Elbows up, Pete

The MAGA ambassador to Canada is at it again — gaslighting our country and blaming Canada for the poor state of Canadian-American relations. He claims we are anti-American and points to our aggressive language with terms like "elbows up."

Seriously?

Of all the nationalist rallying cries, Elbows Up is hardly inflammatory. Not like "Give me liberty or give me death" or "the bloody flag is raised". The fact that it could become a rallying cry in a time of national crisis is just so typically Canadian.

Let me explain.

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In the early days of Donald Trump's attack on our nation, Canadians were disoriented and freaked out. Trump was vowing to break us economically while musing about erasing our sovereignty by moving the border.

Then, on Saturday Night Live, comedian Mike Myers (a good boy from Scarborough, Ontario) appeared in the final scene with a Canada is not for sale t-shirt. As the rest of the cast waved goodnight, Mike looked straight into the camera, raised his elbows and mouthed, "elbows up."

Americans tuning in probably had no clue what Myers was doing. But every Canadian understood the marching orders.

It was an electrifying moment. Myers was invoking the spirit of the great Gordie "Mr. Elbows" Howe. Gordie was a class player, but God help the player who tried to go in close to get the better of him. Mr. Elbows would teach him a lesson. Myers was telling us to toughen up and be ready to defend our turf.

Suddenly, our nation had a rallying cry, something that was both defiant and cheeky. Even better, it was spoken in our own secret hockey code.

And this freaks out Pete Hoesktra?

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But then he is also angry that we are describing the dismal situation with Washington as a trade "war". He thinks we're being aggressive. Sorry, Pete, but this is as polite as one can get when dealing with the relentless insults and attacks from Donald Trump.

Trump has claimed that copper from Canada represents a national security threat. He said the lumber we ship into American markets is also a national security threat.

I looked up the American definition of national security threat – it refers to terrorism, international criminal gangs, threats to infrastructure, and targeted violence against civilians. It is ridiculous to invoke such language over the price of Canadian 2x4s at the local Home Depot.

But it is typical of the elevated language of threat and menace from MAGA. The FBI director claims Canada is flooding the American border with terrorists. Kristi Noem says our border is a threat to the safety of Americans. Attorney General Pam Bondi says we are the cause of international human trafficking.

Over 150 Canadians are being held in detention camps without proper access to legal support and their families. Can you imagine if we were kidnapping Americans and throwing them in detention centres?

And yet Hoekstra's biggest bother is the phrase "trade war" or the fact that Canadians won't buy American booze.

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This isn't the first time he has stepped up to gaslight and target Canadians. He has told us to "get over it." He says that Canada has hurt the United States. He repeats Trump's claims that Canada is the meanest and nastiest country the US has had to deal with.

His behaviour shouldn't come as a surprise. His record on international relations is dismal.

When George Bush Jr. was making the false case for the invasion of Iraq, Pete Hoekstra was one of his key cheerleaders. He made multiple false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Even after it was proven there were no weapons of mass destruction, Hoekstra held press conferences making bogus claims to keep the fiction alive.

In 2007, he made false claims about Iran's nuclear capabilities.

In his promotion of anti-Muslim conspiracies, CNN awarded him 4 Pinocchios.

And you don't need to take my word for this. It's all there in Wikipedia.

In 2017, Donald Trump chose him as ambassador to the Netherlands. This came as Hoekstra was stirring up anti-Muslim hysteria with bogus claims that Muslims were burning politicians.

When called out, he hid behind the line that the media was perpetuating "false news." But then the state department had to step in to say he was making this shit up.

Poor Pete was forced to make an apology:

"I've mixed up countries. I was wrong, and I don't know how that could have happened. I do know: it was wrong."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/12/us-ambassador-to-the-hague-apologizes-for-making-muslim-remarks-after-denial

He "mixed up" countries as he spread hate and disinformation. Good work, Mr. Ambassador.

But there is one fact from his previous time as ambassador that deeply troubles me.

Hoekstra held a fundraiser for the extremist Forum for Democracy party at the US embassy. The use of the American embassy to promote a far-right political party may be a violation of international law, but it fits a frightening pattern of MAGA politicians interfering in European nations to promote far-right extremist policies.

It shows a brazen willingness to undermine political stability in countries that should be considered allies.

The questions I have are, how did Hoekstra get the job of ambassador? Is he truly here to work to build relations and trade with Canada or to sow chaos?

My fear is the latter.

Maybe it's time we stood up to him like the people of the Netherlands did in calling out his bogosity.

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Canadian officials need to understand that MAGA doesn't see Europe or Canada as allies. They believe that all relations are relative – a zero-sum game – where the powerful dictate arbitrary terms and national sovereignty means little.

When Hoekstra accuses us of being anti-American, we need to push back that Canadians are not anti-American; we are anti-authoritarian.

When he says we are mean and nasty, we need to state that we oppose regimes that kidnap people off the streets. We find it repugnant that the president brags about feeding people to alligators. We find it a stain on democracy that a convicted criminal is in the White House, a man who is so thin-skinned that he gets comedians fired for making fun of him.

And we need to remind Mr. Hoekstra that he needs to show a little more respect for the spirit and determination of the Canadian people. We paid a huge sacrifice to free his family from the Nazis.

Hoekstra is from Groningen, and in the spring of 1945, people in the region were starving. The Canadian 2nd Division was determined to get through to free the people. But there were so many refugees in Groningen that the Canadian military decided not to use air cover or artillery to protect our boys going in.

That meant our soldiers had to clear out the machine nests and snipers of the SS and panzer grenadiers without cover. We lost a lot of good young men in the brutal house-to-house fighting.

The people of the Netherlands have never forgotten the huge sacrifice we paid to free them. But Mr. Hoekstra seems not to have learned the lesson of the cost Canadians are willing to endure to protect liberty.

So the next time Mr. Hoekstra gets up in front of a microphone to call the people of Canada mean and nasty, people should point out to him that he needs to be thankful that the young men of the Fort Gary Horse, the Calgary Highlanders, Le Regiment de Maisonneuve and the Canadian Black Watch were as mean and nasty as they were. Otherwise, he would have grown up under the Nazi boot.

Canadians are nice - until we're not.

Elbows up, Pete. It's time to pack your bags and go back to MAGAland.

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