Calgary 
In a wide-ranging press conference today, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his intention to impose significant tariffs on foreign goods, targeting both Canada and Mexico.
Credit: Yusuf Sh/ Pexels
Trump once again suggested that Canada could become a U.S. state. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line,” he remarked, claiming it would benefit national security. He dismissed the notion of using military force to achieve such a scenario, instead emphasizing “economic force” as the preferred method.
Trump highlighted trade imbalances and criticized American spending on Canadian goods, stating, “Why are we losing $200 billion dollars a year and more to protect Canada?”
He suggested that Canada relies heavily on U.S. military protection and expressed frustration over trade deficits, asserting that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian cars, lumber, or dairy products. He argued that American taxpayers are bearing the financial burden of protecting Canada.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” commented Justin Trudeau on X in reply to Trump’s statements.
“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”
There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.
Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 7, 2025
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre who was also a subject in today’s press conference declared Canada will never be the “51st state,” emphasizing its independence and strong alliance with the U.S. Highlighting Canada’s contributions to global security and economic ties with the U.S., he criticized the NDP-Liberal government for failing to assert Canada’s strengths. Poilievre vowed to rebuild the military, secure borders, and protect the Arctic from Russian and Chinese threats.
Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.
We are a great and independent country.
We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods.
Our weak and pathetic NDP-Liberal government has failed to make these obvious points.
I will fight for Canada.
When I am Prime Minister, we will rebuild our military and take back control of the border to secure both Canada and the U.S. We will take back control of our Arctic to keep Russia and China out.
We will axe taxes, slash red tape and rapidly green-light massive resource projects to bring home paycheques and production to our country.
In other words, we will put Canada First.
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 7, 2025
Later in the evening, Trump shared a map of Canada and the United States overlaid with the U.S. flag on Truth Social, accompanied by the caption, “Oh Canada!”
Excerpt from the hour-long press conference where Trump mentioned Canada:
Trump: “We were just getting started. We’ll impose new tariffs so that the products on our stores will once again be stamped with those beautiful words made in the USA, and we are not treated well, as you know, by Canada. Canada is subsidized to the tune of about $200 billion dollars a year plus other things. They don’t essentially have a military. They have a very small military; they rely on our military. It’s all fine but you know they got to pay for that. It’s very unfair.
“I have so many great friends. One of them is the great one – Wayne Gretzky. I said, run for Prime Minister, you’ll win in a .. it’ll take two seconds.
“But he said, ‘Well, am I going to run for prime minister or a governor? You tell me.’ I said, I don’t know. Let’s make it Governor. I like it better, but no, something’s going to have to be done.”
Continuing, he said, “Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them, and we are going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada because Canada they come through Canada, too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers .. record numbers. So, we’re going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada, substantial tariffs. Then we want to get along with everybody, but you know they have to ..it’s.. it’s.. It takes two to tango.”
Reporter: “If we were to work under the assumption that you’re serious about making Canada the 51st state of the United States, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada said, under no circumstances.”
Trump: “Maybe he won’t win, but maybe he will. i don’t care”
Reporter: “You are considering military force to acquire Panama and Greenland. Are you also considering military force to annex and acquire Canada?”
Trump: “No, economic force because Canada and the United States.. that would really be something…
“You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for National Security. Don’t forget we basically protect Canada, but here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there.
“Uh, I love the Canadian people. They’re great, but we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it, we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada.
“We lose in trade deficits, we’re losing mass… and we don’t need their cars. You know they make 20% of our cars, we don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit. We don’t need their cars.
“We don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber; we have to unrestrict them because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order, we don’t need anything they have.
“We don’t need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don’t need anything.
“So, why are we losing $200 billion dollars a year and more to protect Canada, and I said that too, as I called him Governor Trudeau.
“I said, listen, what would happen if we didn’t subsidize you? We didn’t because we give them a lot of money. We help them, as an example we’re buying icebreakers, and Canada wants to join us in the buying of icebreakers.
“I said, you know we don’t really want to have a partner in the buying of icebreakers. We don’t need a partner.
“Here’s what we have. We have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we owe $36 trillion too. We’re going to start knocking it out pretty fast, but we’re going to be able to do it because of energy and other things.
“But, why are we supporting a country, 200 billion-plus a year? Our military is at their disposal. All of these other things. They should be a state, and that’s why I told Trudeau when he came down.
“I said what would happen if we didn’t do it.
“He said Canada would dissolve. Canada wouldn’t be able to function if we didn’t take that 20% of our car upmarket. You know, again, they send us hundreds of thousands of cars. They make a lot of money with that. They send us a lot of other things that we don’t need. We don’t need their cars, and we don’t need the other products. We don’t need their milk; we’ve got a lot of milk. We got a lot of everything, and we don’t need any of it.
“So, I said to him, well, why are we doing it? He said, ‘I don’t really know.’ He was unable to answer the question, but, I can answer it. We’re doing it because of habit, and we’re doing it because we like our neighbors, and we’ve been good neighbors, but, can’t do it forever, and it’s a tremendous amount of money, and why should we have a $200 billion deficit and add on to that many many other things that we give them in terms of subsidy and I said that’s okay to have if you’re a state but if you’re another country. We don’t want to have it we’re not going to have it with the European Union either.”
I am an American. I never thought I could truly hate anybody. I hate Trump. For one he wants to clearcut all our forests. ““We don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber; we have to unrestrict them because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order, we don’t need anything they have.” He wants to be dictator of the world. I ache for my daughter and her generation. I ache for the social and environmental progress we have made in the last 50 years. I ache for the future. I ache for Canada and my Canadian friends. RESIST NOW.
Trump is deflecting and will soon be hated by everyone worldwide for picking on his neighbours. He would be better to focus on his meeting January 10th where he will be sentenced as the criminal he really is.
It seems Trump does not understand what a trade deficit is. If American companies want to import canadian products, and sell them in America, that is THEIR choice. It’s not like the government forces them to. Its called FREE MARKET CAPITALISM. This guy seriously has no clue how countries or trade works at all.
What a tool. Canada during his last term should have looking for other major trading partners to offset this joke. He’s going to turn the US into a third world country. Nobody will trade with them.