US Ambassador to Canada blasts ‘elbows up’ ‘anti-American’ rhetoric

Canucks don’t show enough love for their southern neighbors, the US ambassador to Canada insisted.

Pete Hoekstra, a former Michigan Congressman who moved to Ottawa in April to serve as ambassador, made his remarks Thursday at an event hosted by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m disappointed that I came to Canada — a Canada that it is very, very difficult to find Canadians who are passionate about the American Canadian relationship,” he said.

“You ran a campaign . . . ‘elbows up,’ “he said, referring to the slogan of the US boycott movement, borrowed from hockey lingo, that’s been adopted by everyone north of the border — including Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“You know, that was an anti-American campaign. That has continued. That’s disappointing” Hoekstra chastised.

The comments made some Canadians hot under the collar.

“Hoekstra can suck hairy moose nuts,” wrote one enraged Canuck on Reddit. “We aren’t anti-American. We’re anti-MAGA.”

“This is the language of an abuser,” slammed another. “Blame the victim because they reacted to the abuse. Then gaslight them into feeling like it’s somehow their fault.”

“I am feeling quite passionate against the USA at the moment. That’s the state of our relationship now,” added someone else.

The Trump administration’s hope to negotiate with Canada on issues such as defense and nuclear power is down the drain, Hoekstra said earlier in the week.

“Americans were hopeful that we could negotiate a bigger deal,” he said Tuesday at an Ottawa event hosted by the Canadian International Council.

“I mean, there is so much that we do together, where our economies are integrated, they graft off of each other,” he said.

“Whether it’s energy, whether it’s automotive, whether it’s nuclear, defense and all of those types of things, we were hoping that we would not just renegotiate CUSMA, but that we could take it into being something much bigger,” he said, referencing the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, which deals with free trade between the three nations.

“It’s obvious, at least at this point in time, that that’s not going to happen”