Trump responds to Trudeau resignation by suggesting Canada merge with U.S.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation as Liberal leader comes just two weeks before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president while threatening to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports from Canada on Day 1.
Trudeau said he will stay on as prime minister until his successor is chosen, creating the prospect that Canada will have a lame duck head of government just as its biggest trading partner hits its exports with steep tariffs.
The resignation means there is now very little that Trudeau can do now to stave off Trump’s tariff threat, says David MacNaughton, whom Trudeau appointed as Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2016.
“The reality is, today you announce you’re stepping down, your power, your influence dissipates almost immediately,” MacNaughton told CBC News on Monday.
He says Trudeau should have made this move months ago to ensure the government was prepared for Trump’s potential return to the White House.
“We’re going to have a few months of uncertainty right now … and in the meantime, Trump is feeling pretty cocky these days.”
Trudeau’s resignation leaves Canada and its economy vulnerable to whatever Trump plans to impose, says Xavier Delgado, senior program associate with the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute in Washington.
“It’s a remarkable time for the prime minister to be announcing that he’s stepping down,” said Delgado. “Within the context of Canada-U.S. relations, it really does not make a lot of sense.”
‘People in Canada LOVE being the 51st State’
Trump reacted to Trudeau’s resignation with a post on his Truth Social platform.
“Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned,” Trump said in the post.
“If Canada merged with the U.S.,” Trump continued, “there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”
Trudeau’s decision to step down is bringing questions about how the government will handle any negotiations with the Trump administration.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Liberal government will remain ‘singularly focused’ on protecting Canadian interests and continuing to ‘fight for the economy’ even as the party undergoes a leadership race in the wake of his resignation announcement.
“In announcing that he’s resigning, Trudeau effectively becomes a lame duck prime minister,” Delgado said. “He does not really have a mandate, given the fact that folks down here in Washington know that he’s not going to be around much longer.”
Trudeau cites need to ‘stand up for Canadians’
During his news conference outside Rideau Cottage, Trudeau was asked how the government can protect Canada from the tariff threat if key cabinet ministers are absorbed in a leadership race.
“The government and the cabinet will still be very much focused on doing the job Canadians elected us to do in 2021, which is fight for their interests, stand up for their well-being and make sure that Canadians … are protected and strong,” Trudeau said.
“I can assure you that the tools and the need to stand up for Canadians, to protect Canadians in their interests and continue to fight for the economy, is something everyone in this government will be singularly focused on.”
Trudeau did not directly answer a question about whether the Liberal leadership contestants would be required to quit their post during the race.
Several top cabinet ministers working on the Canada-U.S. file — including Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc — are considered leadership contenders.
The pair travelled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in late December to meet with two of the president-elect’s cabinet picks and brief them on Ottawa’s plan for improving border security, for which Trump has asked, if Canada hopes to avoid crushing tariffs.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Justin Trudeau’s number one focus before his resignation should be to create a plan to avoid Donald Trump’s tariff threat.
Trudeau’s resignation “could not have come at a worse time for U.S.-Canada relations,” said Laura Dawson, executive director of Future Borders Coalition, an organization made of business leaders in both countries.
“The government is in this caretaker mode,” Dawson said in an interview with CBC News. “The relationship [with the U.S.] just can’t afford to be put on hold like that. “
Dawson says she’s not sure whether Trudeau’s resignation puts Trump in a stronger negotiating position on tariffs, but says it does mean Canada now lacks the capacity to respond quick and nimbly to any new issues that Trump raises.
“Who’s driving this bus?” she asked. “There’s no leadership.”
President Joe Biden’s press secretary described Trudeau as “a stalwart friend of the United States” in comments to reporters Monday.
“We have worked closely together on the full range of issues facing our countries and the world as close allies, neighbours and as members of the G7,” said Karine Jean-Pierre. “The president is grateful for the prime minister’s partnership on all of that and for his commitment to defending North America from the geopolitical threats of the 21st century.”
In addition to announcing his resignation as Liberal leader and as prime minister once a new leader is chosen, Justin Trudeau says he has asked the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until March 24. Here’s everything you need to know about what that means — and what happens next.
