U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday as soon as once more posted favourably about Canada changing into the 51st state, calling it a “nice thought.”
“Nobody can reply why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a yr? Is not sensible! Many Canadians need Canada to turn into the 51st State,” he posted on Fact Social. “They might save massively on taxes and army safety.”
Trump has made a collection of statements and social media posts since his Nov. 5 election win mocking Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, beforehand referring him to as “governor” of the 51st state.
Nobody can reply why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a yr? Is not sensible! Many Canadians need Canada to turn into the 51st State. They might save massively on taxes and army safety. I believe it’s a nice thought. 51st State!!!
Donald Trump Fact Social…
Earlier this week, Trump reacted to the beautiful resignation of Chrystia Freeland from cupboard, calling her “poisonous.”
Freeland was intensively concerned in commerce talks with U.S. Commerce Consultant Robert Lighthizer throughout Trump’s first time period. The pair, together with a high Mexican official, signed the Canada-United States-Mexico Settlement, or CUSMA, in 2019, updating the earlier North American Free Commerce Settlement.
Trump has threatened that when he turns into president subsequent month he’ll impose large tariffs on all items from Canada until it stops the circulation of migrants and unlawful medication into the U.S.
Repeating an previous trade-deficit declare?
Whereas some recommend Trump is simply engaged in trolling, others recommend the risk is an efficient political tactic.
“It is to dominate and intimidate, he is been very profitable at utilizing these methods, and typical politicians do not often know the best way to reply,” Jennifer Mercieca, Texas A&M communications professor and creator of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, advised CBC Information just lately.
Mercieca mentioned Trump’s humour has the consequence of making an “in group and out group,” placing individuals into completely different divisions.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump once more urged Canada ought to be a part of the US, this time in a social media submit the place he referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as ‘governor.’
It isn’t particularly clear the place the $100 billion got here from that Trump is quoting, although it seems he’s repeating a determine that’s seven years previous.
The Washington Post reported at the time that it appeared to return from Lighthizer misinterpreting a Statistics Canada information that exposed a $98-billion merchandise commerce deficit. The determine didn’t take note of commerce in companies.
Trump has lengthy been chagrined by U.S. commerce deficits with different international locations, although some economists argue {that a} commerce deficit alone doesn’t provide a full accounting of the well being of an financial system.
“A bigger commerce deficit may be the results of a stronger financial system, as shoppers spend and import extra whereas larger rates of interest make international traders extra keen to put their cash in the US,” mentioned the think-tank Council on Overseas Relations in a 2019 report.
Canada’s defence spending below scrutiny
Earlier U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama urged NATO alliance members to bolster home defence spending, and in 2014, NATO members agreed to commit two per cent of their gross home product (GDP) to defence spending over the following decade. On the time, Canada was spending solely 0.9 % of its GDP on defence.
Trump in his first presidential marketing campaign and subsequent time period in workplace has railed at alliance members and incorrectly said they’re “delinquent” in spending.
It’s now estimated that Canada’s army spending is between 1.3 and 1.4 per cent of its GDP.
This summer time, Trudeau advised a gathering of parliamentarians from NATO nations that Canada is on monitor to satisfy its dedication to spend two per cent of GDP on defence by 2032, a pledge that has been met coolly within the U.S.
Canada and different international locations ought to hit the NATO-imposed goal of spending two per cent of GDP “as quickly as humanly attainable,” U.S. nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan mentioned, whereas Republican congressman Jim Risch of Idaho final month urged that Trump would let loose a “very massive guffaw” at Canada’s present timeline.
Canada’s federal Defence Minister Invoice Blair mentioned in current weeks he was “able to go sooner,” and NATO Secretary Common Mark Rutte earlier this month issued a clarion call to alliance members to extend their defence spending to a “lot greater than two per cent.” Alliance members should be on a “wartime footing” with their defence spending, he mentioned.
Some analysts have mentioned the flat metric can present an incomplete image of a rustic’s army standing and its analysis and improvement and different capabilities.
“Spending at two per cent says little or no a few nation’s precise army capabilities; its readiness, deployability, and
sustainability ranges; and the standard of the pressure that it could discipline,” the think-tank Carnegie Europe mentioned in a 2015 report. “It is also mum a few nation’s willingness to deploy forces and take dangers as soon as these forces are deployed. It doesn’t assess whether or not a rustic spends its restricted assets properly.”
Blair mentioned at a Canada International Affairs Institute convention in Ottawa final month that he’s asking for assist from the U.S. as a result of a lot of what the Canadian Armed Forces has to amass comes from American companies and defence contractors.
Canadians cool to being 51st
A current Leger ballot suggests 13 per cent of Canadians would really like the nation to turn into the subsequent U.S. state. The demographic breakdowns present there’s larger help amongst males, at 19 per cent, in contrast with solely seven per cent of ladies.
Conservative occasion supporters got here in at 21 per cent, whereas one in 10 Liberal voters mentioned they had been in favour of the concept. The Individuals’s Get together of Canada confirmed the best stage of endorsement among the many federal events, at 25 per cent, whereas the NDP was the bottom, at six per cent.
Among the many general inhabitants, 82 per cent opposed the concept, the best of which comes from Atlantic provinces, girls and Canadians over the age of 55. Leger polled 1,520 individuals between Dec. 6 and Dec. 9. The ballot doesn’t have a margin of error as a result of on-line polls aren’t thought of really random samples.
It isn’t a query Canadians have usually been surveyed on, although it has occurred previously.
A Gallup ballot in 1990 across the time of heated Meech Lake accord negotiations revealed that simply 13 per cent of these surveyed would help the concept of their province becoming a member of the US, with 79 per cent opposed.
In 1964, Maclean’s ran a particular concern masking U.S.-Canada relations. In a ballot commissioned by the journal and some different Canadian media shops, together with the CBC program Inquiry, 17 per cent favoured a union of Canada and the U.S., and 12 per cent extra strongly favoured a union.
Canadians sounded off on the prospect of changing into a part of the US on the newest episode of CBC’s Cross Nation Checkup.
You may hearken to what listeners needed to say right here:
Cross Nation Checkup55:00Matter 1: What do you make of all of the Trump jokes?
Final month Prime Minister Trudeau traveled o Mar-A-Lago to speak about the specter of U.S. tarrifs with President-elect Donald Trump. At that assembly Trump apparently joked about Canada changing into the so-called “51st state.” It wasn’t the primary time. Then final week Trump appeared to take one other jab at Trudeau calling him the “Governor” of the “Nice State of Canada.” In response to a current Leger ballot 13 per cent of Canadians mentioned they’d help Canada changing into the 51st State. The bulk surveyed rejected the concept. What do you make of all of the Trump jokes? Ought to Canada be America’s 51st state?
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