Senate confirms Pete Hoekstra as ambassador to Canada with support from Michigan senators

Melissa Nann Burke, The Detroit News on Apr 9, 2025

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WASHINGTON ― The U.S. Senate voted 60 to 37 Wednesday to confirm Michigan's Pete Hoekstra to be U.S. ambassador to Canada under President Donald Trump, with support from both of his home state's Democratic senators.

"I am deeply appreciative to President Trump and to the U.S. Senate for their trust and confidence in me," Hoekstra said in a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa shortly after the vote.

"I look forward to beginning my work in Canada and once again serving the people of the United States of America at this important time in the U.S.-Canada relationship."

Hoekstra, who lives in Fennville in Allegan County, will enter his new role amid a bitter trade war between the United States and Canada and under a chief executive who has infuriated Canadian leaders with his repeated remarks about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state.

Michigan Sens. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Elissa Slotkin of Holly were among eight Democrats and one independent senator to yes on Hoekstra's nomination. Peters and Slotkin said they believe the Republican former Michigan congressman understands and will "safeguard" the critical trade relationship between Michigan and Canada.

Peters emphasized that Hoekstra gets the importance of Michigan’s cultural and economic relationship with Canada, saying that Hoekstra shared with the senator his intent to strengthen that relationship as ambassador.

"I voted to support his nomination, and I’ll continue working with him to safeguard our Canadian trade partnership, coordinate security efforts along our shared border, and protect the Great Lakes," Peters said in a statement.

Slotkin's vote was particularly notable considering the negative attacks that Hoekstra lobbed at Slotkin over the past two years while he was chairing the Michigan Republican Party and Slotkin was running for the Senate.

Slotkin in a statement said she believes that the U.S. relationship with its northern neighbor is "as threatened as it has ever been in my lifetime" and lamented the "reckless" tariffs placed on Canada by Trump that threaten to raise prices for Michiganians.

“So while I disagree with Mr. Hoesktra on a good many issues — and he spent the better part of two years trying to beat me in my Senate race as the head of the Michigan Republican Party — my hope is that his first-hand knowledge of Michigan’s economy will be the best shot we have at pushing back on the most flagrant of the tariffs on Canada," Slotkin said.

“I appreciate his commitment to an open line of communication and wish him strength to stand up for the economy of his home state.”

Hoekstra previously served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term, winning confirmation in 2017 by a unanimous voice vote.

"My home state is connected to Canada by four and soon to be five, bridge crossings along a maritime border, across the Great Lakes, vital lakes that drive businesses, jobs and livelihood in both states," Hoekstra told senators at his confirmation hearing last month, referencing the Gordie Howe International Bridge set to open later this year between Detroit and Windsor.

"If confirmed, I will work tirelessly to build on that record of cooperation extended, obviously nationally," Hoekstra added. "I think there's 36 states that see Canada as their No. 1 trading partner internationally."

Hoekstra at his hearing stressed that the United States and Canada “have a great history of working together,” though he did not offer more specifics on how he would repair the now-strained partnership.

He committed to pursuing Trump’s priority of “freer, fairer trade so that we can actually grow the business relationship.”

Hoekstra, 71, is a former nine-term congressman from west Michigan who served in the U.S. House from 1993 to 2011, chairing the House intelligence committee. He most recently served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

Hoekstra was born in the Netherlands in Groningen in 1953 and came to the United States at age 3 with his parents, who settled in the Dutch-American stronghold of Holland. He became a U.S. citizen at age 9.

He attended Holland Christian High School and graduated from Hope College in 1975. He then earned a master’s in business administration from the University of Michigan. He went on to work for the Zeeland-based office furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, where he eventually served as vice president of marketing.

Hoekstra ran for governor unsuccessfully in 2010 and for the U.S. Senate unsuccessfully in 2012.

After leaving Congress, he lobbied for the firms Greenberg Traurig and Dickstein Shapiro and later started his own firm, Hoekstra Global Strategies. His clients included Columbia Helicopters and the Michigan-based oil production company Core Energy, as well as some foreign clients including the Kurdish regional government.

Hoekstra will not be the first Michigan politician to serve as the ambassador to Canada. Then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, nominated former Gov. Jim Blanchard to fill the position in 1993.

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(Staff writer Grant Schwab contributed.)

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