The twists and turns that the trade war between Canada and the US has taken since Donald Trump declared it on February 1, 2025 have been a very difficult to follow firehose of dramatic developments.
So it’s easy to forget that the threats of making Canada a 51st state from Trump started in December of 2024 where Trump made the comment at a dinner with then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and followed it up with this “Truth” posted on December 9th, 2024.
Fast forward 2 years and on June 2, 2026, US Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra took a screen capture of a post that US president Donald Trump had made on his platform “Truth Social” and shared it to his social media platforms.
The Post not only claimed that Canada had “dipped into a technical recession” but also reiterated Trumps claim to Canada being the 51st state.
Nonetheless, Alberta premier Danielle Smith was sure to make time for a photo op with Hoekstra at the Calgary Stampede.
The reaction from the rest of Canada however, has been swift and sustained.
A petition was opened for signature on July 21, 2026 calling for Hoekstra to be declared persona non grata and to request his removal as US ambassador.
As of today’s writing, it now has well over 200,000 signatures.
The petition cites several reasons for wanting to have Hoekstra removed as ambassador and having him entirely removed from Canada.
Even after June 2, Hoekstra defended the reporting, saying not only that he believes “thats a great discussion for the president and the prime minister”, but he also went on the attack saying “if you actually had a media that did it’s job, you would find out that as the presidents representative to Canada, I present the presidents views”.
In the last couple of weeks, Hoekstra has received significant criticism for granting interviews to right wing Canadian social media influencers in what many have called a targeted attempt to appeal to particularly conservative voters and bring them more in line with Trumps vision.
None of this however, has stopped Alberta premier Danielle Smith from maintaining a regular relationship with the ambassador directly from the premiers office.
But how direct has that relationship been?
In late September 2025, Danielle Smith and Pete Hoekstra appeared on a podcast called “The Hub Canada”.
There are two particularly striking moments in that podcast.
The first is where Danielle Smith openly states that “The presidents style is misunderstood as an attack, as opposed to a negotiation position”.
The second comes at the beginning of the podcast where Hoekstra is asked about his trip to Alberta so far.
Hoekstra speaks positively about the number of Americans coming through the Calgary airport, he speaks positively about the construction he saw in Calgary and how much he enjoyed his trip to Banff.
It isn’t until Smith jumps in and breathlessly brags about how Heokstra also attended the oil sands that he spoke of the cooperation between Canada and the US on resource extraction.
So how impressive that trip was might just be up for debate...
But a much better question is who paid for the trip, and how much?
We know from the controversy that erupted when Danielle Smith and her staff accepted hundreds’s of thousands of dollars in travel and accommodations from the Saudi Government that Smith believes that host countries using taxpayer dollars for guided tours is entirely justifiable, because you just have to see these facilities in person to understand their significance.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Smith’s office organized a special trip for the ambassador to see the oil sands in person and taxpayers footed the bill.
On September 3rd, 2025 James Fischer, Danielle Smith’s Director of “Mission Planning & Strategic Services” put forward a proposal for a charter plane rental for a day for Hoekstra to tour the oil sands with several guests.
The proposed itinerary was for a chartered plane to fly Hoekstra and company to Fort MacMurray first thing in the morning and out later in the day.
The justification for the trip though expressed concerns that finding 15-20 seats on a commercial plane might be impossible, which is perplexing because the number of passengers on the same proposal is limited to 9.
Additionally, the purpose of the flight is explicitly limited to provide a tour of the Oil sands, but seems to also suggest that additional sites may open up and they may want to visit those as well.
This proposal was personally approved by Danielle Smith on September 16, 2025.
The itinerary of the trip is provided on the invoice (that it took the government almost 2 whole months to pay and the company had to chase down payment on).
The plane flew from Calgary to Fort Mackay/Albain and landed at the airport that was built to support oil and gas development at that Horizon oil sands. The plane remained there for approximately 3 hours before continuing on to Fort McMurray where is stayed for roughly four hours before flying back to Calgary.
The flight manifest also confirms that despite the justification that a charter flight was needed to accommodate 15-20 people, only 9 participated in the trip.
Who are these folks?
Security Detail (presumably 1 The Breakdown has redacted their name)
Alberto Benzo - Executive Director Energy Information and Analysis Branch (GOA)
James Carpenter -Senior Representative to Ottawa (GOA)
Nathan Cooper - Senior Representative to the United States of America Alberta Washington DC Office (GOA)
Alex Puddifant - Director, Alberta Office in Ottawa (GOA)
Tim Russell - US Foreign Service Officer
Emily Fleckner- US Consul General to Calgary
Pete Hoekstra - US Ambassador to Canada
A post from the ambassador tagging two of the largest oilsand operators in the area celebrates the tours of Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips operations.
A post from earlier in the day shows the group at takeoff.
So Danielle Smith used her office to fund a trip for a US Ambassador and a whirlwind tour of the oil sands and taxpayers footed the bill, only for that same ambassador to 6 months later share the message of Alberta/Canada becoming the 51st state.
And how much did Albertans pay for a private plane for 3 Americans (2 of which work in Alberta) and 6 government employees?
According to the invoice we received via an ATIA request?
$18,721.37.
On the bright side, at least Danielle Smith got to appear on a podcast with Hoekstra, and there’s a very reasonable argument to be made that it’s a good thing she did, because up until her reminding Hoekstra of his trip to the oil sands, he didn’t seem to find it worth mentioning unprompted.
There are undoubtedly those who will argue that this sort of trip is necessary to preserving the business relationship between Canada and the US.
There might even be some room for that argument, but it begs a very simple question...
If the companies responsible for Oil and Gas extraction in Alberta believe that US officials visiting their sites is crucial to preserve their business cases, why don’t they pick up the tab instead of taxpayers?
Of course, the answer for that might be just as simple…
Why pay as a company when Smith will do the tours with taxpayer dollars? The Breakdown reached out to the premiers office for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
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