Trump blows up the notion his Canada talk was just a fleeting fancy

There has been no shortage of speculations about how the comments of US President Donald Trump about Canada could affect federal elections.

Now is the time to start asking a new long -term question: how your attitude will affect Canada beyond Monday’s elections.

Now it seems increasingly obvious than Trump’s expansionist aspirations are not fleeting fantasies. He remained silent for a while, which led some to wonder if he had taken it out of his system, which he might simply be trolling our former prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

But in recent days, the president has been overwhelming in different meetings with the media that would really love to see Canada become a state.

So that nobody thinks he could be joking, made it clear that no. Time magazine He asked him In an interview: maybe you are trolling a little when you talk about Canada as state 51.

“Actually, no, I am not,” he told Time in an interview conducted on Tuesday and published on Friday.

“I’m not really trolling. Canada is an interesting case … I say that the only way this really works is that Canada becomes a state.”

He repeated his statement declared on the United States subsidizing Canada, relaging the figures that seem to take the trade deficitAdd Canada’s expense to defense and savagely exaggerate that total sum.

When asked if he wanted to grow the American Empire, as part of his talk about Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal, Trump replied: “If we had the right opportunity. Yes.”

When asked again if he wanted to be remembered as a president who expanded the US territory, he replied: “He would not mind.”

At this point, it is no longer sustainable to assume that the president is only joking, says one of the best connected Canadians in Washington. After all, Trump even put his desire for territorial expansion in his inaugural speech.

“Nobody says something repeatedly for months of this nature without believing it,” said Eric Miller, an international trade consultant at Washington and an advisor in the United Canadian relations.

He said Trump believes two things: that the United States does not need Canada under its current economic agreement, and that it wants to acquire it.

How, when, under what conditions and how it is determined, is to make the effort to make this happen, all that is not clear, said Miller.

“I don’t think there is a master plan at this time to say: ‘In three months we will do x, and in six months we will,'” said Miller.

“But desire is clearly there … This will certainly be a priority for the next prime minister.

“It will be a problem that the next government in Canada will have to constantly monitor. And they will have to evaluate what are the intentions of President Trump over time, because his interest and intentions can evolve over time.”

The challenge for the next Canada government

There will be first contact points between the next government and Trump. To start, there is the G7 Summit In Alberta in June. Countries are also ready to enter integrals commercial and security negotiations.

For a while, it seemed plausible that these events could develop without Trump less, and questioning the sovereignty of Canada.

After all, he had stopped talking about Canada as state 51 for a few weeks, since Mark Carney replaced Trudeau as prime minister and liberal leader last month.

After his first phone call, Carney said Trump had respected Canada’s sovereignty in that conversation. But it turns out that there was more in history.

Look | More details about the Carney and Trump phone call:

Bassy on the grill after confirming that Trump raised the idea of ​​”State 51″ during the call

The political rivals of liberal leader Mark Carney attacked quickly after confirming that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, raised the idea of ​​Canada as state 51 during a phone call last month that Carney had previously described as a “constructive” conversation between two sovereign nations.

The first indication that this was simply a temporary pause in his rhetoric came in a comment from the White House Secretary: Karoline Leavitt told a CBC reporter that Trump still believed in making Canada a state.

Then he He said it again To other reporters in the Oval office. On the other hand, to Time magazine, when asked about it, insisting that he was not joking.

And this Radio-Canada week reported that, despite the public statement of Carney, Trump In fact he mentioned want Make Canada the state 51 in its call last month.

When asked in the campaign about discrepancy, Carney insists that he was not lying on his previous statement that Trump had respected Canada’s sovereignty; The liberal leader said they had had the conversation as two sovereign nations.

Even so, in response to the questions on Friday about the time interview, Carney acknowledged that something has changed among countries.

“The president’s latest comments are more evidence, as if we needed any, that the old relationship with the United States we have ended,” the liberal leader told journalists in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, using a line he said for the first time last month.

“And it is a test, it is a reminder, it is a call to the action we need to draw a new path. That is the new reality.”

Incomode G7 incoming

What has not yet been determined is whether to administer Trump’s aspirations will be Carney’s challenge, after Monday’s elections, or conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

But little will be busy thereafter, preparing for a very unusual G7. On Canadian soil, with Trump as his guest.

Miller’s advice? In public comments, he welcomes Trump to Canada. Do not publicly support it in a corner. In private, explain the clear consequences for the threats to the sovereignty of Canada.

Meanwhile, work with the other G7 countries. Miller proposes a group statement that reaffirms the principle of national sovereignty. Then release that statement, with or without the signing of the United States.