Then-Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., speaks at a press conference in Washington, D.C., in 2009. Hoekstra, now the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, is the subject of a Canadian petition to have him removed from the country. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Thousands of Canadians have signed a petition demanding the government kick the U.S. ambassador to Canada out of the country.
The petition, which had almost 60,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, will be presented to the House of Commons this fall by Green Party leader Elizabeth May. It says that Ambassador Pete Hoekstra should be declared persona non grata and the Canadian government should request his removal from the country.
The petition accuses Hoekstra of repeatedly making public statements that undermine Canada-U.S. diplomatic relations, including characterizing the 2025 Canadian federal election as "anti-American;" normalizing the Trump administration's threats to annex Canada as the "51st state;" and accusing Canada of interfering in U.S. domestic politics while making repeated interventions in Canadian political discourse. The petition also said Hoekstra was linked to a Michigan-based voter identification app used by the Alberta separatist Centurion Project, while claiming no knowledge of its use, and that The Alberta Prosperity Project [a separatist organization] met with U.S. State Department officials three times between April 2025 and January 2026, with Hoekstra claiming to have no knowledge of those meetings.
