John Donnelly: Ambassador Hoekstra, it's time to come home

EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not of Ottawa News Network.

Cornelis Piet Hoekstra (aka Peter Hoekstra) is a European immigrant to the U.S. who graduated from Holland Christian High School (1971) and Hope College (1975).

Hoekstra worked for Herman Miller for 15 years before running against Guy Vander Jagt in the U.S. House (MI-2) Republican primary in 1992. Vander Jagt had served 13 terms in the U.S. House and Hoekstra’s pledge to only serve six terms if he won helped him to defeat Vander Jagt.

After he won his sixth term as our U.S. Rep., Hoekstra dropped his pledge. He ran again and won two more times. He then ran for Michigan governor in 2010 and was defeated by Rick Snyder (36% to 27%) in the Republican primary. He also ran for U.S. Senate in Michigan in 2012 and was defeated by Debbie Stabenow (59% to 38%).

After 2011, Hoekstra worked primarily as a Washington lobbyist with a wide variety of domestic and foreign clients. He also served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands — his birth country — from 2018 to 2021.

On April 9, Hoekstra was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Canada. Statements and actions by President Donald Trump had by then already driven U.S.-Canada relations to the lowest point in 100-plus years — probably since the War of 1812. Thus, Hoekstra was given a Mission Impossible; however, he is no Ethan Hunt.

If it is possible to make a terrible situation worse, Hoekstra is finding a way to do so.

Why had U.S.-Canada relations hit an unprecedented low point in April?

After the November election, Trump began to refer to Canada as “the 51st state” and instead of referring to the leader of Canada by his title of “prime minister,” he called him “governor.” In February, Trump told the prime minister that he did not think the 19th-century treaty that defined the border between the two countries was “valid” and that he wanted to revise the border. In an interview that month with FOX News' Bret Baier, Trump said his plans to annex Canada were “a real thing” and that Canada “was not a viable country” without U.S. trade.

Within months, the U.S. went from a low-tariff country to a high-tariff country. Canada is the U.S.’s largest trade partner. While some Canadian goods are exempt, many are not. High U.S. tariffs are damaging the Canadian economy and acting as a tax on U.S. consumers.

There has been a tremendous reaction by Canadians against these threats to their independence and economic livelihood. From 2023 to January 2025, the Canadian Conservative Party had massive polling leads over the Canadian Liberal Party. They were expected to win by a landslide in the Canadian federal elections in April. Instead, the Liberals retained power in those elections. Why the sudden change?

Canadian citizens felt the Canadian Liberal Party and their leader, Mark Carney, would protect their country more from the threatening new American policies. They frankly felt that the Canadian Conservative Party had too much in common with the new American administration.

August Gallup polling of Canadian citizens shows the following approve-disapprove for the following countries:

• Russia: 9%-82%
• U.S.: 15%-79%
• China: 23%-64%
• Germany: 54%-19%

The U.S. had a 52% favorable rating by Canadians in this poll last fall. Now, our longstanding ally and neighbor views us as being worse than China and on par with Russia. No country in the world accepts and enjoys being insulted and threatened.

Hoekstra descended into this north of our border maelstrom a few months ago. The two most obvious paths he could follow will get him nowhere. He is in a lose-lose situation. His first option is to identify the problem as Washington’s threatening actions with respect to Canadian economic well-being and sovereignty and then try to get Washington to change policy behind the scenes. I think he understands that it will quickly get him fired and exiled from MAGA.

His second option is to pretend it’s business as usual with Canada. When Canadians don’t respond to his “small ball initiatives,” he can label them ungrateful anti-Americans. Not surprisingly, Hoekstra is following the second path.

Hoekstra spoke at a Halifax Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on Sept. 18, saying: “I’m disappointed to find very few Canadians passionate about the American-Canadian relationship. … You ran a campaign (April elections) where it was anti-American, elbows up (that’s a Canadian hockey phrase meaning ready to fight). … That’s disappointing.”

Hoekstra acknowledged that it was helpful that Prime Minister Carney recently told Parliament that “Canada currently has the best (tariff) deal with the U.S. right now.” Carney is trying to put a nice spin on a tariff situation that is much worse for Canada than a year ago.

What were some Canadian reactions to Hoekstra’s Halifax talk? The president of the Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association said: “When you kick a dog, you can’t blame him for snarling back.” A conservative leader in Parliament said any time a foreign country slaps tariffs on or threatens annexation, “Canadians are going to react negatively. … We are more than just not American. We have a proud history.”

Canada is rapidly trying to diversify from what it sees as an unreliable and unpredictable U.S. by getting closer to other democracies across Europe, Australia, and Japan. The Canadian finance minister recently said, “Obviously, when someone (i.e., the U.S.) turns their back on you, you have to find ways to strengthen the Canadian economy and find new markets.”

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Canadians are actively boycotting visiting the U.S. and spending their dollars here.

In the first half of 2025, car trips from Canadians to the U.S. were down 33% and air travel was down 22%. The decline in Canadians flying to the U.S. dropped even further in August — down 25%. Canadians are aggressively trying to create a new world for themselves, with the U.S. playing a much smaller part in it.

Pretending that nothing has changed, then claiming Canadians are anti-American might be cheered in some locales south of the border, but it won’t work north.

There is a third option: resign. Accept that your Mission Impossible is going nowhere. This will likely limit your options as a MAGA Washington lobbyist, but, based on my experience, there are many worse things than living near a lake in beautiful West Michigan.

— John Donnelly is a resident of Holland and is a founding member of Ottawa News Network.