What if Justin Trudeau had never gone to Mar-a-Lago in late November?
There’s a good chance he would still be prime minister and no one would be talking about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Instead, it appears Trudeau precipitated his own demise and the current threats that Canada faces about being absorbed by the United States.
Trudeau rushed down to Donald Trump’s Florida resort on Nov. 29, 2024 – just days after Trump had threatened Canada with 25% tariffs on all goods.
It was a bold move that initially made Trudeau look good. Unfortunately, Trudeau delivered the wrong message and started Trump down the path of pursuing Canada as the 51st state.
Time and again, Trump has told variations of the same story of what was said over the dinner table. Trudeau was asking Trump not to impose tariffs on Canada and when Trump asked him why, Trudeau gave an answer that will haunt him – and perhaps the country – for years to come.
“He said, Canada would dissolve, Canada wouldn’t be able to function,” Trump said while recalling the conversation in a recent media appearance.
At that point, Trump suggested Canada that become a state if we are so reliant on the United States. It’s not clear if Trump was serious then or joking, as it has been described, but the American president is serious now.
What is shocking is that Trudeau’s words, the words of our own prime minister, put us in this position. When I first heard Trump make the claim, I assumed it was an inaccurate portrayal or embellishment of some kind on his part to make himself look good.
But several people with knowledge of the meeting have confirmed Trump’s description of the conversation is accurate. It is unbelievable that Trudeau would make such statements, which made Canada appear weak and helpless while he was trying to negotiate a tariff exemption for Canada, but he did.
Since then, Trudeau’s government self-imploded, his political career came to a less than stellar end, and Trump has become obsessed with taking over Canada.
“Canada would be great as our cherished 51st state,” Trump said in one of his many pronouncements on the issue over the last week.
At times, he belittles Canada, saying that as a country we have very little. Then he flips and describes how great our two countries would be united as one.
Trudeau, meanwhile, called for Canadians to stand tall and take pride in our country on his way out the door. That’s a bit rich for a man who spent years describing Canada as a genocidal state, a post-national state with no core identity for most of his time in office.
On the day that 25% tariffs were imposed by the Americans, Trudeau said Trump wants to ruin our economy to try and take it over.
“What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that’ll make it easier to annex us,” Trudeau said.
Sadly, it’s Trudeau who put us in this position in more ways than one.
Firstly, there are the words that he spoke in Mar-a-Lago giving Trump the idea. Secondly, there is the horrible mismanagement of the Canadian economy by his Liberal government for the last decade.
Rather than expand markets, approve LNG exports to Europe and Asia, fast-track west to east pipelines, Trudeau proffered lazily depending on easy trade with the Americans while leaving natural resources in the ground and virtue signalling on climate change.
In 2022, Canada sent 76% of its exports to the United States. That’s higher than the 60% we sent to Britain and the rest of the British Empire in the late 1890s. And militarily, we are more dependent on the United States for defence than we were on Britain at that point.
Trump now realizes this and is looking to capitalize on it.
While I supported Trudeau going to Mar-a-Lago at the time, it now looks like the biggest blunder of his political career.
He should have stayed home.