More than 29,000 Canadians signed a pete hoekstra petition asking that Pete Hoekstra be declared persona non grata and removed as the US Ambassador to Canada. The petition will be presented to the House of Commons in Canada this fall.
The petition says Hoekstra should be expelled from Canada after remarks it says undermined Canada and US diplomatic relations. It asks Ottawa to raise his conduct with the US under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a 1961 treaty that sets the framework for diplomatic relations.
House of Commons in the fall
The petition’s scale gives the request a formal path through the House of Commons. Once it is presented this fall, the issue moves from online signature gathering to a parliamentary setting where members can examine the request and decide whether to take it further.
Canadians who signed are asking for more than criticism of Hoekstra’s comments. They want a diplomatic finding of persona non grata, the status the petition says would remove him from his post and force a response from Ottawa.
Pete Hoekstra remarks
The petition cites several statements by Hoekstra. It says he called the 2025 Canadian federal election anti-American, described the Trump administration’s threats to annex Canada as the 51st state as a term of endearment, and accused Canada of interference while making repeated interventions in Canadian political discourse.
It also points to remarks from January and July. In January, Hoekstra said, “We do not need Canada.” In July, he claimed Donald Trump’s tariff attacks had helped Canada and falsely suggested Ottawa had not really paid for the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
The petition also quotes him saying, “You do not come into America and start running political ads, government-funded political ads… and expect that there will be no consequences,” after he accused Canada of electoral interference against the US months earlier. Whether the House of Commons moves beyond presentation this fall will determine how far the complaint goes.
