EDITORIAL: Ignore the insults and act like a real country

The petition simply shows Trump that his barbs have hit the target

Published Aug 14, 2026  •  Last updated 22 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Pete Hoekstra, U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia Network

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We have words of advice for those smug Canadians who are twisting like pretzels and patting themselves on the back for signing a petition calling for the expulsion of American ambassador Pete Hoekstra from this country.

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Grow up, grow a backbone and learn how to brush off insulting language from a foreign diplomat with the contempt it deserves.

Launching a petition simply shows U.S. President Donald Trump that his barbs have hit the target.

The petition, launched by Calgary resident Leanne Walker, calls for Hoekstra to be declared persona non grata, a designation that would, under the 1963 United Nations Vienna Convention on consular relations, require him to be expelled from this country.

The online petition will be introduced in Parliament by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in September

What would that accomplish? Hoekstra isn’t freelancing these views. They aren’t his personal views. Ambassadors represent the views of the government they represent. In this case, that’s Trump, whose crude attempt to undermine Canada has been ongoing since his second election. Dump Hoekstra and we’ll just get another clone to fire insulting broadsides at our sovereignty.

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It is a misguided view that the long history of diplomacy is one of polite discussions and courtly behaviour. Nothing is further from the truth. Germany’s pre-war envoy to Britain, Joachim von Ribbentrop, was close to Adolf Hitler and was a sycophantic supporter of his causes. During the abdication crisis of 1936, von Ribbentrop convinced his German masters that civil war was about to break out in Britain.

Likewise, Joseph Kennedy, America’s wartime ambassador to Britain, was loathed and detested by the British — sentiments he entirely reciprocated. He was mocked by Britons for retreating to the safety of the countryside during the Blitz — an act viewed as cowardly by Londoners facing the wrath of Hitler’s Luftwaffe.

Two nations may be friends and allies but have differences of opinion. For sure, Hoekstra has been rude and provocative in the insulting statements he has made about making this country the 51st state.

Sadly, his views echo the state of relations between Canada and the U.S. right now. Instead of taking on this whiny, childish tone of enduring victimhood, Canadians should hold our heads high and ignore these foolish insults. We’re better than that — and we know it.

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