U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra speaks with the media in Fredericton, on Sept. 19.Stephen MacGillivray/The Canadian Press
Most Canadians say they’ll never trust the United States the way they once did, according to a new poll.
Conducted by Ipsos for Global News, the poll found that 60 per cent of those surveyed believe Canada won’t ever be able to rely on their southern neighbour the same way, while 71 per cent feel the trade dispute that upended the countries’ long-standing friendship will continue for years.
These results have no doubt perplexed and angered some Americans, including the current U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.
Mr. Hoekstra made news last week when he told an audience in Halifax that he was “disappointed” with Canada’s reaction to the tariffs President Donald Trump has placed on some Canadian imports. Earlier this year, Mr. Hoekstra had downplayed Mr. Trump’s stated desire to make this country the “cherished 51st state“ of the U.S., saying it was merely a “term of endearment.”
Ultimately, the ambassador can’t understand why politicians in Canada would respond to these developments in a hostile manner.
“A cabinet minister came out and said, ‘We’re in a trade war with the United States, we’re at war with the United States,’” Mr. Hoekstra said last week. “I think that’s a dangerous place to go.”
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A dangerous place to go? How so? Could Mr. Trump misinterpret the remarks and then urge his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to get troops at the ready?
Clearly, anyone in Canada who has used the term “war” to describe what has happened over the last several months is talking about “economic war.” And Mr. Hoekstra, a seasoned politician, knows that.
What is really shocking about his statements, however, is just how tone-deaf and arrogant they are. Can the man not even begin to understand why Canadians might be upset with tariffs that are devastating our domestic economy? Tariffs that are based, in large part, on a bogus rationale: that fentanyl is pouring into the U.S. from Canada – an allegation that even America’s own border agency can’t back up with proof, because it’s not true.
And Mr. Hoekstra can’t seem to believe Canadians would be upset with a President who has repeatedly said he wants to annex Canada – to make it part of the States. Can you imagine what the reaction would be in the U.S. if anyone, let alone the leader of another country, threatened the sovereignty of America? What would Donald Trump say to that?
But Mr. Hoekstra wants us to believe it was all just a form of flattery. Sorry – no one is buying that. And I suspect there are few in Canada who believe we have heard the end of this fantasy of Mr. Trump’s.
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Someone with more diplomatic chops, with a little more international savvy, would have handled this entire confab with far more agility than Mr. Hoekstra. A seasoned envoy might have recognized the upset that exists in this country and attempted to smooth things over a bit, instead of suggesting Canadian politicians button their lips or watch what they say. The rest of us should just be grateful, apparently, that we live in the shadow of such a great nation.
This is not Mr. Hoekstra’s first stint as an ambassador. He previously served in the position in the Netherlands during Mr. Trump’s first term. That did not go smoothly. When remarks he made at a right-wing conference in 2015 – in which he claimed Dutch politicians were being “burned” by Muslim immigrants – resurfaced, he denied making them, saying it was fake news. But when he was presented with video evidence of his comments, he had no choice but to backtrack and apologize for the untrue remark.
It’s doubtful that the Ambassador’s admonishment of Canadians over their reaction to the U.S. and its economic decisions in the last several months will do anything to change the current mood here. Many are watching what is taking place in America at the moment and are horrified by what they see. We barely recognize a country we thought we knew well.
There is a reason that travel to the U.S. from Canada has plunged over the last several months, and it’s not just because of the gut punch the tariffs delivered. It’s also because many see an autocracy beginning to take shape where one of the world’s greatest democracies once existed. Some genuinely worry they might get apprehended at the border and sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centre in Louisiana for some spurious reason.
I’m afraid Mr. Hoekstra doesn’t see his own country the way many others do. As for Canada, he would be advised to lecture a little less and listen a whole lot more.