VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says so Canada is expected to become the 51st state Saturday drew condemnation and a patriotic outburst from a former Canadian prime minister who supplied blunt recommendation to the incoming American chief: “Shake your head!”
Jean Chrétien, who was Canadian prime minister from 1993 to 2003, has joined the refrain of officers from the United States’ northern neighbor who say Trump’s remarks are not a joke and will undermine America’s closest ally.
Canada would by no means conform to develop into a part of the United States, Chrétien wrote in an article revealed in The Globe and Mail newspaper, celebrating his 91st birthday.
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He extolled his nation’s love of independence and stated Trump’s remarks amounted to “completely unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats” to Canadian sovereignty.
“To Donald Trump, from one previous man to a different, shake your head!” Chretien stated. “What might make you assume that Canadians would ever quit the most effective nation on the earth – and make no mistake, that is what we’re – to affix the United States?
Trump launched expansionist rhetoric not only towards Canada but also other allies of the United Statesarguing that the frontiers of American energy should be prolonged to the Danish territory of Greenland and southward to incorporate the Panama Canal.
And whereas many European leaders have been measured of their response, Canadians haven’t held again.
“If you assume that threatening us and insulting us will win us over, you actually know nothing about us,” Chrétien wrote within the article. “We could seem easygoing, well mannered. But make no mistake, we’ve got spine and tenacity.
The United States imports about 60% of its crude oil from Canada, which can be the highest export vacation spot for 36 US states. Every day, items and providers value almost C$3.6 billion ($2.7 billion) cross the border.
Canadian officers have spoken with future Trump administration officers about growing border safety in an effort to keep away from a sweeping 25% tariff that Trump has threatened impose on all Canadian merchandise.
When Trump imposed larger tariffs throughout his first time period, different international locations responded with retaliatory tariffs. Canada introduced billions in new tariffs in 2018 in opposition to the United States in a response to new taxes on Canadian metal and aluminum.
