The College Fix

Following President Trump’s recent suggestion Canada should become the 51st American state, as well as his threats to add tariffs to imported Canadian goods, several professors denounced the U.S. commander in chief in interviews with The College Fix.

“It’s like making bomb jokes in an airport,” said Professor Robert Huish at Dalhousie University. “There’s no appetite for it. Trump’s comments are offensive at best and diabolical at worst.”

The controversy began when Trump joked to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in November that “if Canada can’t handle the economic effects of a punishing 25 percent tariff on its goods, it should become the 51st state of the U.S.”

“When any nation, be it a neighbour, ally or advisory, starts trolling another about annexation or compromising sovereignty, it must be taken seriously,” Huish said in an email interview.

A professor of international development studies, Huish recently published an article describing the legal and historical precedent for Trump’s plan. It argues Trump could make good on the threat based on the U.S. Constitution: “There is both potential and precedent for the U.S. to acquire territory through cession or subjugation.”

However, Huish told The Fix that neither country’s citizens seem to be in favor of the proposal.

“A couple of polls have come out in the past few weeks showing that only 1 in 10 Canadians would consider surrendering sovereignty to the United States. On the other hand, 4 in 5 Americans say the decision should be up to Canadians, and only 25 percent of Americans support the idea at all,” he said.

“There are no circumstances where any Canadian political leader would support infringement on Canadian sovereignty,” he said.

“[Canada’s] federal government needs to ensure that Washington’s security concerns about border strength and military presence in the high Arctic are met,” Huish told The Fix.

One of the reasons Trump has given for the proposal is that control of Canada would “be much better for national security,” according to The Hill. The proposal fits with Trump’s broader concerns about border security.

Duane Bratt, a professor of international relations at Mount Royal University, disagrees that Canada’s border with the U.S. is an issue.

“It is notable today that Trump announced a national emergency along their southern border, but not along the northern border. But, quite frankly, there was never a problem with the northern border, at least in comparison to the border with Mexico,” he said in a recent phone interview with The College Fix.

“If anything, I think the threat of the border is more, you know, illegal guns and drugs coming into Canada from the United States than vice versa,” he said.

Responding to Trump’s threats of economic pressure, Bratt said that even though Canada “would be hurt by tariffs.”

“It would probably push Canada into a recession, but we have had recessions before and are able to get out of them,” he said.

Werner Antweiler, an international trade professor at the University of British Columbia, pointed out the economic consequences to both countries under Trump’s tariff plan.

“If it wasn’t for Trump, we would continue to enjoy the benefits of an integrated Northern American market. What other steps of economic integration could we contemplate? A customs union? Or a currency union,” Antweiler said in an email interview with The Fix.

He called for unity among Canadians.

“[T]he only way to deal with a bully like Mr. Trump is to join forces and stand up against him,” Antweiler said. He called on Americans to “[t]alk to your representatives in Congress to stop the economic madness that sooner or later will hurt your communities as well.”

Huish agreed.

“It is in America’s best interest to have a strong Northern neighbour and not a newly annexed territory,” he said. “Trust me, you don’t want to govern us – we’re a lot of work.”

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