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Trudeau, Carney push back over Trump鈥檚 ongoing 51st state comments

But Trump has continued the quip repeatedly in various social media posts
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Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly, centre, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Dominic LeBlanc participate in a news conference in Ottawa, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. LeBlanc and Joly are in Florida to meet with officials from President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 incoming administration.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Two senior members of the federal cabinet were in Florida Friday pushing Canada鈥檚 new border plan with Donald Trump鈥檚 transition team, a day after Trudeau himself appeared to finally push back at the president-elect over his social media posts about turning Canada into the 51st state.

Both Trudeau and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who Trudeau has been courting to become Canada鈥檚 next finance minister, shared posts on X Thursday, a day after Trump鈥檚 latest jab at Canada in his Christmas Day message.

It isn鈥檛 clear if Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has repeatedly insisted Trump鈥檚 51st state references are a joke, will raise the issue with Trump鈥檚 team when he and Foreign Affairs Minister M茅lanie Joly meet with them in Palm Beach.

The two are there to discuss Canada鈥檚 new $1.3 billion border plan with just under four weeks left before Trump is sworn in again as president. He has threatened to impose a new 25 per cent import tariff on Canada and Mexico the same day over concerns about a trade imbalance, as well as illegal drugs and migration issues at the borders.

The broad strokes of Canada鈥檚 plan were made public Dec. 17, including a new aerial intelligence task force to provide round-the-clock surveillance of the border, and improved efforts using technology and canine teams to seek out drugs in shipments leaving Canada

LeBlanc鈥檚 spokesman, Jean-S茅bastien Comeau, said the ministers will also emphasize the negative impacts of Trump鈥檚 threatened tariffs on both Canada and the U.S.

Comeau said the ministers will build on the discussions that took place last month when Trudeau and LeBlanc met Trump at Mar-a-Lago just days after Trump first made his tariff threat.

It was at that dinner on Nov. 29 when Trump first raised the notion of Canada becoming the 51st state, a comment LeBlanc has repeatedly since insisted was just a joke.

But Trump has continued the quip repeatedly in various social media posts, including in his Christmas Day message when he said Canadians would pay lower taxes and have better military protection if they became Americans.

He has taken to calling Trudeau 鈥済overnor鈥 instead of prime minister.

Trudeau had not directly responded to any of the jabs, but on Thursday posted a link to a six-minute long video on YouTube from 2010 in which American journalist Tom Brokaw 鈥渆xplains Canada to Americans.鈥

The video, which originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, explains similarities between the two countries, including their founding based on immigration, their trading relationship and the actions of the Canadian Army in World War 2 and other modern conflicts.

鈥淚n the long history of sovereign neighbours there has never been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada,鈥 Brokaw says in the video.

Trudeau did not expand about why he posted a link to the video, posting it only with the words 鈥渟ome information about Canada for Americans.鈥

Carney, who is at the centre of some of Trudeau鈥檚 recent domestic political troubles, also called out Trump鈥檚 antics on X Thursday, calling it 鈥渃asual disrespect鈥 and 鈥渃arrying the 鈥榡oke鈥 too far.鈥

鈥淭ime to call it out, stand up for Canada, and build a true North American partnership,鈥 said Carney, who Trudeau was courting to join his cabinet before Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister last week.

Freeland鈥檚 sudden departure, three days after Trudeau informed her he would be firing her as finance minister in favour of Carney, left Trudeau鈥檚 leadership even more bruised than it already was.

Despite the expectation Carney would assume the role, he did not and has not made any statements about it. LeBlanc was sworn in as finance minister instead the same day Freeland quit.

More than two dozen Liberal MPs have publicly called on Trudeau to resign as leader, and Trudeau is said to be taking the holidays to think about his next steps.

He is currently vacationing in British Columbia.

Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

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91原创

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