When the diplomat isn’t diplomatic

Pete Hoekstra gets to call Lornado home just now.

Lornado is the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, a 32-room limestone manor house in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park. Built on 10 acres of park-like grounds, Lornado was built by an Ottawa industrialist Warren Y. Soper, whose main claim to fame was as the co-founder of the first public transit system in Ottawa, the Ottawa Electric Railway.

Soper named the property after one of his favourite novels, Lorna Doone, and the U.S. government kept the name after it bought the property in 1935.

As the U.S. State Department says on a website describing the property, “If the walls and grounds of Lornado could talk they would provide a fascinating look back into Ottawa’s history, and testify to the long and strong ties that bind our two nations in friendship.”

Peruse the U.S. Embassy’s past postings on its Facebook page, and you can see the popularity of Lornado and its large grounds: scores of photos of “thousands of honoured guests” visiting the mansion on the Fourth of July during the tenure of former ambassador Bruce Heyman.

In 2025, the celebration of “the Fourth” was a decidedly smaller affair, perhaps half the size, as reported by the New York Times, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and persistent labelling of Canada as the 51st state.

Still, the current ambassador managed to play the part of a diplomat to the smaller crowd, delivering a little ambassadorial smoothing-over of the cracks between the nation he serves, and the nation he’s now visiting.

“We’re going to get through this little kerfuffle, whatever you want to call it, we’re going to get through this, and when we are done, we are going to be stronger and better than what we were when we began,” Hoekstra told the assembled guests.

Hoekstra was equally diplomatic when he was confirmed as ambassador: “Canada is our most valuable trading partner, our largest source of foreign investment and our largest source of energy imports. We share the longest border in the world — more than 5,500 miles, fostering longstanding friendships between the American and Canadian people.

“As Ambassador to Canada, I will work with the Canadian government to review and strengthen our strong trading partnership, secure our borders, confront the deadly threat of fentanyl to our citizens and build our national security co-operation.”

But Hoekstra’s not like many of his well-regarded predecessors: unlike diplomats who have seen themselves as a bridge between two countries, Hoekstra sees his role as including lecturing Canada for its positions on trade and pooh-poohing Canada’s failure to kowtow to Trumpian demands.

He’s spent time hectoring his way across the country at speaking engagements, and in his latest foray, has decided to chastise the Globe and Mail and demand an apology for a column criticizing the U.S. Olympic hockey team — probably at the behest of his boss.

“While we respect press freedom and expect robust commentary on matters of public interest, this article crosses the line from legitimate criticism into gratuitous insult,” Hoekstra wrote to the paper’s editor-in-chief.

Hoekstra could perhaps be certified in court as an expert on gratuitous insult: after all, President Trump can’t seem to go even a single day without publicly demeaning, belittling or insulting someone.

It would perhaps be better for relations between our countries if Hoekstra was more focused on smoothing the waters and explaining the real American baseline for bilateral relations with Canada, rather than being the local water-carrier for every confusing and threatening message sent out from the White House.

To put it with brevity?

More Lornado, less tornado.

It’s obvious Trump does not understand or value diplomacy.

But his diplomats should.