Canada

Some European counterparts thought U.S. annexation threats are a ‘joke’ during G7 meeting, Joly says

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says some of her G7 counterparts from Europe thought the United States is joking about annexing Canada.

Ms. Joly’s comments come after symbolic gestures and tepid comments on Canadian sovereignty at this week’s G7 meeting, which took place in the region of Charlevoix in Quebec.

“I think many of my colleagues coming here thought this issue was still a joke and that this had to be taken in a humorous way,” Ms. Joly said in a news conference concluding the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting.

Most people assumed President Trump was joking when he first brought up the idea of Canada joining the United States as a 51st state. But now the idea is becoming a serious part of the trade war that has been launched against our northern neighbor, and administration officials are regularly touting the supposed benefits of the union.

Before we start taking this too seriously, can we just stop for a moment to acknowledge that apart from everything else, the idea of Canadian statehood would be an absolute disaster for American conservatism and confine the Republican Party to the ash heap of history.

Most of us take for granted the ease of filling up a gas tank or flipping a light switch — whether in Michigan or Ontario. But in the tumultuous day-to-day relationship between the United States and Canada, energy has become the latest bone of contention.

The reality right now is that this trade means that the tone and tenor of a phone call between Doug Ford and Howard Lutnick could mean a lot for my state, Michigan, and your province — positive or negative — when it comes to the cost of a gallon or kilowatt.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal officials left an hours-long meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying they feel more positive about the Canada-U.S. trading relationship after weeks of bad blood and heated rhetoric.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ford said he feels like “the temperature is being lowered, the temperature’s coming down” after the bilateral talks.

Imagine you had a woke lunatic living in your attic.

Someone who contributed nothing to the household — beyond barking politically correct slogans — and yet expected full bed and board.

You might hear him or her (or “them”) stomping around late at night, yelling “Trans women are women!” or “Defund the police!”

And the next morning they’d be down with their hand out, expecting breakfast and pocket money.

President Trump’s simultaneous trade wars with Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union amount to a huge economic and political gamble: that Americans will endure months or years of economic pain in return for the distant hope of re-industrializing the American heartland.

It is enormously risky. In recent days, Mr. Trump has acknowledged, despite all his confident campaign predictions that “we are going to boom like we have never boomed before,” that the United States may be headed into a recession, fueled by his economic agenda. But in public and private he has been arguing that “a little disturbance” in the economy and the markets is a small price to pay for bringing manufacturing jobs back to America.

America is a very resilient nation making economic recovery a matter of sooner rather than later.

President Donald Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday while meeting with the head of NATO and doubled down on his argument that Canada must join the United States.

“No I’m not,” Trump replied when asked if he would reconsider the latest tariffs.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc are set to meet Thursday in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who invited Ford to put an end to an escalation of the trade war between Canada and the United States.

Ford said he hoped it would be a cordial meeting, but it will come after both Lutnick and U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the premier and Canada in statements made to the press.