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Has the Canadian retort to the US mocking gone unnoticed?
Donald Trump has repeatedly joked in recent days about Canada becoming the “51st US state”.
Donald Trump. / REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may not have said a word about his mocking by the US President-elect Donald Trump at a meeting held on Nov.29 in Florida. His Foreign Minister Melanie Joly claims she has been making a related joke of her own when speaking with US politicians.
“The joke I have been telling my Republican senator friends is that Fort Lauderdale could become Canada’s 11th province, no problem,” she said.
Melanie Joly disclosed that her job was to discuss the undisclosed plan with the US. She said the plan with an “excellent budget” was ready. The plan has since been announced by the Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
Donald Trump has repeatedly joked in recent days about Canada becoming the “51st US state” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the “governor,” while arguing that the US has been “subsidizing” Canada to the tune of $100 billion (Canadian $130 billion). He first commented when Justin Trudeau and his entourage visited the Mar-a-Lago resort on Nov.29.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Donald Trump has his golf course resort (Mar-A-Lago), has a sizeable Canadian population, including many Quebecers, who head for Florida during the winter months. The USA and Canada allow dual citizenship.
No other federal leader from any other party has retorted the way Melanie Joly did. Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has been very vocal on the subject and was the first to threaten disruption of power supply to the US in case Donald Trump insisted on his threatened 25 percent tariff on Canadian supplies.
Melanie Joly did not directly comment on Ford’s threat but said Canada will have “many tools” to retaliate. “We are going to fight for every job in Quebec and Canada,” she said.
Melanie Joly also comes from Quebec. She was in the news when the New York Times while profiling her, described her as a contender for Liberal Party leadership. The Leader of the Opposition, Pierre Poilievre, even referred to the New York Times story while attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in corroboration of his allegation that the Prime Minister was losing popularity in his party caucus.
Melanie Jolly, who was recently in the US as the US President-elect Donald Trump continued to mock Justin Trudeau, would be directly or indirectly responsible, largely because of her ministerial portfolio as well as her place on the Trudeau’s Cabinet Committee on Canada-US relations, to manage the tariff threat.
She is likely to retain her portfolio in the Cabinet rejig as she would be busy working with US contacts at the state and federal levels, in the White House and on Capitol Hill, as part of a strategy Canada deployed with Trump during his first term – an approach that more or less worked.
Besides meeting the immediate challenge of managing the “vexed” relationship with the US after Donald Trump took over, she is viewed as a strong candidate in the Liberal leadership run. As projected by the US media as a strong prospect of a potential leadership run, Melanie Joly could face challenges from other heavyweights, including former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, and her replacement Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
These speculations apart, Justin Trudeau says he will stay on to fight the next election.
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