Prime Minister Mark Carney has rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s comments, made on Canadian soil, echoing Donald Trump’s “51st state” rhetoric questioning Canadian sovereignty.
“It’s crazy. It’s crazy. Simply put, it’s crazy. Full stop,” Carney responded to a reporter’s question during his first press conference after being sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister at Rideau Hall.
Carney was asked about comments by Rubio at this week’s meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Charlevoix, Que.
Pressed on the president’s antagonism toward America’s northern neighbour, Rubio said Trump’s “argument about why Canada would be better off economically being a state, and I think that stands for itself.”
Carney’s reaction Friday was blunt. “His point is crazy. That’s it.”
He continued: “We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the U.S.”
Carney pointed to his new ministers behind him as a representation of Canada parliamentary system, as being nothing like America’s system of government.
“We are very fundamentally a different country,” Carney added.
Moreover, he said, Canada is a country that “expects respect” from America and Trump.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, host of the Quebec G7 meeting, had previously told Rubio that “Canada’s sovereignty is not up for debate, period.”
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