Petition To Expel U.S. Ambassador Hoekstra Passes 170,000 Signatures, Debate Still Months Away

Since crossing 100,000 signatures earlier this month, the petition to expel U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has kept climbing. It sat above 171,000 as of Saturday, according to Al Jazeera, roughly 340 times the 500 signatures Canada's House of Commons requires just to guarantee a floor presentation.

That's a substantial number. So far, it's also just a number. Nothing about the petition's legal weight has changed since it cleared its threshold. Parliament is on recess and won't take it up until lawmakers return this fall, according to The New York Times reporting cited by The Independent.

What the petition actually demands

Calgary resident Leanne Walker filed the petition July 21. It makes three asks: declare Hoekstra persona non grata under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, request his removal, and direct a parliamentary committee to investigate what it calls "U.S. diplomatic interference in Canadian domestic affairs," according to Al Jazeera and calgary.citynews.ca.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Canada's lone Green MP, is sponsoring it in Parliament, as she's required to do for any petition that clears signature thresholds regardless of her own view. May's office told the BBC she has "an obligation to sponsor petitions brought forward by citizens, regardless of whether she personally agrees with what the petition is asking for."

Walker told CBC News, as quoted across multiple outlets, that the volume of support surprised her. "It tells me that it's not a fringe issue, and that a lot of Canadians are uncomfortable with how Hoekstra has been repeating Trump talking points about our sovereignty and Canada as a whole," she said. She's been direct that she doesn't expect the government to actually expel Hoekstra. She wants a forced, on-the-record response. "What I would like to see come of this isn't necessarily the exact outcome, it's for the government to have to respond when it's tabled," Walker told calgary.citynews.ca.

The underlying grievances

The petition's core complaints: Hoekstra has called Canada's 2025 election rhetoric "anti-American," described Trump's "51st state" talk as something Hoekstra treated dismissively rather than condemning, and drew scrutiny over acquaintance with the founder of a Michigan-based voter ID app reportedly used by an Alberta separatist group, the Centurion Project, according to calgary.citynews.ca. The petition also flags reported meetings between State Department officials and the Alberta Prosperity Project, a separatist group. Hoekstra has denied any Trump administration ties to Alberta separatists, according to Al Jazeera.

Hoekstra hasn't backed down from any of this. He's defended his comments as part of the job—conveying the U.S. president's positions—and told CBC News that changes to Canada's F-35 fighter jet purchase could force NORAD to be "altered." That's a real policy warning, not just rhetoric, and it reflects a legitimate U.S. defense-cooperation concern even if Canadians read it as a threat.

A fair read of the other side

What Hoekstra and his defenders would say: an ambassador's job is to represent his president's positions, loudly and publicly, especially during a trade dispute this heated. Trump has openly floated Canada as a "51st state," and someone in Hoekstra's position doesn't get to freelance around that by disavowing his boss. Diplomats push their government's line all the time; that's not automatically "interference." No investigation, indictment, or formal charge has been filed against Hoekstra for violating the Vienna Convention. The petition's persona non grata request is a political ask, not a legal finding.

What's genuinely new since the last count

The signature growth itself is the story here: from roughly 57,000 when calgary.citynews.ca first reported on the petition's momentum August 12, to 100,000-plus days later, to more than 171,000 as of Saturday per Al Jazeera. That's a rapid acceleration, likely tied to wider circulation as national outlets picked it up.

Context hasn't shifted much otherwise. The BBC's coverage, filed while signatures were still around 70,000, noted Canada and the U.S. were in "an intense period of trade talks" ahead of new U.S. tariffs that were set to take effect "next Wednesday." That detail is now dated and shouldn't be read as describing this week's status, since BBC's count is well behind the current 171,000 figure. Al Jazeera separately reported the Trump administration refunded roughly $100 billion in tariffs after a Supreme Court ruling struck them down, a development not mentioned in the earlier petition coverage and worth watching for how it affects the broader trade relationship feeding this petition's momentum.

What happens next

Once tabled this fall, the federal government has 45 calendar days to issue a formal written response, according to The Independent and calgary.citynews.ca. That response is required by House of Commons rules regardless of signature count. It does not obligate Ottawa to act on any of the three demands. The petition remains open for signatures until November 18, according to calgary.citynews.ca, meaning the total could grow substantially before Parliament even takes it up.