Hoekstra urges Canadian space partnership at Gatineau conference

U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra spoke at Space Canada’s SpaceBound conference in Gatineau on Oct. 20, 2026, in a fireside chat with Beth Burke, chief executive of the Canadian American Business Council. The session addressed space, defence and international collaboration, and Hoekstra delivered a warning he has repeated many times that Ottawa is wrong to pursue an independent space path. He built his argument on decades of bilateral cooperation and urged Canada to partner with the United States for long-term success in space exploration.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly opened the day around 8:45 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2026, saying Ottawa would bring the Defence Industrial Strategy’s sovereign-capability view of space to the Canadian Space Agency. She stated that space and telecommunications approaches must protect and enhance Canada’s own sovereignty, framing space policy around Canadian control. Her emphasis on sovereignty reflected the Defence Industrial Strategy’s view that Canada must maintain independent capability in space.

Hoekstra built his case around three points, beginning with the long history of bilateral cooperation. He cited 67 years of space collaboration between the United States and Canada, tracing the relationship to 1959, as evidence that the two countries have worked together successfully for decades. He then outlined the U.S. vision for space, including returning to the moon and converting research into business. His third point shifted from space to politics, as he said the United States was waiting to learn Canada’s direction, noting that the Prime Minister and the minister had indicated Canada may see a different future.

Hoekstra acknowledged that Canada pursuing a different path is a sovereign decision for Canada to make. “Canada wants to go somewhere else. That is a sovereign issue for Canada to decide,” Hoekstra continued. But he immediately warned that the United States has other potential partners and would fill the space if Canada does not join.

He told industry attendees that countries replicating existing capability should go for it, and that builders who have done it can construct it for them.

When asked how decades of orbit cooperation could help during complicated Earth moments, Hoekstra spent about three minutes on tariffs, pivoting from space to trade. He said the United States is not in a trade war but is negotiating some tariffs, and recalled that a year and a half ago Canada had what he called the best deal in the world, though he was unsure whether it remained in effect. He also discussed the president’s trip to China and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s talks with India. The pivot to trade issues came after Burke raised the broader value of the bilateral relationship, according to the source.

The audience reaction was notably cool throughout the session, reflecting the room’s discomfort with Hoekstra’s message. Audience members shook their heads while he spoke, the closing applause was brief and polite, and afterward some attendees laughed while others said they felt insulted. The reaction showed the room was not receptive to his argument that Canada should abandon its sovereign push.

Hoekstra’s remarks came a week after a Starlink slowdown in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Ukrainian forces lost speed on Starlink and Starshield terminals around Oct. 13 and 14, 2026, with no warning, and drone missions failed. The slowdown affected drone missions, highlighting the operational impact of the disruption. On Oct. 14, Elon Musk posted that Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government, and that any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military and ultimately POTUS.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk ordered the slowdown himself, attributing the decision directly to Musk rather than to a U.S. government directive. On Oct. 21, 2026, in Mumbai, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters he was not aware the United States knew about the decision beforehand and called it irrelevant, saying the matter was governed by a private commercial contract. Rubio’s comments came as he was traveling in the region, and he framed the Starlink matter as governed by a private commercial contract. Washington said it did not know about the slowdown beforehand.

The source noted that the Wall Street Journal report showed a private citizen could make such a decision on his own, which it calls ridiculous, and that in defence trust is paramount.

In 2022, Musk refused to extend Starlink coverage to Crimea for a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s fleet at Sevastopol, saying he did not want SpaceX complicit in a major act of war. That earlier incident is part of the record that Prime Minister Mark Carney cited when he told The New York Times in September that Canada will diversify away from Starlink, no question. Carney identified Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation as the alternative, saying the aim is to cut dependency on a system that has been switched on and off in ways outside the actors’ control during certain conflicts. Starlink is still sold across Canada, and WestJet uses it, showing that the system remains present despite the diversification talk.

Telesat has pursued a low Earth orbit constellation for roughly ten years, and its first U.S. Federal Communications Commission filing, in 2016, said the network could serve government and military users. By 2020, Telesat was running exercises with the U.S. Air Force, and in March 2026, it reserved a quarter of Lightspeed capacity for military Ka-band frequencies reserved for armed forces. The March 2026 reservation of a quarter of Lightspeed capacity for military Ka-band frequencies came after years of technical work and exercises with the U.S. Air Force. In August 2026, the Defence Investment Agency awarded Telesat a contract initially worth $2.3 billion to carry secure military communications across the Arctic.

The Arctic secure military communications program has been in the works in one form or another for well over 10 years, and its second phase is in contract talks.

Telesat secured 14 Falcon 9 missions for Lightspeed in 2023, and when its 225 satellites reach orbit, SpaceX alone will have launched more Canadian satellites than every earlier Canadian satellite, active and retired, combined. The comparison between Telesat’s 225 planned satellites and Canada’s entire historical satellite fleet underscores the scale of the Lightspeed program. Telesat does not sell to consumers at all, and Lightspeed will be much smaller than Starlink, serving airlines, ships, telecom carriers, governments and defence. Starlink’s biggest business is home broadband, and SpaceX counted 13.6 million consumer subscribers at the end of September 2026.

The source says Lightspeed is aimed less at Starlink than at Starshield, SpaceX’s secure military system for the U.S. government, framing the Canadian alternative as aimed at secure government communications rather than home internet.

Hoekstra, however, told the conference that Canada is closing the market to SpaceX by rejecting Elon Musk’s investment, innovation, and excellence, and guessed Musk would find other business partners and likely already has. He said Canada’s plans to work more with the European Space Agency were fine, before turning to Musk. Hoekstra’s comments about Musk came after he said Canada’s plans to work more with the European Space Agency were fine. Hoekstra advised industry that countries replicating existing capability should go for it, and that builders who have done it can construct it for them.

He praised Musk’s excellence from the SpaceBound stage on Oct. 20, 2026, a week after Ukraine’s terminals slowed.

The source says Hoekstra’s praise of Musk is hardly an endorsement anyone should follow given the recent slowdown of Ukraine’s military communications. As speeds returned on Oct. 24, 2026, Musk wrote that Ukraine’s military had breached Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone attacks, saying the loophole closed last week. Musk’s explanation for the slowdown, that Ukraine had breached Starlink terms of service, came as speeds returned on Oct. 24. Hoekstra closed by inviting Canada to seriously consider partnering with the United States for success in 10, 15, and 20 years, saying the partnership has been good for both countries.

He called it his last controversial statement and said the idea of partnering with the United States is under attack in Canada.

Earlier in the session, Hoekstra said Washington takes the Canadian government at its word and must plan differently when Canada speaks on these issues. Canada has backed Artemis for years and funded Lunar Gateway, which the United States unilaterally shelved after informing partners it had changed plans mid-stream. The source cites the Lunar Gateway shelving as a reason Canada is hedging its space bets, after the U.S. unilaterally changed plans mid-stream.

The source concludes that Ottawa should plan alternatively too, mirroring the U.S. approach to Canadian statements on space policy. The source frames Hoekstra’s pressure on Canada as inadvertently strengthening the argument for Canadian sovereign space capabilities. Hoekstra praised Musk’s excellence from the SpaceBound stage on Oct. 20, 2026, a week after Ukraine’s terminals slowed, and SpaceQ Media Inc. calls the praise hardly an endorsement anyone should follow.

SpaceQ Media Inc. frames Hoekstra’s pressure on Canada as inadvertently strengthening the case for Canadian sovereign capabilities.