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Associated Press

US president-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st US state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday.
Fox News reported that Trump made the comment in response to Trudeau raising concerns that Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canada would damage Canada’s economy.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the Friday dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said Trump’s comments were in jest.
“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa.
LeBlanc described it as 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 lighthearted,” he said.
He called the relations warm and cordial and said the fact that “the president is able to joke like that for us” indicates good relations.


On Tuesday, Trump appeared to continue with the joke, posting on social media an AI-generated image of himself standing on mountain with a Canadian flag next to him with the caption “Oh Canada!”
Earlier last week, the Republican president-elect threatened to impose a 25 per cent tax on all products entering the US from Canada and Mexico unless they stem the flow of migrants and drugs.
Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the US southern border with Mexico.
Trudeau held a rare meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday about US-Canada relations and later said that opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre should not amplify the erroneous narratives that Americans are saying about the border.
“Less than one per cent of migrants coming into the United States irregularly come from Canada and 0.2 per cent of the fentanyl coming into the United States comes from Canada,” Trudeau said in parliament.
Canadian officials have said there are plans to put more helicopters, drones and law enforcement officers at the border.
At the dinner, Kristen Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, said America’s trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the US had a US$75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the US is energy exports and prices have been high.
“Trade balances are something that he focuses on so it’s important to engage in that conversation but to put it into context,” Hillman said. “We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the US than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”


Hillman said Canada sold US$170 billion worth of energy products last year to the US. About 60 per cent of US crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85 per cent of US electricity imports as well
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminium and uranium to the US and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
About 77 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US.
Trudeau’s government successfully employed a “Team Canada” approach during Trump’s first term in office when the free trade deal between Canada, the US and Mexico was renegotiated. But Trudeau’s minority government is in a much weaker position politically now and faces an election within a year.
Poilievre, Canada’s opposition leader, said the tariffs would harm Americans.
“The president-elect was elected on a promise to make America richer. These tariffs would make America poorer,” Poilievre said after meeting with Trudeau.
Poilievre said the US would be wise to do more free trade with its best friend and closest ally.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Trudeau returned home after the dinner at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida without assurances Trump would back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.
Trump called the talks “productive” but signalled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
The flows of migrants and seizures of drugs are vastly different. US customs agents seized 19.5kg (43 pounds) of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last financial year, compared with 950kg (21,100 pounds) at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl reaching the US – where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually – is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
On immigration, the US Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with irregular migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.


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Donald Trump

Trump says Canada could be 51st US state. A Canadian minister says he was joking

US president-elect Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself standing on mountain with a Canadian flag next to him on Tuesday. Image: Truth Social/realDonaldTrump

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre speaks in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Canada ambassador says Trump-Trudeau dinner key to getting tariffs removed

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves a hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday to meet US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters

Then-President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in 2019. File photo: AFP

Trump says Canada PM Trudeau pledged action on border after tariff threat

US President Donald Trump (left) speaks with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Watford, northeast of London, UK, in December 2019. Photo: AFP

Canada pulls refugee welcome mat, launches ads warning asylum seekers of stricter rules

Asylum seekers cross into Canada from the US border near Hemmingford, Quebec in April 2022. Photo: Reuters

Zulema Diaz, who crossed from the US border to Roxham Road in Quebec, sends a voice note while walking, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada on March 7, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Cheaper Canadian, Mexican oil to flow into Asia if Trump slaps tariffs

Pumpjacks draw out oil and gas from well heads in Alberta, Canada. Photo: AP

Canada considering retaliatory tariffs on US items following Trump threat

Commercial trucks head towards the US Customs and Border Protection Pacific Highway Port of Entry from south Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Vehicles enter the US from Canada at a US port of entry in Blaine, Washington. Photo: AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then US President Donald Trump in 2017. File photo: AFP

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United States & Canada

Diplomacy

Economy, Trade & Business

The US president-elect made the remarks in jest during a dinner with PM Justin Trudeau, says Dominic LeBlanc, who was at the event


The US president-elect made the remarks in jest during a dinner with PM Justin Trudeau, says Dominic LeBlanc, who was at the event.
