{"id":267474,"date":"2025-11-07T09:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267474\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:36:09","slug":"u-s-envoy-to-canada-left-michigan-gop-with-1-million-debt-party-critics-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/267474\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. envoy to Canada left Michigan GOP with $1-million debt, party critics say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is facing criticism for allegedly leaving the Michigan Republican Party with a $1-million debt during his time as chair.Stephen MacGillivray\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra is facing internal criticism over his management of the Michigan Republican Party before he took up his duties as Donald Trump\u2019s voice in Canada.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans, including the current chair of the Michigan GOP, say Mr. Hoekstra left the party saddled with a US$1-million debt. <\/p>\n

The U.S. ambassador did not make himself available for an interview. But Paul Cordes, a friend and former top aide to Mr. Hoekstra, denied the $1-million figure. Mr. Cordes said the party already had a US$500,000 debt when Mr. Hoekstra took over and he fundraised to bring down the debt.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cordes said his former boss is being badmouthed by Republicans who supported the previous chair of the Michigan GOP. He credited Mr. Hoekstra, a self-styled MAGA ideologue, for helping the President win the state of Michigan in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe left the party in better shape than he found it and less debt than he inherited. Any resurrection of tired complaints aren\u2019t based in fact.\u201d Mr. Cordes said, adding: \u201cThe President asked him to step up as Chairman when Michigan needed steady hands, and the results speak for themselves: Trump carried the state and Republicans flipped the Michigan House \u2013 the only legislative chamber in the nation to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Runestad, who replaced Mr. Hoekstra as chair in February, said in an interview that the envoy to Canada had left the party with a large debt. Mr. Runestad defeated Mr. Trump\u2019s endorsed candidate to head the Michigan party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe paid some of it down. It started at US$1-million. By year\u2019s end, we will have paid about US$250,000 of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hoekstra had vowed to put the party back on a solid financial footing. He took over from former chair Kristina Karamo, who had clashed with some big-name donors amid dismal fundraising and other controversies. <\/p>\n

Two Republican sources told The Globe and Mail that questions have been raised within the party about how Mr. Hoekstra managed GOP funds after he became Michigan chair in January, 2024. <\/p>\n

The two sources also criticized Mr. Hoekstra for his confrontational approach to Canada-U.S. relations. <\/p>\n

The Globe is not naming the sources because they are concerned about retribution from Mr. Trump, who appointed Mr. Hoekstra shortly after he won last year\u2019s presidential election. <\/p>\n

Opinion: Washington, we have a serious problem: Your ambassador to Canada<\/a><\/p>\n

The sources alleged that at least one vendor may not have been paid from GOP national committee contributions; campaign money was diverted to pay staff; and $300,000 went to help elect Matt Hall, who is now Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cordes disputed those allegations or any suggestion that Mr. Hoekstra mishandled party funds. Mr. Hoekstra was transparent and made sure every invoice and bank statement was shared with the party\u2019s executive committee before he left the job, Mr. Cordes said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Runestad said he has been too busy to look into the allegations: \u201cI have not been able to look at the financials from the previous administration, so I simply wouldn\u2019t know.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked if Mr. Hoekstra may have mishandled the party\u2019s finances, Mr. Runestad said: \u201cAgain, I wouldn\u2019t comment one way or the other.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI am sure there is nothing unethical that Pete did. But how he spent the money, I simply don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he disputes the US$1-million debt, Mr. Cordes said every party ends up in the red after an election.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly every Michigan GOP Chair inherits some level of debt from the previous administration. That\u2019s the nature of the role. The real measure of leadership is whether you grow trust, stabilize operations, and move the party forward \u2013 and Pete did exactly that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Runestad acknowledged that it is not uncommon for political parties to run up large debts during election cycles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things do happen. It is not unique. You pay off the debt over time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr. Hoekstra, a former congressman, had previously served as ambassador to the Netherlands in Mr. Trump\u2019s first administration.<\/p>\n

Mr. Hoekstra has had a rocky start as envoy to Canada. He said Canadians \u201cwere mean and nasty\u201d for pulling American wine and spirits off liquor-store shelves and for not travelling to the U.S. in response to Mr. Trump\u2019s trade war and threats to annex the country.<\/p>\n

He complained about Canadians saying the U.S. President was misinformed when Mr. Trump said America doesn\u2019t need anything from Canada.<\/p>\n

And last week, Mr. Hoekstra unleashed a profanity-laced tirade<\/a> at Ontario\u2019s representative to Washington at a prestigious Canadian American Business Council gala at Ottawa\u2019s National Art Gallery.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told The Globe that the ambassador scolded David Paterson over an Ontario government anti-tariff TV ad, which had riled up Mr. Trump. The President cited the commercial as the reason he abruptly cancelled trade talks<\/a> with Canada late last month. He later threatened to impose another 10-per-cent tariff on Canadian goods.<\/p>\n

Opinion: U.S. Ambassador\u2019s outburst is one more punch in the face from the neighbourhood bully<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Hoekstra also garnered negative press when he served as ambassador to the Netherlands. He once said Dutch politicians were being \u201cburned\u201d by Islamic mobs and that there were \u201cno-go zones\u201d in the Netherlands because of the influx of Muslims.<\/p>\n

He told journalists that he never said those things and called it fake news \u2013 even though he made those remarks in a 2015 video panel discussion. He later apologized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is facing criticism for allegedly leaving the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-267474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}