THE SITUATION
American President Donald Trump is in the Canadian media for the second time in as many weeks, each time for telling jokes at the expense of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Trudeau hastened to Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, seemingly panicked over Trump’s public threat of tariffs on all Canadian exports to the USA. The threatened tariffs would pose an actual serious problem to Canada, and Trudeau has not been accustomed to facing actual problems seriously in his nine-year tenure as Prime Minister. As familiar as he is with being flippant over real Canadian problems that he himself has created, he is now being treated flippantly over a serious problem threatened by a serious man. A serious man is threatening a serious problem, and that serious man is handling an unserious man unseriously. That unserious man has been unserious about the serious problems affecting his serious people. If it were not for the fact that tariffs would create more very serious problems for actual Canadians, we might be gleefully indulged by the poetic justice.
Upon Trudeau’s return to Canada from Mar-a-Lago, someone within Trump’s circle leaked a serious jest that unfolded over the supper. Trudeau – ever the negotiator – admitted that the threatened tariffs would cripple the Canadian economy. Trump then jested that Trudeau might want to consider becoming the Governor of Canada, with Canada becoming the 51st American state. The jest apparently elicited nervous laughter from the Canadian contingency. Following the leaked report of the exchange, Canadian politicians dismissed it as a friendly joke, with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford each appearing on Fox News to laugh it off. Late last night, Donald Trump again reiterated the joke on Truth Social:
It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada. I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all! DJT
My late grandfather often said: “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” Is it possible that there is more to this than a funny joke?
Trump, like most Canadians, is critical of Canada’s negligent border and immigration system, and he also alleges that Canada’s border dereliction poses a real threat to the United States. He knows that Canada possesses untold riches in minerals, precious metals, oil, natural gas, agriculture, and forestry – resources that largely lay untapped due to government regulations. Rendering Canada the 51st state would solve the border problem, and it would also generate untold wealth on the North American continent.
Furthermore, Trump is most likely aware of the very credible allegations that multiple Canadian government officials, including parliamentarians, have been compromised by foreign governments like India and China. Securing the border, producing wealth from natural resources, and removing the threat of a suspected shadow Indian/Chinese satellite state across the northern border would all be a boon to a pro-industry, law and order, America First administration.
If my late grandfather’s proverb proves true, there might be more truth than jest in Trump’s joking. One thing about Donald Trump is that he is extremely creative and quite willing to colour outside the lines. Colouring over the imaginary line of the 49th parallel might be an actual consideration. In which case Canada would be colored – no longer spelled with a u – red, white, and blue.
A GOOD AND PATRIOTIC IDEA
Personally, I am not opposed to the idea. Before labelling me a traitor, consider that I am a patriotic Canadian, loyal to Canada’s historic constitutional order, but I am also awake to the fact that that order has been largely destroyed. Our government has stripped us of our ability to defend ourselves, regularly violated private property rights, trampled on free enterprise, violated religious liberty, denigrated our identity, faces serious allegations of being treasonously compromised by foreign governments in India and China, and our courts have offered little to no recourse. South of the border, Americans have maintained their right to bear arms, have found recourse in the courts for the COVID violations against business and churches, and are much more encouraging of the free market. Meanwhile, our homeland is being flooded with immigrants who have much less commonality with our culture than do the denizens of up-state New York or even Florida’s panhandle.
If we appealed to Donald Trump to restore our social and constitutional order by annexing Canada, we would not be too out of line with our own constitutional heritage. For example, under the reign of the tyrannical King James II, the English lords – including much of the clergy – invited the Dutch Prince William of Orange to cross the Channel and depose James, who subsequently fled to the continent. The event became known as the Glorious Revolution, in which William restored constitutional order to Britain, by codifying, in the Bill of Rights, the right to bear arms, the right to private property, freedom of speech, freedom from excessive bail, and freedom of worship. Canada inherited that constitutional order at Confederation, and we must not forget that it was established under a foreign prince at the invitation of patriotic Englishmen, pining away under King James’ contempt for our constitutional order. In that case, King James II was the real traitor, and Prince William’s English collaborators were the true patriots. In the same spirit, the Americans themselves invited French aid to depose their English government in the Revolutionary War, believing that the constitutional order and the ensuing rights of Englishmen superseded loyalty to governing institutions. Both nations, American and Canadian, have historically understood the constitutional order to be more important than governments who destroy it. Governments who destroy the constitutional order are treasonous, and citizens who seek to restore it are patriots.
The Canadian nation was largely populated by disaffected Americans who remained loyal to the Crown following the Revolutionary War. Prior to 1776, we were largely the same people, and following 1776 what divided us was our disposition towards the British Crown. An American annexation of Canada could be the reunification of long-estranged family members. We consume the same entertainment, we play the same sports, we speak the same language, we share the same continent, and we have an intertwined history. Now, while many on the Canadian left desire to abandon the Crown in favour of becoming a republic, we might as well join the great Republic to the south.
