canada next 51 states of america
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at how the incoming Trump administration is approaching U.S.-Canada
Prime Minister or Governor?
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appears interested in adding a 51st star to the American flag. In a statement that some analysts warn could be serious and others have brushed off as trolling, Trump once again suggested on Wednesday that Canada should become a U.S. state. “No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year?” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
The United States and Canada have the longest undefended border in the world. But in recent weeks, Trump has become critical of Canadian border security. Last month, he threatened to impose sweeping 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods during his first day in office if Ottawa does not curb the flow of undocumented migrants and illegal drugs into the United States.
“The revolutionary nature of these threats is hard to overstate, even by Trump’s own audacious standards,” FP columnist Edward Alden argued, pointing to tariffs that Trump has also floated against Mexico and China.
Trump’s tariff warning pushed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make a surprise trip to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida in November, during which Trump made the 51st state joke directly to Trudeau and other officials over dinner. A Canadian minister in attendance later told reporters that he believed Trump’s comments were meant in jest.
“The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment,” then-Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said. Days later, Trump referred to Trudeau as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada” in a post on Truth Social.
Trump repeated that mocking title on Monday, when he celebrated the unexpected departure of Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned due to ongoing disputes with Trudeau over how to address U.S. tariff threats. Freeland has accused Trudeau of engaging in “costly political gimmicks” instead of countering Trump’s warnings, and many of her allies have since called for Trudeau to step down.
Trump’s 25 percent tariff plan would be a “disaster” that would hurt both the Canadian and U.S. economies, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. He has compared Trump’s threat to “a family member stabbing you right in the heart” and has vowed to send hundreds of police officers to the border if Trump’s mass deportation plan forces migrants living in the United States to flee north.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith reiterated Ford’s concerns this week. In response to Trump’s latest Canadian statehood post, Smith argued that the reason for Ottawa’s trade deficit with the United States is because Canada sends billions of dollars in raw materials to the United States, generating enormous wealth for Washington and creating millions of U.S. jobs. Around 60 percent of U.S. crude oil imports and roughly 85 percent of U.S. electricity imports come from Canada. Alberta alone sends 4.3 million barrels of oil and gas to the United States each day.
According to polling from market research company Leger, just 13 percent of Canadians surveyed wished to join the United States, as opposed to 82 percent of people who said they were against the idea.
Whether or not Trump’s statements are genuine, Ottawa is not taking any chances. Following Freeland’s surprise departure on Monday, LeBlanc—newly named finance minister—announced a $900 million plan to implement new border security measures to appease Trump’s concerns. With the creation of a “joint strike force,” the development of new detection tools at high-risk ports of entry, and an increase in funding for dog-sniffing teams, the plan aims to disrupt fentanyl trade, limit border traffic, and improve coordination and information-sharing with U.S. and local law enforcement.
What We’re Following
Lack of water. Human Rights Watch accused Israel on Thursday of deliberately denying Palestinians in Gaza with access to clean water from October 2023 to September 2024. According to the 184-page report, the Israeli government has stopped water from being piped into Gaza and has cut off electricity and restricted fuel to the enclave’s water and sanitation facilities.
As a result, Palestinians in Gaza can only access a few liters of water a day, far below the 15-liter minimum that the World Health Organization deems necessary for emergency survival. Most or all of the water that residents of Gaza have access to is not safe to drink, Human Rights Watch said.
The report argues that Israel’s actions legally amount to acts of extermination and genocide.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry immediately denied the allegations. “Since the beginning of the war, Israel has facilitated the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite operating under constant attacks” by Hamas, the ministry said. The Israeli government argued that it has allowed international partners to transport water tankers and other aid into Gaza, including as recently as last week, permitting the entry of more than 1.2 million tons of humanitarian supplies. However, foreign powers and the United Nations have repeatedly accused Israel of withholding or preventing aid from entering the war-torn region.
Limited aid. French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Mayotte on Thursday, just days after a deadly cyclone devastated the French territory. Local authorities have confirmed at least 31 people killed thus far, though many expect the death toll to be closer to the hundreds or even thousands. The storm leveled entire neighborhoods on the overcrowded island, and residents have reported a lack of vital humanitarian aid, including clean water, food, and electricity.
On Thursday, Macron announced the creation of a compensation fund for uninsured survivors and vowed to “rebuild” Mayotte with new “criteria.” French Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq also announced on Thursday that Paris would implement measures to fight cholera if an outbreak occurs. Mayotte suffers from high poverty, unemployment, and violence—issues that French authorities have tried to address in the past via deportations and police crackdowns. But this past weekend’s cyclone, a Category 4 storm, only worsened these crises.
Climate action plan. The Biden administration announced a set of new U.S. targets on Thursday to slash greenhouse gas emissions. By 2035, the White House said it aims to cut carbon emissions to 61 to 66 percent below 2005 levels. U.S. officials said the new goals adhere to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which calls on signatories to develop climate action plans by next February to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
“We’re confident in America’s ability to rally around this new climate goal,” said John Podesta, the Biden administration’s senior advisor for international climate policy. Podesta added that although Trump “may put climate action on the back burner, the work to contain climate change is going to continue in the United States.”
The Trump transition team has not yet commented on the new targets. However, the president-elect has previously rallied against electric vehicle development and promoted the use of fossil fuels over green energy, which he believes would ensure U.S. global dominance.
Odds and Ends
Hong Kongers are growing frustrated with how difficult it can be to win plushies and gadgets from claw machines. But instead of just playing a different arcade game, as FP’s World Brief writer chooses to do, the city’s consumer watchdog has called for a review of all claw machines. These games “capitalise on consumers’ enthusiasm for testing their luck,” the Consumer Council warned on Wednesday, pointing to the game’s “excessive difficulty or unfair settings.”
This year, 42 complaints were filed to the council against the popular devices, a significant rise from the 16 complaints documented in 2023.
Source : FOREIGN POLICY
