Petition to declare U.S. Ambassador Hoekstra persona non grata draws 29,000 signatures, heads to Commons this fall
A House of Commons e-petition calling on the federal government to declare U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra persona non grata and expel him from Canada has gathered more than 29,000 signatures and is set to be presented in the House this fall by Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (The Globe and Mail).
The petition, e-7531, was launched by a woman from Calgary and posted to the House of Commons e-petitions portal on July 21, 2026 (House of Commons). It accuses Hoekstra of making statements that undermine the Canada-U.S. relationship and of intervening in Canadian political discourse in a manner inconsistent with diplomatic protocol. It also asks the Liberal government to direct a parliamentary committee to review U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian affairs (The Globe and Mail).
The e-petition system carries built-in safeguards. Each person may sign only once, an email address can be used for only one signature, and signatures cannot be withdrawn under any circumstance. The Clerk of Petitions reserves the right to reject any signature that cannot be verified. Publication of an e-petition on the House of Commons site does not constitute endorsement of its views, and the House is under no obligation to authorize presentation (petitions.ourcommons.ca).
This is not the only petition targeting Hoekstra. A second House of Commons petition, e-7124, states that the ambassador's statements have been inconsistent with the standards of conduct expected of a diplomatic representative to Canada (House of Commons). A separate campaign titled "Expel Pete Hoekstra as US Ambassador to Canada" has also been running on Change.org since August 2025 (Change.org).
Hoekstra's tenure has generated a steady stream of controversy. In summer 2025, he said Canada's annexation by the United States would be a "great topic of discussion" for Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump (The Globe and Mail). In September 2025, Canadian politicians and experts pushed back against his expressions of frustration over anti-American sentiment he faced in Canada (CBC News). The following month, witnesses said they saw Hoekstra launch into an expletive-laced tirade at Ontario's trade representative David Paterson (CBC News). In November, he accused Canada of meddling in U.S. politics and said restarting trade talks was "not going to be easy" (CBC News).
More recently, Hoekstra was photographed with convoy leader Tamara Lich (CBC News). In July 2026, he described Canada's wildfire situation as a challenge that "knows no borders" (CBC News).
Hoekstra served as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands during the first Trump administration and was a board member of the Council for a Secure America before his posting to Ottawa (U.S. Embassy in Canada).
The legal mechanism the petition invokes is grounded in the UN's Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. A persona non grata declaration allows a host state to strip diplomatic immunity from an individual and compel their departure. It is among the most forceful diplomatic tools available to a receiving state short of severing relations entirely, and its use against the representative of Canada's closest trading partner would carry bilateral consequences of a different order than, for example, the expulsions of Russian or Chinese diplomats that have occurred in recent years.
For practitioners on the Hill, the practical question is whether the petition translates into any government action. E-petitions that cross 25,000 signatures routinely attract media coverage, but the government is not bound to act on them. The more specific ask, a directive to a parliamentary committee to study U.S. diplomatic interference, would require either a motion adopted by the House or a committee's own initiative to launch such a study. With the House not sitting until mid-September, and a minority Parliament in which committee agendas are negotiated among whips, the path from petition to study is not automatic.
The involvement of Elizabeth May as presenting MP gives the petition a floor moment: under House of Commons rules, an MP who presents an e-petition may rise in the Chamber to briefly summarize it. The government then has 45 sitting days to table a response, though that response need not go beyond restating existing policy. Whether any opposition party will use the petition as leverage to push for a committee motion, or whether the Liberals will treat the 29,000 signatures as a public-opinion signal worth acknowledging in their response, will become clearer once the House resumes.
A separate consideration is the precedent a persona non grata declaration would set. Canada has used the tool sparingly, and never against a U.S. ambassador. The bilateral relationship is managed through dense layers of formal and informal channels, and a declaration of this kind against Washington's envoy would signal a breakdown in those channels. The petition's framers appear to be testing the political appetite for exactly that signal. Whether there is one will depend less on the signature count than on how the party leaders, and the government front bench, choose to respond when the document lands on the Order Paper.
