President Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st US state used to be funny, but now they seem like a real threat and part of a strategy to Canadian politicians.
“President Trump wants to put us into a state where we are much more weakened economically in order eventually to annex us,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told HEADLINESFOREVER’s Christiane Amanpour last week.
The prospect of one nation assuming control of the neighboring democracy would undoubtedly unsettle the smaller nation, especially considering the years spent witnessing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—even if Trump has refrained from proposing direct military intervention.
Meanwhile, the idea of the United States swallowing Canada keeps popping up in his speeches.
During a Tuesday dispute with Ontario’s premier, Trump distorted history by saying, “The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear.” This came as a new front in the trade war was about to become public. Another thing he said was that “O Canada” might remain Canada’s national song.
The “good cop” post was that. Just before Ford rescinded its promise to impose a tax on power sold to Americans in Minnesota, Michigan, and New York across the border, Trump also made threats. The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, will instead meet with Ford. After threatening to double steel and aluminum taxes, Trump now appears willing to back down. Be well-informed on the tariff threat.
With Trump’s trade war, Canadians are both bewildered and hurt.
Trump is the only person responsible for the current state of affairs, according to Ford, who spoke to Wolf Blitzer of HEADLINESFOREVER on Tuesday, before the parties reached an agreement to de-escalate the situation. Canada, Ford said, “is not for sale” and will never become a state.
Adding fuel to the fire of the intensifying trade war, Trump demanded in his social media tweets that Canada impose heavy duties on US dairy exports. However, as pointed out by HEADLINESFOREVER’s fact-checker Daniel Dale, Trump’s claim is essentially false.
According to Dale, the US is not meeting its permissible zero-tariff maximum in any category of dairy products, and the high tariffs won’t go into effect until the US reaches a specific annual quantity of tariff-free dairy shipments to Canada, which was negotiated by Trump.
If the dairy tariff bothers him, “it gets under his skin,” Ford implied. “I think we should discuss it. It’s that easy,” he said, calling for a renewal of the trade agreement that Trump secured with Mexico and Canada during his first term in office.
In Trump’s view, what is the matter with Canada?
Several hypotheses have been advanced as to the motivation for Trump’s fixation on adding Canada as the 51st state.
In its investigation into Trump’s betrayal of America’s northern neighbor, the New York Times cited the 2016 and 2021 bankruptcies of hotels bearing his name in Toronto and Vancouver, respectively.
Another famous shot from Trump’s first term shows Melania Trump getting ready to kiss Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the cheek, albeit it was clearly only a greeting, as the video made obvious.
While Donald Trump’s earlier tweets may provide insight into his current state of mind, there is no evidence of any persistent dissatisfaction or complaint in his archive.
For Joly, “this is not only a personal issue between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Trump; it’s way more than that” (Amanpour, 2019). The political rhetoric is only a small part of it. She described it as a “fundamental threat” and stated that as a result, trade barriers will be lowered and Canada’s ties with Europe will strengthen.
The USMCA, the trade deal that Trump broke by slapping additional taxes on Mexico and Canada, was something he spoke about extensively during his first term in office.
Canucks grow weary with the US
If you’ve ever been to an NHL game or seen the disappearance of American liquor from Canadian stores, you’d know that Canadians are taking Trump’s proposal to transform Canada into a state extremely seriously.
Despite the fact that no one in the United States is mentioning an invading force, a majority of Canadians (63%) believe that Trump deserves serious consideration, according to a study carried out by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies. Just over half of Canadians would risk their lives to protect their country against an invasion.
Most significantly, from over 50% in June to only one-third now, there has been a precipitous decline in the percentage of Canadians who have a positive impression of the United States.
Unpredictable disruption to US political stability
Canada has more people living in it than the most populous US state, California. Admitting all of Canada, not just its 10 provinces, would throw the current political balance in the US system into a loop.
The Constitution makes it easy to admit a new state into the Union, but the United States hasn’t done so since the admission of Hawaii and Alaska in 1959.
The United States was able to keep its balance thanks to the simultaneous admission of those two states. According to a Senate history, during that time, Hawaii leaning more toward the Republican side and Alaska toward the Democratic. That’s completely at odds with the current political climate.
Both were very minor states that, contrary to popular belief in Canada, went to a plebiscite to ensure that their constituents approved of statehood. To begin, the United States is consciously multilingual, and Trump has just proclaimed English to be the official language of the country.
Joly said to Amanpour that the reason the United States was not considered was because they were a member of the British Empire.