Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Canada will “by no means be the 51st state,” rebuking U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s newest social media submit.
Ford made the comment whereas showing on Ontario Chronicle Toronto’s Toy Mountain phase on Wednesday night time.
“Canadians take care of Canadians. We don’t need to be anybody’s 51st state,” Canadian actor and comic Mike Myers stated in a video aired throughout the phase.
The premier agreed.
“We’ll never be the 51st state. We’re Canada. We’re proud to be Canadians. We’ll always fight for that,” Ford stated.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump posted on his social media platform Reality Social that it will be a “great idea” to make Canada an American state, claiming the U.S. is subsidizing its northern neighbour “$100,000,000 a year.”
“Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State,” Trump wrote. “They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
A latest Leger ballot suggests 13 per cent of Canadians need the nation to turn into a part of the U.S.
It’s not the primary time Trump took a jab at Canada.
Earlier this month, the incoming American president posted a photograph on Reality Social displaying him standing on a mountaintop proper subsequent to a Canadian flag with the caption “Oh Canada!” In one other social media submit, he referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau because the “governor” of the “great state of Canada.”
Tensions have been excessive between the 2 nations for the reason that president-elect threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports if it doesn’t tighten its borders to cease the move of fentanyl and unlawful migrants.
The federal authorities has been working with all premiers to develop a plan, which might embrace retaliatory tariffs, if Trump strikes forward with the menace when he’s inaugurated subsequent month.
Ford has stated the province can be utilizing “every tool in its toolbox,” hinting that Ontario is ready to chop off electrical energy that’s powering hundreds of thousands of houses in New York, Michigan, and Minnesota – however solely as a “last resort.”
The Ontario authorities has additionally threatened to limit the LCBO from shopping for American-made alcohol, cease the export of vital minerals, and reduce the U.S. out of the provincial procurement course of.
Ford known as Trump a “funny guy” in an interview with Fox Information earlier this month after the primary time Trump recommended that Canada must be an American state.
With recordsdata from Ontario Chronicle employees and The Canadian Press
