Photo credit: Radio Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said \tuesday there “isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become a part of the United States.”
Global News reports that the statement came after US president-elect Donald Trump threatened to compel a merger through “economic force.”
Trump had in a wide-ranging press conference said, “we don’t need anything” that Canada trades with the US. He repeated his comments about making Canada a US state.
The statement byTrudeau marks his strongest pushback against Trump. Trump has repeatedly called Trudeau a “governor.”
Trump’s remarks were the latest of his recent threats against US allies, renewing questions and concerns aboiut plans to use trade as a cudgel. Trump said he wouldn’t rule out using military action to take back control of the Panama Canal and acquire Danish controlled Greenland. According to him, the US needs Greenland for economic and security reasons.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly later said Trump’s comments “show a complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country.”
“We will never back down in the face of threats,” she wrote on social media.
Canada and the US are each other’s top trading partners, with more than $3.6 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border daily.
Canadians initially Trump was joking with the idea of Canada becoming an American state, he has repeated it severally on social media while referring to Trudeau as a “governor.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has spoken in glowing terms about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Biden thanked Trudeau, calling him a “friend” and adding “the world is better off because of him.”
The President wrote, “Over the last decade, Prime Minister Trudeau has led with commitment, optimism, and strategic vision. The US-Canada alliance is stronger because of him. The American and Canadian people are safer because of him. And the world is better off because of him.”
