As US President-elect Donald Trump continued with his expansionist rhetoric about Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Leader of Opposition Pierre Poilievre said in one voice that Canadia would never be the 51st US state

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Amid continuing rhetoric from US President-elect Donald Trump about making Canada the 51st US state, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell” that it would happen.

In a rambling press conference, Trump on Tuesday said that he would use “economic force” to deal with Canada.

Since winning the 2024 US presidential election, Trump has been saying that Canada should become the 51st US state if it does not want to be hit with sanctions. He has been frequently mocking Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau” in his social media posts.

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Responding to Trump’s expansionist rhetoric, Trudeau said on X: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States. Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

Trump’s rhetoric about Canada is part of the broader imperialist agenda that Trump has laid bare in recent days. He has said that he would bring the Panama Canal under US control and annex Denmark’s Greenland island. While he ruled out using military force against Canada, he kept the possibility open for the annexation of Panama Canal and Greenland.

When asked if he would rule out military force to annex Panama Canal and Greenland, Trump said, “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security.”

The rhetoric about Canada joining the United States as the 51st state is rooted in a meeting between Trump and Trudeau in November.

After Trump pledged to impose 25 per cent tariff on Canada and Mexico for their purported failure to stop the flow of illegal migrants and drugs from their territories into the United States, Trudeau came to Mar-a-Lago, Florida to meet Trump. During their meeting, when Trudeau complained that tariffs would cripple the Canadian economy, Trump said that Canada should become a US state if outstanding issues cannot be addressed, according to Fox News. Trump reportedly told Trudeau that he could be the Governor of the State of Canada.

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Since that meeting, Trump has been mocking Trudeau as governor in social media posts and has been referring to Canada as a state in his social media posts.

As Trump’s rhetoric continued, Canadian Leader of Opposition Pierre Poilievre said that “Canada will never be the 51st state”.

While Poilievre slammed Trudeau’s government as weak and said the Canada-US partnership was much-needed, he made it clear that Canada would not give up its sovereignty and the bilateral relationship was one of mutual benefits.

By referring to boost military preparedness and improving border management, Poilievre also appeared to address Trump’s complaints with Trudeau.

“Canada will never be the 51st state. Period. We are a great and independent country. We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the US with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods…When I am Prime Minister, we will rebuild our military and take back control of the border to secure both Canada and the U.S. We will take back control of our Arctic to keep Russia and China out,” said Poilievre in a post on X.

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As Trudeau and Poilievre have taken a stand against Trump’s rhetoric, Global News has reported that Trudeau would next week call an in-person meeting of the premiers of all Canadian state to discuss the future of the US-Canada relationship under the incoming Trump administration.

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