Canadians Respond to Trump's 51st State Remark

President-elect Trump, who mocked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "Governor Trudeau" earlier this month, targeted America's northern neighbor again in a Truth Social post Wednesday. "No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State," he wrote. "They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!" In a post on X, Jean Charest, former premier of Quebec, described Trump's remarks as a "wake-up call" and said all Canadians, regardless of their opinion of Trudeau, should feel "deeply offended."

• "We'll never be the 51st state. We're Canada. We're proud to be Canadians. We'll always fight for that," Ontario Premier Doug Ford told CTV News Wednesday night. Ford has strongly criticized Trump's threats to introduce 25% tariffs and threatened retaliatory moves.

• Alberta's premier took a different approach and tried to answer Trump's question, the AP reports. In a post on X, she said he had asked a "fair question" on the trade deficit. She said it was because "Canada (especially Alberta) sends billions of raw materials (oil, gas, minerals, grain, livestock, timber, etc)" to the US, where "our great American companies and workers upgrade and sell around the world" to countries including Canada. "Literally millions of good paying American jobs and companies rely on these affordable raw materials from Canada to make trillions of dollars of wealth in your country," Smith wrote, adding that she is looking forward to attending Trump's inauguration.
• CP24 notes that it's not clear where Trump got the $100 million figure. He has also cited $100 billion, which is closer to the real figure: Canada's trade surplus with the US reached a peak of $78 billion in 2022.

• A recent Leger poll found that only 13% of Canadians support the idea of joining the US, though there was a big gender gap: Some 19% of men would like the country to become a state, compared to just 7% of women.
• The CBC notes that Trump "has been roasting Canada like a maple-glazed ham," but his team has recently been taking a "victory lap" over numerous announcements Canada has made about boosting border security, suggesting he might not follow through with his tariff threats.

(More Canada stories.)