Just over five months ago, That Man appointed Pete Hoekstra to be the US ambassador to Canada. Initially, it appeared that Hoekstra was attempting to mend fences, but it turns out that Hoekstra did drink a double, or possibly triple, dose of the kool-aid.
A few days ago, Hoekstra said that he is offended that Canadians are responding to That Man's messages of love and peaceful co-existance towards Canada with violent rhetoric ("elbows up"). Then, yesterday in Banff, he made the veiled threat that because fewer Canadians are flying to the US,
maybe the US should take away customs pre-clearance at Canadian airports:
"Matter of fact, the numbers are down. We're not sure we can make the numbers work anymore … pre-clearance is something that is done at the expense of the U.S. government. We paid for it. You know, you can't make the numbers work anymore — you're all business people. You know what that means. You've got to take a look at some of these things."
The exchange he had with the Canadian moderator at the Banff forum is worth a read:
U.S. ambassador says Washington has to 'take a look' at airport pre-clearance, citing drop in Canadian tourism
ASIDE: Hoekstra was born in Holland before immigrating to the US, and many Dutch Canadans and citizens of Holland are offended that he is apparenty unaware that Canada was largely responsible for liberating Holland during WW2. I am personally offended, since my Dad fought through Holland as a member of
The 13th Canadian Field Regiment (I once joked with an elderly lady in my congregation, who lived through WW2 in Holland, that she "owes me" because of my Dad's actions, and since then she has periodically given me a batch of excellent home made cookies). As a final aside, Canadian actor
James Doohan ("Scotty" on Star Trek) was also a member of The 13th, and was wounded on D-day, In addition to other injuries he lost the middle finger on his right hand. Doohan tried to hide his injury during filming, but on occasion his missing finger was obvious. The injury made it easy for Doohan to give the famous "Vulcan salute":
James Doohan & George Takei. A rare picture of James Doohan showing his hand with the missing finger