‘Real thing’: Canada on edge at Donald Trump’s takeover threat

Justin Trudeau has said he believes Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada and make it America’s 51st state is far from a joke.

Justin Trudeau has said he believes Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada is far from a joke, after the US President this week reiterated his desire to make the country America’s next state.

As he prepared to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods on Tuesday AEDT, Mr Trump told reporters from the Oval Office: “What I’d like to see – Canada become our 51st state. I’d love to see that, but some people say that would be a long shot.”

Mr Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January and will leave office once Canada’s Liberal Party selects a new leader, responded to Mr Trump’s comments for the first time at an economic summit in Toronto on Saturday AEDT.

“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” the outgoing Prime Minister told the gathering of business leaders and company executives.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada ‘is a real thing’. Picture: Dave Chan/AFP

The US President has repeatedly said he’d ‘like to see Canada become our 51st state’. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Canada is home to 31 minerals, many of them considered essential to modern technology including mobile phones, electric car batteries, solar panels and defence applications.

“They’re very aware of our resources of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” Mr Trudeau said of the US.

“But Mr Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country. And it is a real thing.”

While media outlets were not in the room at the time, Mr Trudeau’s remarks were recorded by The Toronto Star and the CBC. The Prime Minister’s office did not further clarify his remarks to either publication.

Mr Trump and Mr Trudeau agreed to a 30-day reprieve from tariffs, after the President slapped 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports with the exception of energy resources, which would be hit with a 10 per cent levy.

In response, Canada announced it would target American goods worth $171 billion with counter-tariffs. The first round, worth $33 billion, included cosmetics, appliances, tyres, tools, plastics, furniture, coffee, wines and spirits, dairy and fruits.

As part of its plan to fend off the tariffs, Mr Trudeau pledged to adopt a more stringent plan to secure the nations’ shared border against fentanyl trafficking.

The President downplayed Canada’s role as one of America’s top trade partners, telling reporters the US “don’t need them” – but “as a state, it’s different”.

“As a state it’s much different. And there are no tariffs,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“So I’d love to see that. Some people say that would be a long shot. If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100 per cent certain that they’d become a state. But a lot of people don’t like to play the game. Because they don’t have a threshold of pain.”

Mr Trump’s repeated talk of annexing Canada spans as far back as his November election. Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Mr Trump’s repeated talk of annexing Canada spans as far back as his November election, and was originally brushed off as a joke by Mr Trudeau and his government.

But ahead of his inauguration in January, Mr Trump pledged to use “economic force” to compel the union, describing their border as an “artificially drawn line”.

“Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” Mr Trump said, though ruled out the use of military might.

“You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Mr Trudeau said in response to the remarks.

“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

‘At what point is a joke not a joke?’ one expert said of Mr Trump’s comments. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Officials and experts now fear that Mr Trump’s recent doubling-down on the matter means it’s no longer being said in jest – if it ever was.

Political science professor at Montreal’s McGill University, Daniel Beland, described Mr Trump’s stated intentions as “unprecedented” and “highly damaging”.

“He is eroding Canadians’ trust towards the US in ways that will make it hard to repair the relationship,” Professor Beland told Associated Press.

“It’s certainly one of the worst moments in Canada-US relations since the creation of Canada in 1867.

“His talk about making Canada the 51st state is a direct attack against the country’s sovereignty. Even if we exclude that threat, he shows no respect for Canada’s sovereignty and institutions.”

Premier of British Columbia, David Eby, accused Mr Trump of deploying a deliberate strategy to “destroy Canada’s economy” – leaving it no choice but to become America’s 51st state.

While Canada’s Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre said in an interview with CTV in January: “My message to incoming President Trump is that first and foremost, Canada will never be the 51st state of the US.”

A recent survey found 82 per cent of Canadians were opposed to the country joining America. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

Despite Mr Trump’s declaration after Mr Trudeau’s resignation that “many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st state”, a recent Leger poll, reported by The Canadian Press, found 82 per cent of Canadians were opposed to the idea. Ahead of the presidential election, they were similarly perturbed by the prospect Mr Trump as President again.

Roughly two-thirds of respondents in another Leger poll backed former Vice President Kamala Harris, compared to just 21 per cent being in favour of the now-leader.

Mount Royal University’s Duane Bratt, a political-science professor with a focus on Canadian foreign policy, told The Hill if Mr Trump were to annex Canada, it would unlikely boost his fanbase.

“I don’t think he realises that Canada would be a Democratic state – that we would be a blue state the size of California,” Professor Bratt said.

“At what point is a joke not a joke? He went from talking about ‘Governor’ Trudeau and becoming the 51st state to, today, talking about economic coercion, economic force.”

Originally published as ‘Real thing’: Canada on edge at Donald Trump’s takeover threat