Trump wants Canada’s economy to ‘collapse’ to make annexation ‘easier’: Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a news conference on imposed U.S. tariffs as Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty look on in Ottawa on March 4, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday (March 4, 2025) that President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada to destroy the country’s economy to make it easier for the United States to annex its northern neighbour.

The extraordinary warning about Mr. Trump’s threat to Canadian sovereignty came as the U.S. president delivered on his vow to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods.

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Canada immediately retaliated, triggering a trade war between previously close allies and threatening future commerce across a border that regularly sees billions of dollars in daily trade.

Mr. Trump has said the tariffs are necessary to force Canadian action against what he describes as the flow of undocumented migrants and the drug fentanyl across the border.

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Mr. Trudeau has maintained that Canada is not a significant contributor to either problem in the United States, and on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) called Mr. Trump’s fentanyl justification “completely false.”

Asked about Mr. Trump’s motivations for imposing tariffs, Mr. Trudeau said the U.S. president, who has spoken often of making Canada the 51st American state, “wants to see a collapse of the Canadian economy because that would make it easier to annex us.”

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“The United States launched a trade war against Canada,” Mr. Trudeau said. “Canadians are reasonable. We are polite. We will not back down from a fight.”

Mr. Trudeau also addressed Mr. Trump directly, saying that while he thinks Mr. Trump is a “smart guy,” the tariffs are a “very dumb thing to do.”

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Mr. Trudeau, who has been in power since 2015, is due to be replaced as the leader of the governing Liberal Party on Sunday. He has said he will step down as Prime Minister as soon as the party’s new leader is chosen.

Mr. Trudeau has publicly tried to address Mr. Trump’s concerns on migrants and fentanyl, in hopes of avoiding the tariffs that came into force on Tuesday (March 4, 2025).

EXPLAINED | What will be the impact of Trump’s trade war?

Canada has pushed through a costly new border security plan and named a fentanyl czar to lead the effort against the killer in opioid.

Mr. Trudeau said his focus remained on getting U.S. tariffs lifted “as quickly as possible,” adding that he remained ready to talk directly to Mr. Trump.