Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says U.S. President Donald Trump isn’t joking – he believes Trump’s threat to make Canada the 51st state is a “real thing,” in part due to his desire to gain access to Canada’s critical minerals, according to a source who heard the behind-closed-doors comment at a summit in Toronto on Friday.
Trudeau made the remarks before a crowd of business and trade leaders who were brought together to discuss how to bolster Canada’s economy in the face of Trump’s ongoing tariff threat. The comments were made after media had been asked to leave the room.
In recent months, Trump has repeatedly proposed Canada could avoid tariffs if it agreed to join the U.S. as the 51st state. Trump has also referred to the prime minister as ‘Governor Trudeau’ on social media.
When Trump’s 51st state musings were first reported late last year following Trudeau’s surprise trip to Mar-a-Lago, federal officials initially downplayed the comment as a joke.
“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc – who attended that dinner at Trump’s golf course – said back in December.
Asked about Trudeau’s latest remarks in an interview with CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday, Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said, “Canada is a proud nation” and insisted “this is not going to happen.”
“Canadians are proud and we will always stand up for Canada. Canada’s sovereignty is not in question whatsoever,” Champagne told host Vassy Kapelos.
Employment Minister and Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon echoed that sentiment while speaking to reporters at the summit.
“I would be reflecting the spirit of in the room, more importantly, the spirit across this country,” MacKinnon said on Friday. “Canada is free. Canada is sovereign. Canada will choose its own destiny. Thank you very much. But Canada is forever.”
Canadian American Business Council CEO Beth Burke was among those invited to attend the economic summit on Friday. As an American, she said most U.S. citizens don’t take Trump’s annexation threat seriously.
“I think our perception is more that it is one from a position of negotiation and posturing and using it as leverage in the conversation,” Burke said.
Burke, however, did say that Canada’s critical minerals are a “priority for the Trump administration.”
“Canada is much further along in developing their resources, and have more resources than the United States. So it is a point of leverage and a point of conversation that Canada can lean into as they’re looking at the renegotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement,” Burke said.
In late January, a report from the Wall Street Journal said those familiar with Trump’s thinking think he’s using the threat of tariffs to push for an early renegotiation of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which is due for review next year.
Meanwhile, on his first day in office on Jan. 20, Trump announced his “America First Trade Policy” in an executive order, calling for a study into alleged unfair trade practices due April 1.
Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Trump escalated his trade war, suggesting tariffs are coming to other countries in a broader effort to help shrink the American budget deficit.
“I’ll be announcing that, next week, reciprocal trade, so that we’re treated evenly with other countries,” Trump said. “We don’t want any more, any less.”
What will Canada focus on over next 30 days?
On Monday, Canada got reprieve for at least 30 days from Trump’s threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports – except energy products, which would be subject to a 10 per cent tariff – after making new commitments to secure the shared border.
In addition to implementing the $1.3 billion border plan – which includes deploying additional personnel, drones, surveillance equipment and helicopters – Canada will appoint a “fentanyl czar” and list cartels as terrorists.
In his public address at the summit, Trudeau said Canada needs to use the 30-day extension “to both start thinking tactically and strategically,” which in part includes engaging with U.S. officials on the border.
“Over the next 30 days, we will demonstrate that even the tiny amount (of fentanyl) that is Canada’s responsibility into the United States is going to reduce even further by working together, not just across our border, but internationally as well, to make sure that there is no reason to move forward with those tariffs 30 days from now,” Trudeau said.
Public Safety Minister David McGuinty was in Valleyfield, Que., on Friday to survey the border on a ride-along with a RCMP helicopter.
Asked by reporters whether new border investments matter amid Trump’s musings about Canada becoming the 51s state, McGuinty said “it does matter what’s happening at the border.”
“These investments are making a strong border even stronger. That’s important,” he said.
McGuinty was also asked if the public safety department is making any preparations to respond to Trump’s annexation threat.
“The best assertion of our sovereignty is a strong border, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re making the border even stronger,” McGuinty said.
