RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/18/trump-needs-to-cut-the-51st-state-crap/

It started as a joke, or so it seemed. Canada should become the 51st state, said US president Donald Trump to then Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in late November. Trudeau laughed nervously, according to the Fox News report of the meeting. Two weeks later, Trump took to Truth Social to mock Trudeau as the ‘governor’ of the ‘Great State of Canada’.

Trudeau and his fellow Canadians are not laughing any more. And for good reasons. What began as a seemingly offhand quip, an idea so crazy it had to be a joke, has now caused a serious rift between the two countries.

Since Trump initiated his on-again, off-again tariffs in February, he has been constantly repeating his ‘51st state’ jibe, presenting it as a solution to his self-created trade war with Canada. This flared up again last week, when Ontario premier Doug Ford announced a 25 per cent export charge on electricity to the US. Trump responded by doubling his planned tariffs on Canadian exports of steel and aluminium to 50 per cent. Both sides then backed down.

Trump has continued to claim that Canada’s tariff problems would disappear if it became a US state. ‘As a state, it would be one of the great states’, he said. In what he must have thought was a kind gesture, Trump then added that Canada could retain its national anthem if it joined the US.

Imposing tariffs on Canadian goods is bad enough, but Trump’s demeaning ‘51st state’ talk only adds insult to injury. He has angered the Canadian people, united their political parties in patriotic opposition to him and further alienated America’s Western allies. Indeed, last week’s G7 meeting of foreign ministers was overshadowed by the question of how to respond to Trump’s threats to annex the meeting’s host, Canada.

After weeks of repeating his 51st-state ‘solution’, we must call it what it is – imperialistic bullying. Trump is behaving like a mafia boss, making an offer Canada can’t refuse: ‘Nice little country you have there – it would be a shame if someone crushed its economy.’ Trump is offering ‘protection’ to Canada – protection from the threat he created.

The potential damage to Canada from Trump’s squeeze on its economy is real. The Canadian economy, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), is less than a 10th of the size of the US economy. Canada depends on the US market for three-quarters of its exports, which is about 20 per cent of its GDP. And thanks to Trudeau’s foolish policies, its household and federal debt levels are now at historical highs. Canada is in a very weak negotiating position.

The US-Canada spat would have previously been unthinkable. Historically, the two have been close. As President John F Kennedy famously said, ‘Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.’ For decades, the two countries have mutually benefitted from intertwined economies and an allied approach to international relations.

In trade with the US, Canada does seek to protect some of its key industrial sectors, such as dairy and lumber. Those protections have been the outcome of prior deals including, most recently, the US-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA) – which was negotiated with Trump’s first administration. Whatever issues remain today, there is no good reason for Trump to try to strong-arm Canada with tariffs, never mind ask Canadians to give up their national independence. This kind of confrontational, attack-first approach is usually reserved for adversaries, not allies.

Trump has succeeded only in turning the Canadian people against him and America. They are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of joining the US, with 90 per cent against. Canadians are now boycotting American goods, forgoing vacations to the US and routinely booing the American national anthem before hockey games between American and Canadian teams.

Canadians have not historically been strident nationalists. However, their national identity has long been defined against the US, and sustained by a sense that they can proudly hold their own against the behemoth to their south. That’s why Trump’s 51st-state barb stings, and why he’s now awakened Canadians’ hitherto dormant patriotism.

Trump’s demeaning attacks have upended Canadian politics. The governing Liberal Party, with new PM Mark Carney at its head, has taken the lead in pushing back against Trump, and benefitted politically as a result. It would be in Trump’s interest to see fellow populist and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre win the upcoming Canadian elections. But Trump’s attacks on Canada are backfiring and have prompted a surge in support for the Liberals. Poilievre himself has now been forced to distance himself from Trump.

Trump, and his supporters, need to get real and cut the 51st-state crap. Short of military invasion, Canada is not joining the US, no matter how much economic pressure Trump exerts. The tariffs and taunts are only making Canadians angry and anti-American. Driving Canada’s economy into the ground will make the Canadian people even more resistant to the idea of becoming part of the US.

Trump needs to stop harassing Canada and go back to treating the country as a friend and ally. Any trade disputes should be managed via talks – the USMCA is already scheduled for review. Aggressive tariffs and gratuitous put-downs are pointless. This hamfisted approach may have worked for Trump when he made real-estate deals. But if he thinks Canada and the other major powers will simply roll over, he’s being childishly naive.

It’s fine for Trump and the US to pursue an ‘America First’ foreign policy, one that seeks to reinvigorate the domestic economy and re-evaluate trading relations. But, by the same token, Trump needs to recognise the validity of ‘Canada First’, and start respecting Canada’s national sovereignty.

A grown-up approach would acknowledge that it’s not in the US’s national interest to antagonise its allies. Like it or not, Trump and the US will need friends abroad to see through an economic and cultural renewal at home.

Sean Collins is a writer based in New York. Visit his blog, The American Situation.