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Article by Rebel News staff

Tonight, on The Ezra Levant Show, an exclusive, one-on-one interview with the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra.

This conversation with Ambassador Hoekstra comes on the heels of Prime Minister Mark Carney's decision to walk away from trade negotiations with the United States—the very deal Carney campaigned on as the only man who could deliver. Just days earlier, it looked like the two countries were finally going to land an agreement. Then, it all fell apart.

"It's unclear," Hoekstra told Ezra when asked what happened. "We had put on the table the best deal to any country in the world, providing Canada with the best access to the largest market in the world. And at some point in time that was taken away."

Ezra asked whether U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer heading off to Brazil signals that Washington has moved on. Hoekstra's answer was blunt: it was Canada, not the United States, that walked away from the table last Friday. 

"I think the Prime Minister has indicated the same thing — that he recalled his negotiating team back to Ottawa," Hoekstra said. "If Canada wants to reopen negotiations... I believe that may be possible, but it'll be hard to get back to that point."

Ezra raised Canadian Minister of National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne's announcement of matching retaliatory tariffs, as well as Carney's characterization of the dispute as a "trade war," and asked whether that inflames the situation further. 

"We don't call it a trade war," Hoekstra insisted. "It's very simple. This is trade negotiations. This is the second time it's happened in the United States of America that we thought we were close to a deal, and the Canadians backed away from that. So we'll just have to see."

Ezra played Hoekstra a clip of Carney telling a Beijing audience that progress in the Canada-China relationship "sets us up well for the new World Order," and noted that Chinese state paper Global Times had cheered Carney's walkaway from the U.S. deal as a "Chinese style push back." Ezra asked Hoekstra directly whether pro-China sentiment in Ottawa had anything to do with the collapse.

Hoekstra declined to speculate. "That's really something for the Prime Minister to address. That is not our concern," he said, adding that the U.S. offer on the table was "the best offer... that we've given to anybody, which kind of tells you where the United States sees this relationship moving forward."

Ezra pressed Hoekstra on Carney's claim that a "threat" to Quebec and French Canadian culture factored into the breakdown. He noted that Ambassador Greer, on U.S. television, said he didn't understand the accusation at all, describing it instead as a dispute over a five per cent tax on Netflix meant to fund Canadian content.

Hoekstra also affirmed that he did not know what Carney was referring to. He said the U.S. side values Quebec, noting Greer himself speaks French and has family ties to the province. 

"This is something that was never on our agenda, never on our radar screen," Hoekstra said. "What was on our radar screen was, you're not going to tax American companies."

Ezra also raised Carney's complaint about a provision he called a "power play" against Canadian sovereignty — which Ezra identified as Article 32.10 of the existing USMCA, a clause already giving each of the three countries the right to object if another partner signs a trade deal with a non-market economy. 

"It sounds like he objects to article 32.10, which has been in there for years. But he's positing that as a reason he walked away," Ezra pointed out. "Why did he really quit? Because the last two examples I put to you don't seem to add up." 

Hoekstra didn't offer a new explanation. "For whatever reason, it was that they walked away," he said.

Ezra asked whether the U.S. Trade Representative's office might release non-confidential details of the final negotiating terms, arguing Canadians deserve to weigh two competing narratives — especially given that Carney has previously been accused of mischaracterizing what happened during the Gordie Howe Bridge negotiations. 

Hoekstra said no. "I'm not in a position to do that. I don't think Jamieson will be doing that. I don't think the president will be doing that," he said, adding that relitigating the collapse "is not something that is very helpful," given the possibility both sides return to the table.

Ezra then recalled his first meeting with Hoekstra, where the ambassador seemed genuinely taken aback by the anti-Americanism he encountered in Canada. Ezra played a clip of Ontario Premier Doug Ford calling President Trump a "bully" and a "loser" who "would take your lunch money one day" and "steal your running shoes" the next. Ezra noted the Premier of Manitoba has been "even worse," and asked Hoekstra for his reaction as an American.

"Obviously we're disappointed," Hoekstra said. On Ford's language specifically, Hoekstra demurred: "I'm not going to talk about that. That's not what we're into right now."

Asked what a healthy Canada-U.S. partnership could look like if the two sides get back to the table, Hoekstra's first thought was that "we were there" already, with even greater things on the horizon. 

"It was a fortress North America," he said, mentioning shared goals like energy independence, an integrated auto sector, and military collaboration. "We created a lot of wealth and a lot of prosperity on both sides of the border... We were more than willing to extend it and enhance it with a new trade agreement moving forward. But that's not where we're at, and we will see when we get back to it." 

GUEST: Pete Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to Canada.