A Canadian parliamentary petition calling for the removal of U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has surpassed 100,000 signatures, and the Green Party's leader plans to bring it to the House of Commons this fall.

The petition, launched July 21 by Alberta resident Lee Walker, accuses Hoekstra of undermining Canada-U.S. diplomatic relations through a pattern of provocative public statements and alleged ties to Alberta's separatist movement. It asks Ottawa to declare Hoekstra persona non grata and to formally raise his conduct with Washington under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the international treaty governing the behavior of foreign diplomats.

By Thursday, the petition had cleared the 100,000-signature mark. It remains open until November 18, and Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, has committed to presenting it to Parliament. Ottawa would then have 45 days to submit a written response, the Washington Examiner reported.

Walker told CBC News on Wednesday that she is not sure the Canadian government will actually take steps to declare Hoekstra persona non grata but hopes the petition sends a clear message about what Canadians expect from a foreign ambassador stationed on their soil.

Hoekstra called annexation talks a "great discussion to be had"

The petition's central grievances revolve around Hoekstra's public commentary on Canadian sovereignty. It claims he characterized the 2025 Canadian federal election as "anti-American" and "normalized" President Donald Trump's references to making Canada the 51st state, language the petition says Hoekstra dismissed as a "term of endearment."

In June, Hoekstra went further. He told reporters that talks about annexing Canada would be a "great discussion to be had" by the leaders of the two countries, Breitbart noted. He also shared Trump's social media posts referring to Canada as the 51st state.

For Canadians already sensitive to sovereignty questions, those remarks landed like a diplomatic provocation. But from Washington's perspective, the ambassador was reflecting the president's own public position, a position Trump has repeated openly and without apology. An ambassador's job, after all, is to represent his president's views, not to freelance a separate foreign policy.

Trump has consistently shown he is willing to use bold rhetoric as leverage in bilateral negotiations. His approach to asserting American interests with allies like Israel follows the same pattern: direct, unapologetic, and designed to reset the terms of engagement.

Petition alleges Hoekstra had ties to Alberta separatists

Beyond the annexation rhetoric, the petition levels a more specific charge. It claims the Alberta Prosperity Project, an organization linked to the Alberta separatist movement, met with U.S. State Department officials three times between April 2025 and January 2026. Hoekstra, the petition states, claimed no knowledge of those meetings, "raising serious questions about U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian unity."

The petition also alleges Hoekstra is affiliated with a Michigan-based voter identification app that was used by the Alberta separatist Centurion Project to identify names and addresses of potential separatist referendum supporters. Hoekstra has denied knowing the app was being used by separatists.

Several key questions remain unanswered. Which State Department officials took those meetings? Did the Alberta Prosperity Project confirm or deny them? What exactly is the nature of Hoekstra's connection to the voter ID app, ownership, endorsement, or something else? The petition raises the allegations, but the evidentiary trail behind them remains thin in public reporting.

That gap matters. A parliamentary petition is a political instrument, not a court filing. It requires signatures, not proof. And in this case, the petition's author has acknowledged she does not expect the government to follow through on the persona non grata demand. The gesture is the point.

Green Party carries the petition, but Ottawa holds the cards

Elizabeth May's role is procedural. As a member of Parliament, she can formally table the petition in the House of Commons, triggering the 45-day response window. The petition also requests that a parliamentary committee review "U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian domestic affairs."

But the Green Party holds a marginal number of seats in the Canadian Parliament. The governing party will decide whether this petition produces any policy action or simply generates headlines. So far, no Canadian government official has publicly responded to the petition or its 100,000-signature milestone.

The broader diplomatic context is worth noting. Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, on June 16, 2025, with both Hoekstra and Secretary of State Marco Rubio present. The relationship between Washington and Ottawa has been strained by trade disputes and Trump's annexation rhetoric, but the two governments continue to engage at the highest levels.

Trump has demonstrated a willingness to make dramatic pivots in foreign policy when he judges the strategic moment calls for it. Whether the Canada relationship reaches that kind of inflection point depends on Ottawa's next move far more than on a petition.

Petition reflects Canadian anxiety, not American wrongdoing

Strip away the diplomatic jargon and what remains is a straightforward picture. Canadians are rattled by Trump's 51st-state rhetoric. Hoekstra, as Trump's appointed ambassador, echoed and amplified that rhetoric. A segment of the Canadian public responded with a petition, a democratic tool that carries symbolic weight but no binding authority.

None of this is unusual in international relations. Ambassadors regularly generate friction when they faithfully represent a president whose style is confrontational. The question is whether Hoekstra crossed a line from representing American interests into actively interfering in Canadian domestic politics. The petition's allegations about the Alberta Prosperity Project meetings and the voter ID app are the most serious claims on that front, and they remain unverified.

Trump has shown repeatedly that he values ambassadors who advance his agenda rather than smooth over disagreements with polite diplomatic language. His approach to raising difficult issues directly with foreign leaders has produced tangible results in cases where quieter diplomacy failed for years.

Meanwhile, the petition remains open for signatures until November 18. Whether it reaches 200,000 or stalls at its current level, the Canadian government's written response, expected sometime after May tables the petition this fall, will reveal whether Ottawa treats this as a genuine diplomatic grievance or a political gesture aimed at domestic consumption.

The Trump administration, for its part, has not publicly responded to the petition. And there is no indication that Hoekstra's position is in jeopardy. Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, not at the pleasure of the host country's petition signers.

Trump's broader foreign policy posture, whether pressing allies on unresolved conflicts or using economic leverage to reshape trade relationships, has never been driven by public opinion polls in foreign capitals. Canada's petition is unlikely to change that calculus.

A hundred thousand signatures make a headline. They do not make foreign policy. If Ottawa wants Hoekstra gone, it will need to do more than collect names on a website, it will need to make a case that Washington has a reason to listen.