President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, joked during his dinner last Friday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, suggesting that if Canada cannot bear the economic effects of the tariffs he plans to impose on their products when he takes office, it should become the 51st state of his country.
Canadian Minister of Public Safety, Dominic LeBlanc, who was with Trudeau at the intimate dinner at Mar-a-Lago club, stated that Trump's remark was clearly a joke and not any kind of signal of a serious plan to annex Canada, as reported by CBC on Tuesday.
"During a three-hour social evening at the Republican's residence in Florida, during the Thanksgiving holiday, the conversation was meant to be light-hearted. The President was telling jokes, teasing us; of course, it was not a serious comment at all," LeBlanc pointed out.
"The fact that there is a warm and cordial relationship between the two leaders and that the President is able to joke like this, we believe is something positive," he added.
Trudeau traveled to Florida to meet with Trump after the U.S. President-elect announced on social media that one of his first actions when he takes office in January will be to impose a 25% tariff on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico, unless both countries stop the flow of migrants and drugs.
Canada, which says that Trump unfairly compares it to Mexico, is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, with 77% of its exports going to the United States. Trudeau successfully employed a "Team Canada" approach during Trump's first term, when the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States, and Mexico was renegotiated. But Trudeau's minority government is now in a much weaker political position and faces elections within a year.
During the dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump also expressed his dissatisfaction with the $100 billion annual U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which he deems necessary to address by imposing tariffs.
When Trudeau pointed out to Trump that the tariffs would cause serious harm to the Canadian economy, the incoming U.S. President suggested that Canada become another state of the United States to avoid customs duties. Initially, sources consulted by Fox News claimed that in response to this suggestion, Trudeau and others "laughed nervously," a fact that LeBlanc has now sought to refute.