Trudeau rejects Trump's threat to use US 'economic force' to annex Canada

Source: The Guardian

Tue 7 Jan 2025 15.33 EST
First published on Tue 7 Jan 2025 13.44 EST


Justin Trudeau has rejected threats from Donald Trump that the US could use “economic force” to annex its closest ally, saying: “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,” Canada’s prime minister wrote on social media.

Trump’s musings on Tuesday came as he doubled down on threats to impose protectionist tariffs on one of the US’s biggest trading partners. “Canada and the United States: that would be really something,” he said from Florida, but warned his incoming administration was getting frustrated over what the president-elected called “subsidies” for Canada. “We’ve been good neighbours, but we can’t do it forever, and it’s a tremendous amount of money,” he said.

Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, also pushed back, writing on social media that Trump’s comments showed a “complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country”. She said Canada “will never back down in the face of threats”.

The remarks are likely to further fuel political turmoil in Canada after the resignation of its prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the suspension of parliament until late March.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/07/canada-politics-trump-tariffs-trudeau