Unpacking Trump's latest broadside about Canada as a '51st state'
CBC
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday once again posted favourably about Canada becoming the 51st state, calling it a "great idea."
"No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State," he posted on Truth Social. "They would save massively on taxes and military protection."
Trump has made a series of statements and social media posts since his Nov. 5 election win mocking Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, previously referring him to as "governor" of the 51st state.
Earlier this week, Trump reacted to the stunning resignation of Chrystia Freeland from cabinet, calling her "toxic."
Freeland was intensively involved in trade talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer during Trump's first term. The pair, along with a top Mexican official, signed the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA, in 2019, updating the previous North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump has threatened that when he becomes president next month he will impose massive tariffs on all goods from Canada unless it stops the flow of migrants and illegal drugs into the U.S.
While some suggest Trump is just engaged in trolling, others suggest the threat is an effective political tactic.
"It's to dominate and intimidate, he's been very successful at using those strategies, and typical politicians don't usually know how to respond," Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M communications professor and author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, told CBC News recently.
Mercieca said Trump's humour has the consequence of creating an "in group and out group," putting people into different divisions.
It's not specifically clear where the $100,000,000 came from that Trump is quoting, though it appears he is repeating a figure that is seven years old.
The Washington Post reported at the time that it appeared to come from Lighthizer misinterpreting a Statistics Canada data that revealed a $98-billion merchandise trade deficit. The figure did not take into account trade in services.
Trump has long been chagrined by U.S. trade deficits with other countries, though some economists argue that a trade deficit alone does not offer a full accounting of the health of an economy.
"A larger trade deficit can be the result of a stronger economy, as consumers spend and import more while higher interest rates make foreign investors more eager to place their money in the United States," said the think-tank Council on Foreign Relations in a 2019 report.
Previous U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama urged NATO alliance members to bolster domestic defence spending, and in 2014, NATO members agreed to commit two per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to defence spending over the subsequent decade. At the time, Canada was spending only 0.9 percent of its GDP on defence.
While the Green Line LRT project feels like a train that may never leave the station, Calgarians who have been forced to make sacrifices for this project are feeling ripped off.
A remote First Nation in northwestern Ontario that has been under a boil water advisory for 19 years has declared a state of emergency over recent contamination within its water supply.
Some downtown Toronto parents say the city's left them high and dry after a new, state-of-the-art pool was closed recently for the second time since mid-October.
Hemat Elgendy says she came to Canada from overseas last June to achieve her dreams.
The chief of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun says a government audit would not only expose shortcomings that might have contributed to the failure of the Eagle mine, but could also potentially prevent future environmental disasters from happening across the Yukon.
The day he took office for his "sunny" first term, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared in front of Ottawa's Rideau Hall to present the first gender-balanced cabinet in Canadian history. He gave his succinct "because it's 2015" explanation — a remark that became integral to his then-favourable political brand.
A wave of misinformation about Canadian institutions is being amplified by suspected bot accounts on social media and by pro-Modi news outlets in India, raising concerns it could imperil relations between Sikhs and Hindus in Canada.
London city councillors have voted to reprimand Coun. Susan Stevenson by docking her pay for 30 days as punishment for what an independent watchdog described as bullying and harassment of a senior city staff in violation of the code of conduct for councillors.
Newfoundland and Labrador has finalized its policy around the use of cellphones in schools, and the education minister says students played a key role in creating the final policy.
The Houston government wants to change the way the salaries and benefits of Nova Scotia MLAs are determined.
New Brunswick's acting chief medical officer of health is encouraging people to mask during holiday gatherings as the province-wide whooping cough outbreak has spiked to more than 800 cases and other viruses, such as COVID-19, the flu and RSV spread.