Montreal, Canada – Even before he formally re-entered the White House last month to begin his second term as president of the United States, Donald Trump had repeatedly taken aim at an unlikely target: Canada.
Trump argued his country’s northern neighbour had failed to stem irregular migration and drug trafficking at its border with the US, and he threatened to impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports.
To stave off those measures, which experts say would devastate the Canadian economy, the Republican leader then presented an idea: Canada can — and should — become the 51st US state.
“I think Canada would be much better off being a 51st state,” the US president repeated in a Fox News interview that aired over the weekend, continuing a pressure campaign that initially ramped up in December.
Though the proposal was widely denounced, Trump’s comments — and his continued threat to levy tariffs of 25 percent or higher on Canadian goods, including steel and aluminium imports — have roiled labour unions, politicians and regular people across Canada.
Calls to boycott American products and halt trips to the US are gaining steam, alongside a nationalistic push to rethink Canada’s longstanding reliance on cross-border trade.
The leaders of major Canadian political parties, as well as provincial and territorial premiers, have used harsher-than-usual rhetoric against their country’s top international ally, promising to defend Canada’s economic interests and sovereignty.
“To say it’s a unique moment would be an understatement,” said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, an independent Canadian research firm.
The mood in Canada right now is one of anxiety and apprehension on one hand, and defiance and anger on the other, Kurl explained.
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