Canadian petition to expel US ambassador gains over 170,000 signatures

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The signature tally, as of Saturday, surpassed 171,000, far exceeding the 500 needed for the petition to be discussed before Canada’s legislature. The effort underscores the simmering discontent in Canada with the administration of US President Donald Trump. The petition accuses Hoekstra of “repeatedly making public statements undermining Canada-US diplomatic relations”. Hoekstra has defended Trump’s pledge to make Canada “the 51st” US state, and last year, he accused Canadian officials of seeking to interfere in US elections. Those remarks came in response to advertisements funded by the Ontario government criticising Trump’s tariff policies, which have disproportionately targeted Canada. Hoekstra warned that Canada cannot “expect that there will be no consequences or reaction” from the US following the ads. The petition also pointed to reported ties between Hoekstra and the founder of an application used by separatists in Calgary to rally support for their movement. Hoekstra has previously denied any ties between the Trump administration and the separatists. The petition makes three demands of the Canadian government. First, it calls on the House of Commons to “formally declare Pete Hoekstra persona non grata and request his removal as US Ambassador to Canada”. Second, it pushes for cross-border talks on “the pattern of conduct by Ambassador Hoekstra inconsistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”, a 1961 international treaty on diplomacy. The third demand is that the Canadian government “direct a parliamentary committee to review US diplomatic interference in Canadian domestic affairs”. The petition was authorised by Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party and its only current member in the House of Commons, after being put forward by Calgary resident Leanne Walker. In Canada, any citizen can organise a petition for an issue to be addressed by the House of Commons. Residents and citizens must provide their province and territory and postal code, as well as a phone number, to participate in the petition. Such petitions can stay open for up to 120 days. The petition to expel Hoekstra was introduced on July 21. Reaching the 500-signature threshold requires that the issue be brought before the House of Commons, which must give an official response within 45 days. The petition, however, is non-binding, and it remains unclear how much traction it would ultimately gain among members of Canada’s Parliament. Still, the mass of signatures is the latest indication of entrenched discontent in Canada towards Trump’s policies, which include a push to assert greater US influence over the entire Western Hemisphere. In recent months alone, several areas of friction have emerged. In July, Trump imposed new 50 percent tariffs on certain Canadian goods, claiming “discriminatory treatment” in trade relations. In response, Canada cancelled a celebration ceremony for the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which links Windsor, Ontario, with Detroit, Michigan. The bridge’s opening was itself cast in doubt, after Trump pushed for a greater US stake in the project, undertaken by Michigan and Canada. Trump also threatened more tariffs last month in response to wildfires across Canada, blaming it for poor air quality south of the border. A Pew Research survey in June found that Canadians’ views of the US as a reliable partner had plummeted. In 2022, 83 percent of Canadians rated the US as reliable. By 2026, just 35 percent held that view. The same poll found that 16 percent of Canadians in 2022 explicitly rated the US as “not reliable”. That proportion climbed to 65 percent this year. 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