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Stop “ripping off” or become the 51st state of US: Trump to Trudeau
The comment from the US president-elect came during his meeting with a Canadian delegation led by Prime Minister Trudeau
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President elect Donald Trump. / Reuters
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his delegation who had a closed-door meeting with the US President-elect Donald Trump last Friday were reportedly stunned when, during the deliberations on the 25 percent import tariff, the host surprised everyone by suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state of the US.
According to media reports, Donald Trump said in a lighter vein that if Trudeau did not like the tariff, perhaps Canada could become the 51st state and Trudeau could serve as its governor. Trudeau laughed nervously at the apparent joke, the media reports said.
Yesterday, when the House of Commons resumed its sitting, the issue of border security was raised by the Leader of Opposition, Pierre Poilievre, saying that his party had been asking the Prime Minister to wake up and regain control of the order but he continues to do the opposite.
Pierre said that in 2015, the number of unprocessed asylum claims was under 10,000. Today, there were over 260,000. This required an operation with provincial police forces to crack down on the human trafficking, illegal entry, drug production and trafficking.
These are the issues for which Trump has been threatening to impose 25 per cent duty on items imported from Canada and Mexico.
After talking to Trump on the phone early last week, the Canadian Prime Minister accompanied by some senior functionaries of his government and air dashed to Florida last weekend.
Media reports quoting an insider who was at the meeting said: “We are told that when Trudeau told president-elect Trump that new tariffs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump joked with him that if Canada cannot survive without ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion a year, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor”.
The reports also said that someone at the table noted that a Canadian state in the U.S. would be liberal, prompting Trump to say that the territory could be divided into two states, one liberal and one conservative. That reportedly drew more laughter.
Donald Trump’s veiled humour last weekend was somewhat reminiscent of his wish in his previous term when made a public wish to purchase Greenland.
Responding to the Trump-Trudeau meeting raised by Poilievre in parliament, Canadian Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was in the delegation, said that they had had a cordial and constructive conversation with “our American partners “.
The minister said “We talked about security at the Canada-U.S. border over the decades and the integration of Canadian police forces with their American partners. We talked, for example, about the important work that the RCMP is doing in the fight against fentanyl, which has led to drug seizures and significant arrests, often in partnership with our American allies.”
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