Justin Trudeau says Donald Trump’s comments on 51st state ‘flattering’ but a ‘non-starter’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says talk of Canada becoming the 51st state is a distraction from more pressing threats of U.S tariffs on Canada and their likely impact.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says talk of Canada becoming the 51st state is a distraction from more pressing threats of U.S tariffs on Canada and their likely impact.

In an interview that aired Sunday on MSNBC, he says Canada is ready to respond with retaliatory tariffs should president-elect Donald Trump follow through with a threat to impose 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico when he takes office next week.

Trump has also referred to Canada as the “51st state,” a notion federal cabinet ministers initially played off as a joke but now appear to be taking more seriously.

Appearing on “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Trudeau said Canadians need to take Trump’s expansionist rhetoric seriously, and that there is a certain amount of “flattery” in Trump seeing how great the country is.

“And I know that, as a successful negotiator, (Trump) likes to keep people a little off-balance. The 51st state, that’s not going to happen. It’s just a non-starter. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian,” said Trudeau, who taped the appearance while in the United States to attend Thursday’s funeral for former president Jimmy Carter.

“But people are now talking about that, as opposed to talking about, for example, what the impact (would be) of 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into the United States, on energy, whether it’s oil and gas or electricity.”

Trudeau said he was able to negotiate with Trump in a mutually-beneficial Canada-U.S. free trade deal the last time each was in office, despite it being “hard” because of Trump’s negotiation behaviour.

“But we got to a good outcome that was win-win for both of us,” Trudeau told Psaki, a former White House press secretary.