Prime Minister Justin Trudeau behind closed doors told attendees of the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit that U.S. President Donald Trump views absorbing Canada as a “real thing.”
After Trudeau made his opening address at the summit in Toronto on Feb. 7, media were told to leave the room but a microphone left open picked up the prime minister speaking to the business leaders, multiple mediareported on Feb. 7.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing,” Trudeau reportedly said when discussing U.S. interest in Canadian critical minerals. “In my conversations with him on…,” he added before the microphone cut out.
Since his election in November, Trump has repeatedly spoken of wanting Canada to become the 51st U.S. state.
During a press conference at his private club Mar-a-Lago in early January, before his inauguration, Trump said he wouldn’t use military force to annex Canada, but rather “economic force.”
“You get rid of that artificially drawn [border] line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said.
More recently on Feb. 3, Trump said the best way for Canada to avoid tariffs would be to join the United States.
“If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100 percent certain that they’d become a state,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office at the White House. “But a lot of people don’t like to play the game because they don’t have a threshold of pain.”
While Trump has often spoken of Canada becoming part of the United States, his comments haven’t been made in the context of wanting Canadian resources. Trump has instead said the United States doesn’t need Canadian oil, even though Canada currently supplies the majority of oil imported to the country. He also said his country doesn’t need Canadian lumber or car manufacturing.
Conservative MP Michael Barrett questioned the veracity of Trudeau’s comments about Trump’s annexation talk when asked by reporters on Feb. 7.
He remarked Trudeau and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc recently said Trump’s comments had been “made in jest.”
By Noé Chartier
