‘Canada is a sovereign state,’ Trump’s ambassador pick tells U.S. senators – National | Globalnews.ca
U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Canada on Thursday reaffirmed the importance of the U.S.-Canada relationship and Canadian sovereignty, despite escalating attacks from the White House.
Pete Hoekstra said during his confirmation hearing in front of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Canada remains an important ally on intelligence and national security issues, which can be maintained and strengthened while addressing matters around trade.
Yet senators voiced concern about Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, which the president has said he will use “economic force” to achieve.
“Canada is a sovereign state,” Hoekstra said.
He appeared to attribute Trump’s rhetoric to the frosty relationship he has with outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who marked his final day in office on Thursday. Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be sworn in as prime minister on Friday.
Hoekstra agreed with Democrat Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, who suggested the arrival of a new prime minister offered an opportunity for a “reset” of the relationship.
Trump has antagonized Canadians by repeatedly suggesting the country would be “better off” as a U.S state, pointing to grievances in trade and military spending.
Escalating rounds of tariffs on Canadian goods that began early this month sparked a trade war that has further damaged relations. Carney has said Trump’s actions have broken Canada’s “trust” in its top trading partner, and the government has sought to diversify its trade away from the U.S. in response.
The relationship was due to be addressed during a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Quebec on Thursday. Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal officials were also in Washington to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about the path forward on tariffs and trade.
Hoekstra, a former Michigan congressman and state Republican official who previously served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term, said he expects to be the “tip of the spear” for the new Trump administration in Canada.
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He equated the situation to his experience pushing the Dutch government to meet its NATO obligations and help the U.S. confront Russia on energy.
“There was a lot of hostility or concern about some of the objectives of the first Trump administration, which were really about fairness,” he said. “What we really spent a tremendous amount of time on was focusing on the strength of the relationship between our two countries.
“We have a great history of working together (with Canada). We know how to make this work. We now have to take that and say, ‘We know how to make this work, now let’s do it and apply our experience to the priorities the president has outlined: freer, fairer trade so we can actually grow the business relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
Trump and Lutnick have said their tariff policies are intended to drive investment and manufacturing back to the U.S., with little regard for their impact on Canadian industries like the auto sector.
No questions from Republicans
Nearly all of the questions to Hoekstra, who appeared alongside Trump’s nominees for ambassadors to Mexico and Japan, were posed by Democrats on the committee who highlighted the fraying relations with Canada.
Some of those senators vowed to work with Hoekstra to push Canada to increase its defence spending and fulfill its NATO commitments, a longstanding irritant for U.S. lawmakers in both parties.
“We have a great alliance with Canada on national security issues,” Hoekstra said. “It would help if Canada met its NATO commitment. They’re one of eight or nine countries that fall short, significantly short, with no real plan to get there anytime soon.”
The federal government has said it has a “clear and credible” path to reach the NATO target of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence by 2032 or earlier, but has not released details on how that will be achieved.
Republicans focused on the other two nominees, pressing them on border security with Mexico and the importance of countering China in the Indo-Pacific.
Republicans in Congress have largely either ignored Trump’s comments about annexing Canada or have sometimes openly supported them. The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in January posted a New York Post cover that called Trump’s “vision for the hemisphere” — including making Canada the 51st state — “The Trump Doctrine,” and celebrated Trump’s “big dreams” for America.
Hoesktra said the U.S. wants to see the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing relationship expanded to include law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border, in order to not just crack down on fentanyl smuggling but other cross-border threats.
“It’s not a huge amount (of fentanyl) that goes across our border from Canada, but … tomorrow it could be something else,” he said.
“If confirmed I will do everything I can to strengthen that relationship on Five Eyes, law enforcement cooperation, trade — those are all opportunities to make Canada and America safer, secure, and more prosperous. Closer cooperation.”
Trump has justified the 25 per cent tariffs he imposed on Canada and Mexico on March 4 as a way to pressure both countries to increase efforts to stop fentanyl flowing into the U.S.
Less than one per cent of fentanyl that enters the U.S. comes from Canada, with less than 20 kilograms seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection last year. January saw agents encounter just 13 grams of the deadly opioid, the lowest level in two years and down from a record high in monthly seizures last summer.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the committee, pointed out more drugs are encountered flowing north from the U.S. to Canada than what American border agents seize coming from Canada.
“Let’s be honest about what’s happening here,” she said.
Hoekstra also acknowledged concerns raised by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland that tariffs on Canadian goods like lumber will make homebuilding in the U.S., which is facing a housing shortage in several cities, more expensive.
“It’s not brain surgery,” he said with a chuckle.
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