Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears to have changed his mind about how serious President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada is, telling a closed-door gathering the threat is real.
Trudeau allegedly said Trump believes the easiest way to access Canada’s resources is to absorb the country as the 51st state. Trudeau previously said there wasn’t a “snowball’s chance in hell” that Trump would annex Canada.
“I suggest that not only does the Trump Administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” said Trudeau, according to the Toronto Star. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those.”
Trudeau allegedly made comments behind closed doors at the Canada-U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto in a room with a hot mic after reporters had been ordered out of the room.
There were around 100 business leaders and executives in attendance, and the media were restricted from attending the events after Trudeau’s opening remarks.
The prime minister reportedly continued speaking to the room about his conversation with Trump, but the comments were cut off after the staff realized there was a hot mic.
The revelation was met with condemnation by Conservatives, who warned such a threat can’t be properly addressed without Trudeau recalling Parliament.
“The questions that need to be put to Mr. Trudeau can’t today because he’s gone into hiding behind a locked door,” said Conservative MP Michael Barrett. “They aren’t being put to Mr. Carney because he’s in hiding as well. And the last time he was asked if Parliament should be sitting, he ran away. And Miss Freeland seems equally unconcerned.”
Barrett held a press conference on Parliament Hill, where he said that Trudeau’s speech was accompanied by no commitment to action.
He argued that Trudeau should be addressing these concerns in the House of Commons, rather than holding private meetings behind closed doors.
During the public portion of Trudeau’s remarks, the prime minister took a pro-Canada approach and emphasized unity in the country to deal with the tariffs — an outstanding threat that has been delayed for only a month.
Trudeau said that Canada needs to deal with the tariff issue as quickly as possible, but didn’t say much else publicly that hadn’t been said before.
Trudeau and his ministers previously downplayed Trump’s annexation threat.
“The president was telling jokes,” said Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc in the aftermath of the original threat. “The president was teasing us. It was, of course, in no way a serious comment.”
Now, the Liberals are acting as if the crisis had emerged from thin air, whereas in reality it is something that could have been dealt with over the past few months, according to Barrett.
Reporters asked Barrett what the Conservatives would do to protect Canada’s natural resources if they were in government.
He said that it wasn’t for them to decide and that the 338 elected members of Parliament should be debating how to best combat the problem in the House of Commons right now, a key democratic process that Trudeau has shut down by proroguing Parliament.
“Anything that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. LeBlanc have said obviously can’t be believed. They’ve been demonstrated to be lying to Canadians,” said Barrett. “The issues need to be debated here in Parliament. That’s what Canadians elected us to do.”
