Justin Trudeau is still Canada's prime minister, for now, and he's apparently had enough of President-elect Trump's remarks about annexing his country. "There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States," Trudeau said in a post on X Tuesday. "Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other's biggest trading and security partner." At a press conference earlier Tuesday, Trump said he wouldn't use the US military to conquer Canada but said he would consider using "economic force" to join the two countries, the Hill reports. "Canada and the United States—that would really be something," Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly spoken in favor of making Canada the "51st state" and referred to Trudeau, who will leave office after his Liberal Party chooses a successor, as a "governor." Leaders of Canada's other main parties also spoke out against Trump's remarks Tuesday, the CBC reports. "Canada will never be the 51st state. Period," Conservative leader Pierre Polievre said in a post on X. "We are a great and independent country. We are the best friend to the US. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks. We supply the US with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods."
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told Trump to "cut the crap" and proposed responding to Trump's threats with retaliatory tariffs. "No Canadian wants to join you. We are proud Canadians. Proud of the way we take care of each other and defend our nation," Singh said in a post on X. "Your attacks will hurt jobs on both sides of the border. You come for Canadians' jobs, Americans will pay a price." On Monday, the leader of Canada's most populous province joked about acquiring parts of the US in response to Trump's remarks about making Canada a state, CTV News reports. "I'll make him a counteroffer; How about if we buy Alaska and throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. (More Justin Trudeau stories.)