OTTAWA, Aug. 16 -- When Leanne Walker, a resident of Calgary, submitted a petition to Canada's House of Commons calling for the expulsion of the American ambassador, she likely did not anticipate that 171,000 of her fellow citizens would sign it.

By Saturday, the petition had gathered more than 340 times the number of signatures required to trigger a mandatory parliamentary response. Under House of Commons rules, petitions that cross the 500-signature threshold must receive an official government reply within 45 days. This one is going to require more than a form letter.

The target is Pete Hoekstra, the US Ambassador to Canada, who has spent much of 2026 defending President Donald Trump's suggestion that Canada should become the 51st Am...