America’s neighbors to the north.
Walker’s petitions has now gotten enough signatures to be debated on the floor of the Canadian parliament in the fall.
The post ‘Persona Non Grata’: Tens of Thousands Want to Oust U.S. Ambassador Amid Contentious Relationship with Trump first appeared on Mediaite.
