President-elect Donald Trump joked at one point during his dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday night that if Canada can’t handle the economic effects of a punishing 25 per cent tariff on its goods, it should become the 51st state of the U.S.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was with Trudeau at the intimate dinner at Mar-a-Lago, said Trump’s quip was quite clearly a joke — and not some sort of signal of a serious plan to annex Canada.
“In a three-hour social evening at the president’s residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving, the conversation was going to be light-hearted. The president was telling jokes, the president was teasing us, it was, of course, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc said.
“The fact that there’s a warm, cordial relationship between the two leaders and the president is able to joke like that, we think, is a positive thing,” he said.
Trudeau and the small Canadian contingent, which included LeBlanc and Katie Telford, his chief of staff, met with Trump for what was largely a social evening at Mar-a-Lago, but also included talk of the tariffs and what Canada can do to harden the border to stop the flow of drugs and migrants.
WATCH | ‘The president was teasing us,’ says LeBlanc of Trump’s ’51st state’ comment:
After Trump first uttered the tariff threat last week, Canada committed to procuring more helicopters and drones to keep a better watch over the border.
While the flow of migrants and illegal drugs over the northern border is a fraction of what crosses over from Mexico, Trump is still concerned with what’s coming from Canada — just as Canadian officials are concerned about drugs and guns flowing north.
Asked what exactly Trump said about annexing Canada, LeBlanc stressed the 51st state remark was just one of the “entertaining and funny” moments of the night and then there were “moments when we were able to do good work for Canada” by discussing trade issues and border security.
He said the get-together was “very productive” and there was genuine warmth and cordiality among the Canadians and Americans at the table.
Fox News, which was first to report on Trump’s joke, has said the comment prompted nervous laughter from Trudeau and the assembled Canadians.
WATCH | An insider account of Trudeau’s Florida dinner with Trump:
Gerald Butts, a former senior adviser to Trudeau, said in a social media post Tuesday that “Trump used this 51st state line all the time with Trudeau in his first term,” and that it’s a dig he uses to “rattle Canadian cages.”
“When someone wants you to freak out, don’t,” Butts cautioned.
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, worked closely with him on Canada-U.S. files. He has said the president-elect doesn’t really like Trudeau but “tolerated” him because he had to, given the importance of the bilateral relationship.
He said Trump was prone to joking and kidding around with Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron, another world leader he is said to have “tolerated,” and “mockingly crossing swords with them in meetings.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Trump posted an A.I.-generated image to social media that depicted him standing next to a Canadian flag overlooking a mountain range.
The post on Instagram and Truth Social was captioned “Oh Canada!” The mountain in the image appeared to be the Matterhorn, which is on the border between Switzerland and Italy.
While talk of a U.S. takeover apparently was a joke, there’s no doubt Canada has some of the natural resources the U.S. needs.
Beyond supplying the Americans with some 4 million barrels of oil a day — a figure that has surged in recent years — Canada is also a key supplier of critical minerals that are used in everything from clean energy and smartphones to military defence systems, fertilizers and medical equipment.
Canada is a leading mining nation and sits on top of some of the world’s largest deposits of these minerals.
Those products just became a lot more valuable to Trump now that China has moved to ban the export of several rare minerals to the U.S., escalating a long-simmering standoff over technology.
During the presidential campaign, Trump also floated working with Canada to tap more of its water to reverse severe drought conditions in the American west — although some experts have called his ideas nonsensical.
The interconnectedness — and interdependence — of the Canadian and U.S. economies is the message Trudeau brought to the dinner table Friday, LeBlanc said.
Trudeau meets with Poilievre, Singh
Trudeau convened a meeting with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and the other opposition party leaders on Parliament Hill to brief them on his visit to Florida.
This meeting — one of the first face-to-face meetings between Trudeau and Poilievre in a setting like this — comes as Canada stares down Trump’s threatened tariffs, a scheme that has the potential to devastate this country’s economy.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said Trudeau asked the leaders to work their contacts and touch base with U.S. officials who could make the case that a tariff war would be bad for both countries.
May also said Trudeau asked them to not feed into Trump’s claim that the Canada-U.S. border is somehow broken and overrun by migrants and drugs.
May said Trudeau asked them to present a united front against American broadsides.
“We were reminded, please, don’t say things that aren’t true, don’t play into Trump’s narrative,” she said.
The leaders were told “it would be helpful in the coming weeks and months if we don’t in any way amplify the kind of messaging and language the Trump administration is using to attack Canada,” she said.
WATCH | May says all parliamentarians, regardless of party, must unite against Trump tariff threat
And yet, after today’s debriefing with the prime minister, Poilievre told reporters the border is “broken” and blasted Trudeau in question period, claiming his government has lost control of immigration.
“The prime minister has broken our immigration system, broken our banks, broken our border. We need to fix those things and put Canada first,” he said.
Trudeau and his team received no assurances that Canada would be exempt from Trump’s promised tariffs at the Friday night dinner. That led Poilievre to call the meeting a failure.
Poilievre said he urged Trudeau to stress to the Americans just how damaging tariffs would be both for Canada and for U.S. businesses and workers.
He said it should be “easy” for Canada to avoid tariffs if the Americans understand they could deliver a hit to their own economic wellbeing.
WATCH | Poilievre says Trump’s proposed tariffs would hurt the U.S. as well
“The right thing to do for Americans is more free trade with their best friend and closest ally here in Canada,” Poilievre said.
But that’s an argument Trudeau, his Canada-U.S. envoys and Kirsten Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., have been making to Trump and his team for months. And yet, the tariff threat still stands.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh left the meeting saying the federal government needs to hire more Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers to step up patrols and better protect the border. That’s also something the government is considering.
WATCH | NDP calls on government to hire 1,100 more border agents
With so much uncertainty on the horizon, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said it was important for Trudeau to get the Florida invite.
“Prime Minister Trudeau is the first leader of the G7 to be hosted by President Trump — that is a testament to the strategic nature of our relationship. When president-elect Trump invites … Prime Minister Trudeau as the first leader to go to Mar-a-Lago, that sends a big signal to the world,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives to Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
As for Poilievre’s criticism that the event was a flop because Canada could still bear the brunt of tariffs in the new year, Champagne said Canada’s political leaders need to stand united in the face of these threats.
“Historically, Canadians have always stood together — talking with one voice to the world. The current leader of the opposition should learn from history. The best way to promote Canada’s interests, our workers and industry is to speak with one voice.”
