OTTAWA—The July Fourth party at the U.S. ambassador’s residence here normally draws a who’s who of Canada’s diplomatic, business and political circles. This year, Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s invite list stunned some Canadians.
Event Context
Lich’s attendance marked another provocative gesture from America’s top diplomat in Ottawa.
“I didn’t come here to be liked, OK?” Hoekstra said in an interview. “I came here to represent the president of the United States and his agenda, and that’s what I do to the best of my ability each and every day.”
While there have always been differences to navigate, the post of U.S. ambassador to Canada has typically been one of the cushiest in America’s diplomatic corps. The neighbors and close security allies share the world’s longest undefended border and one of its largest trading relationships. Familial ties and friendships span the frontier.
Those bonds have rarely been so stressed. Trump’s tariffs and 51st-state threats have pushed Canada to rethink its dependence on the U.S. The levies are weighing on Canada’s manufacturing sectors, and uncertainty looms over the future of North America’s free trade pact. Several provincial governments have pulled U.S. liquor from store shelves in retaliation—one of Hoekstra’s foremost irritants.
A Pew Research poll last month found 35% of Canadians see the U.S. as a reliable partner, down from 83% in 2022—a number Hoekstra called “a problem.” He blames Canada’s political establishment for running a year of “anti-American messaging.”
Player Focus
Hoekstra demanded an apology from Canada’s national newspaper for a column headlined “The State of the Union was a zoo—and Team USA the monkeys” that was critical of victorious U.S. Olympian hockey players who attended Trump’s address before Congress. Months earlier, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had urged Hoekstra to apologize for lacing into a provincial official at a gala with an expletive-laden tirade that he called “unbecoming of an ambassador.”
“I don’t think there has been anyone in the history of Canadian diplomacy who has been quite so outspoken and critical, openly critical, of Canadians and their government,” said Fen Osler Hampson, an international politics professor at Carleton University in the capital, Ottawa. “He really has, shall we say, opened a new page in undiplomatic behavior.”
The undiplomatic diplomat blamed a “tough environment.” Hoekstra said he’s focused on building bridges with a business community that he claims is struggling to break into new markets amid Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trade-diversification push. He said his direct tone leaves no one confused and has its fans.
Team Analysis
Since arriving in the capital in April 2025, the former Republican congressman from Michigan has become something of a household name by embracing President Trump’s blunt tone.
Hoekstra often casts Canada’s dismay over Trump’s 51st-state talk as beyond comprehension, leaving Canadians flabbergasted. He has called their response to Trump’s attacks on their country “nasty” and “disappointing.”
Asked if the president’s rhetoric might be a contributing factor, and if he had ever asked him to tone down the 51st-state talk, Hoekstra said he wouldn’t “get into pointing the blame at anyone” and that Trump is “very effective in putting out his own messaging,” something he witnessed up close as chair of the Michigan Republican Party during the 2024 campaign.
“We don’t tell the president what to say,” Hoekstra said.
Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, first met the ambassador at a National Hockey League playoff game last year. Hoekstra, he said, spoke about how Canada had liberated his parents’ Dutch town from the Nazis. Hyder said he gets “the emotion of it all,” but called criticism of Hoekstra misguided.
Matthew Holmes, chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said the ambassador has developed a more-nuanced understanding of Canada as he has visited more of it.
“He wants to see a fruitful partnership emerge,” Holmes said, “and I take him at his word.”
This isn’t the first time Hoekstra’s stoked controversy on an overseas posting. As ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term, he apologized for once claiming that Muslims had created “no-go zones” in the country. He also hosted an event for a far-right, anti-immigrant political party at the U.S. Embassy.
As for inviting Lich to the Fourth of July party, the State Department said she attended as a journalist under the same rules as a Wall Street Journal reporter. Lich is a contributor to the far-right Rebel News organization.
Match Outlook
Last year, at an event in Alberta, Hoekstra grew irritated when asked if Trump, who has frequently said the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada, was misinformed about what its northern neighbor has to offer. He later said that he disagreed with the premise of the question and suggested there could be consequences for criticizing his boss in public.
“Even if there was even a slight chance that I might have agreed with that statement, what would you expect me to say?” Hoekstra said this year on “The CEO Series,” a Canadian podcast hosted by a McGill University professor.
Hoekstra isn’t the first envoy to have stoked outrage here. Canada has been on the receiving end of harsh talk from Chinese diplomats, known as “Wolf Warriors.” But it is unusual for such brusque rhetoric to come from one of the country’s closest allies.
Scott Reid, who was communications director for Canada’s former Prime Minister Paul Martin, said U.S. envoys weren’t dismissive of Canadian concerns or abrasive, even when there were disagreements like over the Iraq war. He said Canadians have come to expect nothing less from the Trump administration.
“This is a president who refers to Canada as the 51st state,” Reid said. “So naturally he is going to provide us with an ambassador who is half envoy and half insult comic.”
More than 27,000 people signed a citizen’s e-petition in Parliament calling on the government to review Hoekstra’s conduct and take action, including requesting his recall if it finds it harmful to Canada’s interests.
“I felt that bullies need to be stood up to,” said Hugh Winters, the citizen who filed it.
Carney has already ruled out booting Hoekstra. “We take the administration as it is,” he said.
Hoekstra has identified several areas where he sees opportunity for greater cooperation between the U.S. and Canada, such as critical minerals and energy. Away from the noise, he says, relations with Canada are good. Several people who have met with him said he can be constructive and charming in private.
“You know exactly where you stand with him,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Hoekstra, 72 years old, was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to Michigan when he was 3 years old. At his confirmation hearing, he said growing up in a border state gave him “a special appreciation for Canada as a neighbor.”
Hoekstra served lemon-lime ice pops, pulled-pork sliders and mini corn dogs at Lornado, the ambassador’s 19th century residence overlooking the Ottawa River. In remarks to the crowd, Hoekstra acknowledged that the U.S. and Canada have “a few little issues to work out” and offered assurances that “we’re going to get over this.”
But he couldn’t let the moment pass without a little poke.
“Next year,” Hoekstra said, “hopefully we can all take a toast of American bourbon legally in the province of Ontario.”
Write to Amanda Coletta at amanda.coletta@wsj.com
