President Trump has suggested that Canada and its abundance of resources should belong to the US, and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he believes the talk is very real. The Guardian reports that during a closed-door summit of business and labor leaders working on a response to Trump's threat to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, Trudeau warned that the president's ideas about annexing Canada—which is rich in minerals including lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, and cobalt—are not to be taken lightly.
"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," Trudeau reportedly said at the meeting in Toronto. "They're very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those...Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country."
The BBC says Trump first floated the idea of the US annexing Canada during a dinner with Trudeau in December after first threatening the tariffs, but that Canadian officials initially thought he was kidding. But as Trump has taken to referring to Trudeau as "governor," the prime minister's remarks may prove unsettling to Canadians. An Ipsos poll in January revealed that 80% of Canadians oppose their country becoming part of the US and would never vote to approve any referendum on the issue. Some provincial politicians have started "buy local" campaigns to encourage Canadians to avoid purchasing US goods, while many Canadians have also cancelled trips to the US in protest of the tariffs and suggested takeover.
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For the US to move forward with such a plan, both chambers of Congress in the US would have to approve it, and there would need to be a supermajority of 60 votes to push it through the Senate. Still, Canadian cabinet ministers have been doing their best to calm nerves up north. Trade minister Anita Anand said there would be "no messing" with Canada, and employment minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters: "Canada is free. Canada is sovereign. Canada will choose its own destiny, thank you very much."
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