A petition calling for the removal of the United States ambassador to Canada is racking up thousands of signatures. Posted on the Canadian parliamentary website, the petition had drawn tens of thousands of signatures as of Monday afternoon, all from people calling for Pete Hoekstra to be removed from his post.
The signatories point to a series of grievances. Among them are Hoekstra's decision to share the US president's talk of Canada becoming a 51st state on social media, and his choice to invite a convicted Ottawa convoy organizer, Tamara Lich, who is under house arrest, to his July 4th celebration. Those actions have fed a sense of frustration among many Canadians.
For his part, Hoekstra has expressed his own disappointment with the state of the relationship. He said he was disappointed to arrive in a Canada where it is very difficult to find Canadians who are passionate about the American and Canadian relationship, remarks that only deepened the controversy surrounding his tenure.
Observers say the ambassador has openly voiced frustration, exasperation and grievance with Canada in a way that many Canadians find bizarre, given that they see themselves as being on the receiving end of the current tensions rather than the ones who started them. That disconnect has become a recurring theme in the dispute.
The petition also lands against a wider backdrop of American diplomacy. Although the US State Department has announced what it calls a new era of American dominance, about half of US missions abroad currently lack any ambassador at all, including postings in countries such as Brazil, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.
That gap is striking to career diplomats. One former diplomat, who spent 38 years in the diplomatic corps, described the situation as quite painful, noting that undiplomatic messengers can make an already harsh message from Washington sound even harsher to the countries on the receiving end.
The US Embassy said it has no comment on the petition. In any case, the effort is unlikely to lead to any real world action, and is seen mostly as further evidence of a relationship that has soured badly. The report was filed by CBC's Evan Dyer in Ottawa.