The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, has released an official response to President-elect Donald Trump's (R) recent public desire to make America's neighbors to the north part of the Union. According to Polymarket, Poilievre currently has an 88% chance of becoming Canada's next prime minister.
Poilievre, on social media, provided a rationale for maintaining Canada's current standing with the United States as a fellow independent nation on the continent.
Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.
We are a great and independent country.
We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of…
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 7, 2025
"Canada will never be the 51st state. Period. We are a great and independent country. We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods," said Poilievre. "Our weak and pathetic NDP-Liberal government has failed to make these obvious points. I will fight for Canada."
Furthermore, the next potential prime minister of Canada shared his vision for the country should he assume the role, and even took a page out of Trump's book, declaring he will "put Canada first" on the world stage.
"When I am Prime Minister, we will rebuild our military and take back control of the border to secure both Canada and the U.S. We will take back control of our Arctic to keep Russia and China out. We will axe taxes, slash red tape and rapidly green-light massive resource projects to bring home paycheques and production to our country. In other words, we will put Canada First," concluded Poilievre.
Reporters recently questioned President-elect Trump about his willingness to acquire Canada during his upcoming presidency. When asked if he would take it via military force, he said he could do so through "economic force."
President-elect Trump was also asked about his opinion of Poilievre's viewpoint surrounding Canada's independence. Trump responded by saying that perhaps Poilievre won't assume the role of prime minister and that he doesn't care either way.
Watch below:
President Trump says he is prepared to use economic pressure to force Canada to become part of the United States
I REPEAT. TRUMP IS SERIOUS. WOW! pic.twitter.com/98zrWoW3QX
— George (@BehizyTweets) January 7, 2025
"Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Don't forget, we basically protect Canada. But here's the problem with Canada. So many friends up there, I love the Canadian people. They're great, but we're spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We're spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada," said Trump.
The 45th and 47th president continued, citing what he believes is the unfair economic relationship between the two countries, favoring Canada.
"We lose in trade deficits, we're losing mass - we don't need their cars. You know, they make 20% of our cars. We don't need that. I'd rather make them in Detroit. We don't need the cars. We don't need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don't need their lumber," said Trump. "We have to unrestrict them, because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on - but I can do that with an executive order. We don't need anything they have. We don't need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don't need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?"
The next Canadian election is currently scheduled for Oct. 20 but could be held sooner.