Published at Mon, 06 Jan 2025 19:00:57 +0000
By certifying Trump’s election win, Kamala Harris makes Jan. 6 routine again
For two centuries, the certification of U.S. presidential election results was little more than a ceremonial rubber stamp by Congress.
News outlets all but ignored the day of the official electoral college count, a routine procedural step on the way to the new president’s inauguration.
It’s hard to imagine that the vast majority of Americans gave the event more than a moment’s thought before Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters — egged on by Donald Trump and his relentless, baseless claims that the election had been stolen — rampaged through the Capitol to try to stop the count.
The U.S. may never again have the luxury of being so blasé about Jan. 6.
And yet on Monday, vice-president Kamala Harris presided calmly over the ceremony to certify the victory of Trump, her Republican rival in the 2024 election. Harris announced Trump’s 312 electoral college votes to her own 226, to the applause of Congress.
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris presided over a joint session of Congress that certified Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, with each side of the political aisle cheering its party’s candidate in the presidential race.
Exactly four years ago, vice-president Mike Pence had to be rushed off the Senate floor to safety, after conceding that his boss, Trump, had lost that election, while a mob outside the Capitol chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”
The contrast between the two days couldn’t be any more stark.
“I welcome the return of order and civility to these historic proceedings,” Pence said Monday on X.
‘Democracy can be fragile’
In a video message released Monday morning, Harris described her role in the certification as a “sacred obligation” to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
“As we have seen, our democracy can be fragile,” she said. “And it is up to each of us to stand up for our most cherished principles.”
Four years after the riot that threatened to alter the results of a free and fair election, it’s far from clear how Americans will perceive the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump takes office again and time passes.
President Joe Biden is urging people in the U.S. not to pretend that what happened that day didn’t happen.
“An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” Biden said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.
“We cannot allow the truth to be lost,” he added.
“Thousands of rioters crossed the National Mall and climbed the Capitol walls, smashing windows and kicking down doors,’ Biden continued. “Law enforcement officials were beaten, dragged, knocked unconscious and stomped upon.”
Trump is promising to pardon “a large portion” of those convicted for their role in the riot, potentially as soon as his first day in office, on Jan. 20.
The incoming president hasn’t clearly indicated which crimes he’s willing to pardon. Still, Trump’s promise has thrown a wrench into the around 300 prosecutions related to Jan. 6 that have yet to make their way though the courts.
Roughly 1,000 of those arrested pled guilty but now, emboldened by Trump’s looming return to the Oval Office, the accused have hardly any incentive to make a deal with prosecutors.
Some political commentators are taking the view that the electoral college count has now permanently moved from being a day of symbolism to a one of significance.
“Most profoundly, Trump will send a message down through the ages that a president who refuses to accept the result of a free and fair election and who incites an attack on the Capitol can get away with it — and regain power,” wrote Stephen Collinson, a CNN senior political reporter.
Veteran Republican strategist David Frum wrote in the Atlantic that: “Almost every institution in American society and the great majority of its wealthiest and most influential citizens will find some way to make peace with Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021.”
That day was “a striking and alarming example of the fragility of our constitutional system,” writes author Jonathan Alter in the New York Times. “Future perceptions of Jan. 6 will depend not just on the facts but on who wins the next election.”
There are signs it may be a long time before the electoral college certification permanently returns to being a ho-hum event that everyone ignores.
The deadly New Orleans truck attack has prompted heightened security for upcoming events in Washington, including the election certification of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and the state funeral for former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
Back in September, before election day, the Department of Homeland Security declared the count a national special security event, the first time that’s happened.
As a result, security around the Capitol was ramped up ahead of Monday’s joint session of Congress, regardless of the fact that no one really expected a repeat of what happened four years ago.
Workers installed thousands of two-metre high interlocking metal fencing panels along the National Mall, starkly labelled with signs saying “Police Line Do Not Cross” and all Washington police officers were called in for duty.
Inside the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader John Thune congratulated Trump and set the stage for the Republican-controlled Congress to forge ahead in step with the incoming administration.
“Now the work begins of delivering on our agenda, and Mr. President, Republicans are ready to go,” he said.
Published at Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:41:31 +0000
