USA

President Trump on Sunday argued that if Canada were to join the United States, it would be the greatest thing the neighbors to the north could do.

“I love the people of Canada. We have a great relationship, but if they became our 51st state, it would be the greatest thing they could ever do,” Trump told reporters. “And think of how beautiful that country would be without that artificial line running right through it. Somebody drew it many years ago with a ruler, just a line.”

With so many comments now, I think we can all say Trump is serious that he wants Canada to be part of the US.
Why though?
He lays out his thinking here.
Us not acting like a serious country for the last decade has put us in this spot.
Time to grow up!
pic.twitter.com/6oWTYpgZed

— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) February 10, 2025

The premiers of Ontario and Alberta are urging Ottawa to swiftly appoint a “fentanyl czar,” a key condition of the 30-day tariff reprieve granted by the United States.

“Americans and the Trump administration are saying, secure our border. My question again to Prime Minister Trudeau, where is the fentanyl czar?” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said during a Feb. 8 press conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

It has been a full week since U.S. President Donald Trump and the Canadian government reached a border security agreement that included a 30-day window to demonstrate our nation’s commitment to securing our shared border against fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration.

A key… pic.twitter.com/KImokPhZwM

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) February 9, 2025

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday he doesn’t think the president has “any plans to invade Canada.”

His remarks follow multiple reports that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a closed-door meeting of business leaders last week that the Trump administration “keep[s] talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state.”

On Sunday, Waltz added that many Canadians “do not like the last 10 years of liberal, progressive governance in Trudeau.”

For Southwestern Ontario’s auto sector, the reckoning caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened trade war is as intense as anywhere in Canada.

Hundreds of domestic automotive parts and equipment manufacturers, who supply multinational automakers on both sides of the border, were braced at the start of the week for nearly the entire industry to shut down if Mr. Trump made good on his vow to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports.

Not sure Ontario will have much left when Trump is done.

BREAKING: Donald Trump just said THE ONLY OPTION IS THE 51ST STATE.

Canadians would pay 50% LESS IN TAXES and get FULL U.S. MILITARY PROTECTION.

And where’s JUSTIN TRUDEAU? In PARIS.

HE’S 100% SERIOUS ABOUT THIS.
pic.twitter.com/B0Kisl7KJJ

— Marc Nixon (@MarcNixon24) February 10, 2025

He’s ragging us, I think. But VDH said much the same thing about Trump’s Intentions in this interview of 2 weeks ago.

This is the full VDH vid

h/t XC

President Trump’s threats to put a 25 percent tariff on most Canadian and Mexican imports—now on hold for 30 days, pending negotiations with both countries—have overturned the reigning orthodoxy in trade and diplomacy. Unlike his tariffs on China, the tariffs on Canada in particular lack any direct national security rationale. He may be pursuing them because he thinks Canada’s rules on fentanyl precursors are too loose, because he wants to shock the global trade system, or even because it’s his opening salvo in a bid to induce Ottawa to join the Union. But whatever Trump’s true aims are, one thing is clear: the tariffs would affect the nearly half a trillion dollars of goods and services that Americans import from Canada each year and lower near-term living standards up and down the North American continent.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week.

“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.

Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” —”probably Tuesday or Wednesday” — meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods.

Canadians collectively breathed a sigh of relief when President Trump offered a reprieve on the proposed 25 percent tariff on Canadian trade goods. The trade war is not over, however. It has been put on pause for 30 days. As the deadline approaches, or a later one as U.S. officials review existing trade relations, the Trump administration will make new demands, and Canada’s dairy supply management system will be targeted.

Canadian ministers recognize this threat, as International Trade Minister Mary Ng made it clear in a recent interview that there will be no concessions made on supply management.

As Canada and the U.S. careened toward a trade war this past weekend, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, found himself in the crosshairs.

First, Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland proposed slapping 100 per cent tariffs on cars made by Tesla Inc., Musk’s electric vehicle company. “We need to be very targeted, very surgical and precise. We need to look through and say who is supporting Trump and … make them pay,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press.