Trump's Canada Statehood Joke Catching on as Even Investor/Reality Star Floats Idea of New Relationship
As the new year beckons, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn’t exactly have much to be joyful aboot.
For starters, unless the polls are so wrong as to be several standard deviations off, Trudeau won’t even be prime minister at the end of the year; there will have to be an election on or before Oct. 20, 2025, by Canadian law, and Trudeau’s Labour Party trails Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party by over 23 points in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s polling aggregate.
The CBC’s estimate as of Dec. 23 gives the Conservatives a 99 percent chance at an outright majority, and a large one, with Labour being so thoroughly wiped out that they’ll potentially be fighting with the far-left New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois — the pro-independence Quebec party — for second place in terms of parliamentary representation.
And then there’s the other alternative, something that’s caught on thanks to a suggestion from American President-elect Donald Trump: He could always convert his status to Gov. Justin Trudeau, leader of our 51st state.
It’s an idea that’s caught on so strongly that even Canadian reality TV star and real estate mogul Kevin O’Leary is talking about it on cable news.
O’Leary — best known for his “Mr. Wonderful” persona on the show “Shark Tank,” where he’s one of the panel of deep-pocketed investors — appeared on Fox Business Thursday, where he said that the topic has become a hot one among Canadians.
“Canadians over the holidays – the last two days – have been talking about this,” O’Leary said. “They want to hear more.”
The “proposal,” such as it is, involved Trudeau’s whining over proposed tariffs on Canada due in part to trade issues and border security problems with our other, usually less-problematic North American trade partner. Trump, during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with the Canadian prime minister late last month, joked that if Canada couldn’t afford the tariffs, it should just cede itself to the U.S. and become the 51st state.
“So your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?” Trump reportedly asked before he made the suggestion.
🚨Trump joked to Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago that if Canada can’t survive without ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion a year then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor. 🤣
pic.twitter.com/6jrzZoq4P5— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 3, 2024
Earlier this month, he made the suggestion again on Truth Social, this time publicly.
“It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada,” Trump wrote.
“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! [Signed,] DJT,” Trump added.
During his Fox Business appearance, O’Leary said “there’s obviously a lot of issues” with making Canuckistan our 51st state (you don’t say) but that such talk “could be the beginning of an economic union.”
“Think about the power of combining the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door,” O’Leary said.
“So secure [the northern territories], give a common currency, figure out taxes across the board, get everything trading both ways, create a new, almost E.U.-like passport — I like this idea and at least half of Canadians are interested.”
BREAKING: Kevin O’Leary is headed to Mar-a-Lago to discuss Canada’s annexation!
“At least half of Canadians are interested. I’m gonna go to Mar-a-Lago and convince Trump myself.”pic.twitter.com/I9chps5PdT
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 26, 2024
Look, I know this is a fun topic, but O’Leary’s ideas do fail on a number of levels. Not that you can’t leverage being a successful real estate mogul and reality TV star into putting bigger political ideas into cultural circulation — or into two non-consecutive terms as U.S. president, if you’re canny enough — but we have an economic union with Canada called USMCA which serves us decently enough, having fixed several problems with the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Furthermore, when part of the contretemps between Canada and the United States involves border security issues — opening a second front in the Biden border crisis — why on earth would we think of a European Union-style border/passport relationship with Ottawa? (This is to say nothing of two senators from Canada in our upper chamber. That being said, given how much the Canadians apparently loathe Trudeau right now, they may well end up being Republicans after all.)
That being said, how many other politicians could change the nature of the U.S.-Canada relationship simply by pointing out the obvious: Geopolitically speaking, Canada is a massive, icy suburb of the United States — and Justin “Peoplekind” Trudeau trying to flex his muscles as he prepares 24 Sussex Drive for Poilievre to take up residence is patently laughable.
If he’d tried to work with Trump on this, he’d have one less embarrassment to live down when Canucks go to the polls, but nope: To use the rough parlance of our time, he messed around and subsequently found out. Now, even Canadian Kevin O’Leary is talking about his home and native land being the 51st state. Not even Ronald Reagan — God rest his soul, and let no ill be spoken of him, of course — could pull that off.
And it’s not even Jan. 20 yet.
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