Paul Hoekstra

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has tapped former Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra to be his ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until 2011. He also previously served as Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands in the former president’s first administration. …Hoekstra is one of Trump’s first nominees for an ambassador position. The president-elect has also named nominees for ambassador roles to the United Nations, NATO and Israel. …Bruce Heyman, who had been Obama’s envoy to Canada from 2014 to 2017, said that the early naming shows the “importance of the relationship,” and pointed out that Hoekstra being from a border state gives him “direct knowledge and understanding of Canada.” “[This] should be good news for the Canada-U.S. relationship as they will have someone to work with to navigate the changes that are coming,” Heyman said.