Trudeau appears to break silence on Trump ribbing

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have broken his silence and addressed comments made by Donald Trump encouraging Canada to become “our 51st state.”

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“Some information about Canada for Americans,” Trudeau wrote on X Thursday afternoon above a video ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver aired by the American news outlet NBC. The six-minute clip narrated by Tom Brokaw gives a broad overview of Canadian politics, landscapes and formative moments in the national memory.

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The terse six-word message is the first direct response the prime minister has made to a series of Trump posts about Canada joining the U.S. It follows a post on X by Mark Carney saying it was time to “stand up for Canada.”

Trudeau has said little publicly since his finance minister quit on Dec. 16 and several of his MPs have called for him to resign. He is said to be considering his political future over the holidays.

Since winning the presidential election in November, Trump has increasingly taunted Trudeau, often referring to him as a governor, equivalent to a state-level American leader on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“Their (Canada) Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote in his Christmas Day post. The incoming U.S. president has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff against Canada as soon as he takes office in January.

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Could Canada really become the 51st U.S. state? How Trump’s joke could become reality

Shortly before Trump’s Christmas Day message lambasting Trudeau, he posted a message recalling a conversation with Wayne Gretzky, encouraging him to run for high office. “Wayne, why don’t you run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada — You would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign,” Trump recalls telling the Canadian hockey great.

Trudeau’s comments came just hours after former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney publicly denounced Trump, saying the incoming American president’s remarks about “Governor Justin Trudeau” were “carrying the ‘joke’ too far.”

“The casual disrespect, the poor tax math, and ignoring that workers on both sides of our border will be better off if we work together,” Carney wrote on X above a screenshot of Trump’s Christmas Day statement. “Time to call it out, stand up for Canada, and build a true North American partnership.”

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Carney, who was tapped by Trudeau to replace Chrystia Freeland as finance minister, is among the first to publicly condemn the repeated jabs by Trump. Negotiations to join the government between the economist and Trudeau broke down earlier this month, recently appointed Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc confirmed.

Senior Liberals have sought to downplay the comments or frame them as well-intentioned jokes. Canada’s ambassador to America, Kirsten Hillman, characterized Trump’s social media posts as ribbing between two close countries. Likewise, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said in early December that she had joked with Republican senators, offering them to join Canada as the eleventh province.

Carleton University professor Aaron Ettinger said federal officials have rightly been dismissing the social media posts and maintained a “focus like a laser beam” on the real and “existential threat” of tariffs.

“This strikes me as being profoundly unserious,” Ettinger said, who has studied Canada-U.S. relations during the first Trump presidency. “These are taunts; these are churlish provocations that are not mature, and do not reflect just how serious the coming trade war is.”

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Ettinger said Trump is likely continually posting about Canada because it plays well to his supporters, without being seen as a real threat of annexation.

“We know his moves. He makes fun of, he belittles, he mocks, because he can,” he said. But he said that a vacuum of leadership in Ottawa from an embattled prime minister is spurring “the freelancing of some of the provincial leaders” in response to Trump’s comments.

Donald Trump’s son and close adviser, Eric, weighed in on the ongoing spat as well, sharing a picture on Monday of his father set to purchase Canada, Greenland and Panama Canal in his Amazon cart. “We are so back!!!” the executive vice president of the Trump Organization tweeted.

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Trump first raised the notion of Canada becoming the 51st state at a dinner meeting with Trudeau on Nov. 29 at Mar-A-Lago, his Flordia coastal estate.

“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!” Trump wrote following their meeting.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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