What’s this nonsense about making Canada the 51st state? Has Il Duce Trump not seen a map showing the second largest country? I wonder if any of Trump 2.0 minions have had the courage to point out that Canada would become the largest US state in the union – bigger than Texas or Alaska; or all the American states combined! Then again, if Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories were admitted as separate states, there’s a good chance the Republicans would lose control of the US Senate, thanks to the – for the most part – socialist inclined Canadians.
The country’s motto is “A Mari Usque Ad Mare”, and it is “from sea to sea” that with glowing hearts the true north strong and free – English lyrics from Canada’s national anthem – is being defended. On his 91st birthday, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien wrote an open letter to Trump, published 18 January 2025 in La Presse Canadienne and The Globe and Mail newspaper and reprinted internationally, in which he advised the American president to “Give your head a shake.”
Ford betrayed by a knife to the heart
Justin Trudeau is stepping down as Canada’s prime minister in a few months, after his Liberal party holds a national convention and elects a new leader. That doesn’t mean he’s a lame duck PM for the Trump administration to pluck. Trudeau responded to the threatened 25% tariffs on all goods entering the US from Canada and (Trump’s favourite whipping boy) Mexico, warning that tariffs on everything from Canada would “make life a lot more expensive” for Americans.
Trump’s immature response was to call Canada a state and Trudeau its governor.
Since 2018, Doug Ford has been the Progressive Conservative Premier of Ontario, Canada’s largest province. That year, Ford’s support of the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s presidency was termed “unwavering”. But only two years later, after Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian aluminium imports, Ford called the policy “totally unacceptable.”
After the latest US presidential election, Ford congratulated Trump saying it was “time to bet big” on Ontario-US relations. When Trump announced afterwards, an across the board 25% tariffs on Canada, Ford again opposed them. Addressing the media in the provincial capital, Toronto, Ford likened the US plan to “a family member stabbing you in the heart.”
To the new American order, Canada and Mexico are one and the same
The proposed tariffs, according to the 47th president, – who US comedian Jimmy Kimmel once referred to as “the Orange Julius Caesar” – are in retaliation for Canada and Mexico’s apparent failure to stem the flow of migrants and drugs into the US. The tariffs would remain in place, Trump declared, “until such time as drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop the invasion of our country.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if a few Canadian government officials choked on their Poutine and Beaver Tails upon hearing those words from – paraphrasing the title of Philip K Dick’s best seller – the Man in the high Trump Tower. Lumping Canada in with Mexico on those two issues is mind boggling, to say the least.
Let’s compare:
- Mexico – last year 21,100 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the Mexican border by US Customs agents and just over 1.5 million people detained by the US Border Patrols.
- Canada – a whopping 43 pounds of fentanyl was seized and nearly 24,000 people were caught trying to cross into the US: fewer people than the population of Elgin, Dumfries or Clydebank.
In 2017, the inaugural year of the first Trump presidency, there was a six-fold increase in asylum seekers at the US-Canada border. However, they weren’t moving in the direction you’re thinking. Exactly 2,550 US citizens applied for asylum in Canada, compared to 395 in 2016.
The US already has territories for a 51st state
Just as the sun never sets on the British Empire – mind you I didn’t see much of it in Salford – it now shines forever on Pax Americae.
In addition to the 48 contiguous states, along with Hawaii and Alaska, the US has five permanently inhabited territories with non-voting members in the US House of Representatives. They are, in the western Pacific, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. In the Caribbean, Antilles are the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. All are ripe for statehood.
“From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation. We will stand bravely. We will live proudly. We will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way.”
President Donald Trump, excerpt from inaugural address 20 January 2025
Acquiring Canada through economic treachery reveals a more sinister goal
Immigration and drugs have nothing to do with Trump’s focus on Canada. It’s all about resources; oil, gas, minerals and water.
It may surprise or enlighten some Americans that Canadian cobalt and graphite mining is critical to the US defence, aerospace, clean energy, communications and other industries. Canada, the world’s fourth largest oil producer and sixth largest producer of natural gas, is the US’s largest energy supplier. Americans import 60% of their crude oil needs from Canada.
Water is a resource that the Americans need. Upon hearing that Canada has 20% of the world’s fresh water resources you’d think it’s time to slap on the toque, pick up a twofer and celebrate. Wait, there’s a catch! Only 7% is renewable while the rest is fossil water stored in aquifers, glaciers and lakes.
Water has joined gold and oil as a trading commodity on Wall Street. So far, water is not on the table regarding the North American Free Trading Agreement (NAFTA). However, that agreement is due for review in mid-2026 and it is almost certain the Trump administration will put it on the table.
The call to “fight back against a big, powerful bully”
Canada is not the only sovereign nation targeted by Trump since the election in November. Besides Mexico, the man who claims to have been “saved by God to make America great again”, has threatened to seize the Panama Canal, invade Greenland (an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark), and “plant the American flag on the planet Mars.”
Jean Chrétien has called on Canada, Denmark, Panama, Mexico and the European Union “to put a plan in place to respond to [Trump].” The 91-year-old former Canadian PM added, “Every time Mr Trump opens his mouth, he creates new allies for all of us. So, let’s get organised! To fight back against a big, power bully, you need strength in numbers.”
While the King of Denmark responds to Trump with a very visual message by Denmark’s changing the coat of arms to now include Greenland, there are calls for the King of Canada to stand up to the American president’s threats. Ha! Like that will happen soon.
After listening to the 47th president’s inaugural address where Trump proclaimed, “The golden age of America begins right now”, and promised to expand US territory – Mars being a big leap forward – the opening line to the US anthem is what other nations need to ask themselves.
There’s little threat of US military intervention into Canada. Canadian comedian Graham Kay, while acknowledging Americans have a bigger army, tried to alleviate fears. Kay is confident the US could never invade.
“They’re all products of the American public education system and they wouldn’t be able to find us on a map.”
This article also appears in iScribe.
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