“I can’t interpret what the president is or is not saying about these comments. Canadians don’t accept this notion.”
PM: ‘It’s about time we had genuine free trade within Canada’
The United States is Canada’s largest trading partner, with the annual trade relationship between the two countries adding up to about $1.3 trillion. Canada is also the largest export market for 36 U.S. states.
Trump’s tariff threat has renewed a push to remove internal trade barriers within Canada that have existed for decades. Interprovincial trade issues were even flagged back in a 1940 report of the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations.
On Friday, Trudeau said there is “political will” among provinces to “move forward on free trade within Canada.”
“Internal trade is something that we’ve been talking about, and quite frankly, the business community has been talking about for decades as we have to move forward on it,” Trudeau said. “This is one of those moments and opportunities where we actually can. There’s a window open because of the context we’re in. We have to jump through it.”
Earlier this week, Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand, who met recently with her provincial counterparts, suggested interprovincial trade barriers could be wiped away in 30 days.
“We are making incredible, fast-paced progress with all of the provinces and territories,” Anand told reporters in Halifax on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media at the summit in Toronto on Friday, Anand said Canadians will see progress on the issue in the short term.
“The tangible results in the next 30 days for us to reduce red tape, for us to eliminate barriers to trade, and for us to build a domestic economy without going through Donald Trump is here and is now,” Anand said.
Anand also said she is looking to reduce the number of exceptions in the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), an intergovernmental trade deal signed by the federal government and all 13 provinces and territories back in July 2017.
In 2022, University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe co-wrote a report for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, estimating that opening up interprovincial trade could increase the Canadian economy by $200 billion.
What is the possibility of east-west pipeline?
Discussions around the possibility of an oil pipeline from Western Canada to Eastern Canada has also emerged out of Trump’s ongoing tariff threat as a way to diversify the Canadian economy.
Even Quebec, which has resisted building new pipelines, says it’s open to the possibility. Earlier this week, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette said the provincial government is open to reconsidering two major energy infrastructure projects that it previously rejected.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has even said the possibility of a west-east pipeline should be discussed.
Asked by Kapelos whether he would explicitly support such a project, Champagne said “things have changed.”
“I think Quebecers have realized that the rules of the game have changed over the last few days. So you cannot be in the past. You need to look forward in the future and that may need that we need to be able to have transmission lines that could bring electricity east west. That may mean that you need pipelines that would go east west,” Champagne said.
When pressed by Kapelos how far the federal government is willing to push a potential pipeline project, Champagne said “we’re going to be engaging.”
“It’s not about pushing. It’s about explaining to people the new reality we live in,” Champagne said. “One thing I know about Canadians and Quebec, they want to be resilient. They don’t want to be necessarily dependent on any foreign nation in order to ensure their energy resiliency and security.”
Conservatives call on Trudeau to recall Parliament
Parliament will be prorogued until March 24, with opposition parties calling on the Liberal government to recall the House of Commons to discuss Canada’s response to Trump’s tariff threat.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Friday, Conservative MP Michael Barrett reiterated that push by calling out Trudeau’s economic summit held in Toronto.
“We agree with Justin Trudeau on one thing, and that’s that there should be a meeting happening. That the Prime Minister should be there, but that meeting should be here in Ottawa, and it should be right here in the House of Commons with the 338 members of parliament who were elected to address the issues that our nation is facing,” Barrett said.
Asked whether the Conservatives would be willing to put off a confidence vote that would bring down the government in order to pass legislation to respond to Trump’s tariffs, Barrett said “we’ve been very clear that both things can be true.”
“We can address that issue which the house is supposed to be sitting right now. We could be doing that, and then when that issue has been put to rest, we can deal with the matters of confidence because Canadians are looking for a new government,” Barrett said.
Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre put forth his party’s “Canada First Plan,” which pledged to bring premiers together to agree on removing “as many exemptions as possible” within 30 days of being elected prime minister.
