I read this article in the Globe and Mail. I thought it was well worth sharing:
If U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal in selecting a top diplomat to station in Canada was to find someone who embodied the pure arrogance of his administration, who would give new life to the old epithet, "ugly American,” he found his man in Ambassador Pete Hoekstra.
There hasn’t been an American diplomat posted here in 100 years who has been as unlikeable, as obnoxious, as egotistical as Mr. Hoekstra. He is a third-rate bully who imagines that any of us who exist outside of the U.S. are inferior – people who should be grateful for the privilege of doing trade with his country. If a non-American were to fall at his feet in gratitude for accepting their business card, Mr. Hoekstra would think this was quite justified and the way things should work.
This mentality, this world view, can be the only explanation for Mr. Hoekstra’s undiplomatic behaviour in Canada.
This week, the Ambassador delivered a loud, expletive-laced tirade at a political envoy from Ontario at a business event in Ottawa, according to multiple reports. The target of his aggression was David Paterson, the province’s trade representative in Washington, D.C. According to witnesses, Mr. Hoekstra was upset over an ad that Ontario ran in the U.S., which featured former president Ronald Reagan speaking in favour of free trade over protectionist tariffs.
Mr. Trump had initially responded to the ad in positive terms, saying he’d do the same if he were Ontario. But then he did a 180, saying the ad was “fake” and an attempt to influence the U.S. Supreme Court, which will be deciding the fate of his tariff program. He then threatened to impose an additional 10-per-cent tariff on Canada.
Mr. Hoekstra, being the puppet that he is, decided to go up one side of Mr. Paterson and down the other over the supposedly terrible thing Ontario had done. Earlier, the Ambassador had said any trade deal won’t be finalized for some time now, because “Canada burned the bridges.”
This is madness, all of it.
One can argue whether the ad was a good idea at a sensitive time in negotiations with the U.S. But the fact is, if it wasn’t this ad, it would have been something else with Mr. Trump. Even after a deal is signed, whenever that might be, there are no guarantees the President won’t rip it up in a fit of pique about some imagined offence. Canada drops its tariff on Chinese EVs? Poof. There goes our trade deal. Is this now our fate as a nation, to walk on eggshells around Mr. Trump until he’s gone? To live in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing?
One thing we should definitely be doing is calling out the boorish behaviour of an American diplomat in Canada.
Can you imagine if this was a Canadian envoy in Washington, upbraiding, in a public setting, someone from the Trump administration or a Republican official of any kind? Mr. Trump would have that Canadian in a twin-prop and across the border the next day. They’d be persona non grata. But when an American official does it, it’s a badge of honour in Trumpland.
It was only in September that Mr. Hoekstra was saying that he couldn’t understand why politicians in this country were reacting in such a hostile manner to the Trump-imposed tariffs. He warned that Canadian politicians using phrases like “trade war” were treading on “dangerous” grounds. He couldn’t spare a thought for the thousands of Canadians being thrown out of jobs because of the tariffs.
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Mr. Hoekstra has wondered aloud about how we’d feel if a U.S. group took out ads in Canada attacking a policy of our federal government. To which I say: I wonder how Americans would feel if a Canadian prime minister referred to their president as “premier” and talked about making the U.S. our 11th province?
Mr. Hoekstra isn’t here as a diplomat. He is not here to nurture a relationship that’s been as good as any two countries in the world have enjoyed in the last century. He doesn’t care about that. He is here to lecture, berate, and tell us how great America is and how much lesser the rest of us are.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has urged Mr. Hoekstra to pick up the phone and apologize to Mr. Paterson. Even if he were inclined to, I’m sure he’d worry about what his boss would think – in Trumpland, you don’t apologize for anything.
Pete Hoekstra is an embarrassment as America’s representative in Canada. And the sooner he is gone, the better.
