Canadian journalist explains why Trump’s annexation threat is 'a legal impossibility'

In addition to doubling down on his promise to impose a 25 percent across-the-board tariff on all Canadian goods coming into the United States, President-elect Donald Trump is calling for Canada to become "the 51st state."

Canadian officials, both liberal and conservative, are responding that while they consider the U.S. a valuable ally, they have no desire to become part of the U.S. On January 7, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted, "There isn't a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States. Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner."

In an article published by The New Republic on January 14, John Last — a Canadian journalist who now lives in Italy — lays out a variety of reasons why it would be unrealistic for Canada to become the 51st state.

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"No one, least of all Canadians, knows how seriously to take all this," Last explains. "On the one hand, joining Canada to the United States is effectively a legal impossibility. Put aside the fact that 80 percent of Canadians don't want it — rewriting the Canadian Constitution in any capacity would require the consent of the 20 percent that live in French-speaking Québec, who have succeeded many times in holding the country hostage over much smaller matters than total cultural dissolution."

Many Trump defenders in the U.S. are dismissing Trump's talk of acquiring Canada as mere "trolling." And quite a few Canadian officials and journalists are responding humorously.

Last points out, however, that "privately, many Canadians" are "scared sh-----s" by Trump's threats.

"Beneath all of these reactions was a fluttering heartbeat of dread," Last argues. "What if he actually means it? In the flood of explainers and Q&As since Trump's imperialistic musings, experts have generally rallied around the idea that all his madness is merely posturing — an attempt to intimidate opponents in Russia and China, or extract reasonable concessions from allies like investment in border protections…. In situations like these, one can never be sure what exactly is motivating Trump."

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John Last's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.