U.S. ambassador Pete Hoekstra says Canada’s economic hopes align with Trump’s goals

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra speaks at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce B7 Summit in Ottawa on Friday, May 16, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal of enhancing American power aligns with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s aim of making Canada’s economy the fastest-growing in the G7, Trump’s envoy to Canada said Friday.

“It’s going to continue to be a very strong and friendly relationship,” Ambassador Pete Hoekstra told The Canadian Press in an interview Friday, adding the two leaders are in frequent contact.

“You’ve got two leaders that are invigorating and transforming their economies, to benefit the people of the U.S. and the people of Canada.”

Hoekstra insisted there is no “discrepancy” between his calls for win-win economic arrangements between Canada and the U.S. and Trump’s repeated claim that America doesn’t need Canadian imports and doesn’t want Canadian-made cars.

“There is absolutely no discrepancy between me and the president. The president clearly is the decision-maker,” he said.

Though he said the U.S. intends to continue imposing tariffs on imports from multiple countries, including Canada, he argued there’s room to resolve irritants in the bilateral relationship.

“The president is saying tariffs are part of our new framework. That’s not a Canadian problem. That’s a global issue,” he said.

“The great thing is you’ve got the top leaders involved in the discussions, which means that both countries view this as being important, serious, and they want this to get resolved.”

Hoekstra said the fact that Trump and Carney have been engaging in private talks that haven’t been leaked to the media indicate a mutual focus on making progress.

He also insisted the talks aren’t happening in secret, although neither side has released readouts reporting on the content of the meetings.

“I don’t think the president or the prime minister are going to put out a statement every time that, ‘Oh, I texted the president last night, and he responded,’ or you know, ‘We had a five-minute call,”’ he said.

“Everybody knows that right now, tariffs, economic growth and these types of things are the top of the agenda. That for the prime minister being the No. 1 growing economy in the G7 is one of his goals and objectives, and knowing that our President Donald Trump is doing everything that he can to ignite the U.S. economy.

“Why is anybody surprised that there may be different levels of communications going on to make that happen?”

Hoekstra admitted he isn’t informed every time Carney and Trump talk.

“I’d be interested in knowing exactly how often it’s happening. I don’t need to know,” he said.

“There (are) multiple channels between key decision-makers that are open and are being used, but I don’t need to know the quantity or the frequency. I just need to know that they exist, because that tells me that we can be making progress.”

Hoekstra did not offer a timeline for trade talks as discussions continue between Ottawa and Washington on tariffs and a possible early start to a review of the North American trade deal this fall.

The ambassador said Trump, Carney, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and various Canadian ministers are negotiating with advice from businesspeople on both sides of the border.

“They all understand that great negotiations, great discussions, end with a win-win,” he said.

Hoekstra said America wants strong borders, an end to fentanyl deaths and sustainable spending, and said Canada can partner with the U.S. on shared security and prosperity. Trump is expected to bring those themes to the G7 summit in Alberta this month, he said.

“Our objective is to stay the most powerful country in the world,” he said.

He said his focus as ambassador is on building ties with Canada - and not on Trump’s comments about making Canada a U.S. state. Hoekstra said a month ago that the idea was off the table, only for Trump to bring it up again three weeks later.

“If it comes up, it will be because the president has decided to bring it up - or because the Canadians have decided to bring it up,” Hoekstra said.

Former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson said that while Hoekstra is limited in how much he can diverge from Trump’s comments, it’s clear he is sending the right message to Washington.

“He’s in a tough spot, but he’s who we have to deal with,” said Robertson, a senior adviser for the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “He’s such a critical player for Canada.”

Robertson said Hoekstra is one of the few people in the U.S. embassy that have a direct line to Trump, after serving as ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term and helping the president win Michigan last fall.

He noted that Hoekstra’s speech this week to the Empire Club focused on mutually beneficial solutions for Canada and the U.S. Any high-profile ambassadorial speech is almost certainly vetted by the U.S. State Department, the National Security Council and the Trump administration, Robertson said.

“It’s in our interest that he is successful in reflecting what we’re saying back, and at the same time reflecting accurately what the administration is telling him,” Robertson said.

The ambassador said he’s had a warm reception in Canada, despite the strain in the relationship that he had been reading about in the six months leading up to the start of his posting in April.

“I knew that there was a tension, a different tone and tenor than what we normally expected from our northern neighbours,” he said. “But you know, we’re going to get past this.”

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press