HOW AMERICANS COULD MAKE THIS WORK WITHOUT POISONING THE ELECTORATE
The United States has successfully annexed nations in the past, experiences which might offer insight into how to do it again. After the Mexican War, the United States absorbed Texas, while annexing New Mexico and California. The American Civil War was essentially the Union’s successful annexation of the independent Confederate States. It has been done before across America’s southern border with Mexico and Dixie, so it can be done again on the northern border. For Americans, the good news is that Canadians no longer possess the will or ability to fight like we did in 1812, which was the last time they attempted to annex us. The Canadians who still possess the fighting spirit of our forebears are more likely to sympathize with the Trumpian national vision over the Trudeaupian.
Of course, Americans might be concerned about inheriting a nation that leans left, essentially adding another California to the electorate. There are a few ways around this.
First, Canadians have proven susceptible to media indoctrination. It is worth noting that our major media companies are subsidized by the federal government because they cannot survive without the public dime. Conservative media is prohibited from operating on a large scale by a federal regulator called the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). If our entire media establishment was defunded, Elon Musk’s “X” could fill the void, and, after a few weeks, Canadians would likely believe the American spin. Only a few years ago, Canadians believed that men could not be women, but once the media told us otherwise that all changed. Magically, men can now be women! I am confident that political sentiments will shift politically right and more American with similar efforts. Defund the Canadian media, abolish the CRTC, and watch “X” fill the void, magically shifting public sentiments.
Second, French Canada is a primary reason that Canada is so leftist, with French Canadians being more overwhelmingly socialist than English Canadians. Electoral laws render Quebec disproportionately represented federally, which has offset the balance of power for generations. The disproportionate representation from Quebec has meant that our national leaders are unofficially required to be bi-lingual. French Canadians, thus, have an unfair political advantage over their more conservative English Canadian counterparts, because French Canadians are overwhelmingly bilingual, whereas English Canadians are not. For that reason alone, most of our Prime Ministers have hailed from socialist Quebec. In the event of annexation, Trump could scrap all pandering to the more socialist Francophones, which would remove their unfair political advantage over the Anglophones. That would likely prompt socialist Quebec to demand independence to preserve their unique identity, and we could part ways amicably. The North American landscape would revert to the borders as they were prior to the conclusion of 7 Years Wars in 1763, as opposed to the present borders largely defined by the War of 1812. Quebec can have the Saint Lawrence seaway, but to use it profitably they will need access to our Atlantic Coast. “Tariff” is now a beautiful word.
Third, the United States does not need to grant citizenship to all Canadians immediately or even ever. For this, they can employ something akin to the model they used in the Reconstruction era, which disenfranchised Confederate veterans, at least until they demonstrated loyalty to the Union. The precedent is in place in the 14th Amendment, and something similar could be implemented in the event of an annexation. Only those former Canadians and their offspring who clearly demonstrate loyalty to American ideals would be permitted to vote. The other families could exist as disenfranchised persons on the North American continent, much like Confederate President Jefferson Davis did following the Civil War.
CONCLUSION
During Donald Trump’s first presidency in 2017, Justin Trudeau sanctimoniously reacted to Trump’s ban of immigration from Islamic nations. He posted on Twitter:
To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada
Since then, Trudeau has flooded our borders, so much so that many Canadian cities are unrecognizable from what they were just a decade ago. Trudeau has previously boasted that Canada is the world’s first post-national state, meaning that we have no national identity. That idea has shaped his policies more than any other, and our new amorphous nation is the nation he envisioned. A nation without an identity is a nation ready to either balkanize or be absorbed by a nation with an identity. Even if we balkanize, a divided people will likely still be absorbed.
Many are holding out hope for an election in the fall of 2025, but do you really think the opposition parties have the political stomach to fix this mess? We need something akin to a high dose of chemotherapy in the public sphere, and the leaders of all parties have proven more apt at pandering to whatever-the-present-mood-is than actually fixing things. Official conservatives are often the liberals of yesteryear.
If we, the amorphous nation of Canada, are to be absorbed, I cannot think of a nation I would rather absorb us than the United States. If it is not America, who will it be? China? India? Given the options, becoming the 51st state is the best. For this to happen under the nose of the most anti-freedom and anti-Western and anti-American and anti-Canadian Prime Minister ever would be poetic justice. It would also restore our historic liberties, which his family has worked tirelessly to destroy.
The prayer of our national anthem, which many faithful Canadians still pray, is “God keep our land glorious and free!” If the American annexation of Canada were to make our land glorious and free once again, it would be an answer to our prayers.
