The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador says he found it “incredibly concerning” to hear senior staff from U.S. President Donald Trump’s office convey that the commander-in-chief is “very serious” when he talks about annexing Canada.
“As Canadians, we need to realize that he is not joking, that he is definitively looking towards the 51st state being Canada,” Andrew Furey told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos, in an interview airing Sunday. “He’s had a chance to change that narrative, and not only has he doubled down, I think he’s quadrupled down now on saying that.”
“So that was very, very, very concerning to me, the confirmation of the seriousness of that approach,” Furey added.
Amid evolving threats from Trump that he plans to implement a series of significant tariffs, all of Canada’s premiers travelled to Washington, D.C. for a trade mission this week.
Nearing the tail end of the trip, the group met with White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair and Director of the Presidential Personnel Office Sergio Gor, after which B.C. Premier David Eby said the provincial leaders conveyed the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state is a “non-starter.”
In a social media post later that day, however, Blair wrote that he and Gor “never agreed that Canada would not be the 51st state.”
“We only agreed to share Premier Eby’s comments (with Trump),” he also wrote.
When asked whether he thinks it was worth it to meet with a staffer as opposed to the president himself, only to be contradicted online over the outcome of the meeting, Furey insisted to Kapelos it was important for the premiers to reiterate an American annexation of Canada is “not going to happen, ever.”
“Yes, he’s deputy chief of staff, but I trust my deputy chief of staff, there’s no light between me and him. So presumably it’s the same in the White House, there is no light between the two,” Furey said. “And he told us point blank, take the president seriously. Don’t dismiss it as humour.”
“That is a chilling comment coming from the president of the United States, the leader of our closest ally, our biggest trading partner,” he also said.
Trump has repeatedly said Canada would be better off if it became a state, including early last month when he said he’d use “economic force” to make that a reality.
The president also said this week that “amazing things happen to Canada” if it becomes a state, and that people would pay less taxes and have “perfect military protection” if the country were annexed.
Meanwhile, Trump has announced several rounds of tariffs on Canadian goods, including his initial executive order imposing 25 per cent levies on all imports and 10 per cent on energy, which come into effect as soon as March 4. He later announced there will be additional 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum starting March 12. And this week, he announced he plans to charge reciprocal tariffs, a policy he called “the big one.”
Furey said that while the premiers had “constructive conversations” with American lawmakers, he’s “not sure (he feels) further ahead” when it comes to cooperation with the Trump administration.
Negotiations like ‘swinging at the air’
“We’re down there trying to create a path together towards resolution of tariffs, and it doesn’t seem like it’s being met substantively with any kind of structure or recognition from the White House itself,” Furey also said, when asked how the Team Canada strategy could adjust.
“So absent that, I wonder if we’re just negotiating with ourselves and swinging at the air,” he added.
The Newfoundland and Labrador premier said Canadian elected officials at all levels need to regroup and develop a “strategy that meets the moment,” because conversations around concessions and working together aren’t punching through with the American administration.
When asked whether he has any insight into Trump’s motivations for wanting to take over Canada after his conversations in Washington, Furey said he “didn’t do enough psychiatry in medical school to pretend to understand what motivates the president of the United States at this particular moment,” and called the latter an “erratic actor.”
Furey did, however, point to Trump’s repeated references to the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which he calls a “subsidy,” and the president’s belief that tariffs are a revenue generator.
“All I would say is that as Canadians, we need to stand firm, stand strong, and to meet this historic moment,” he said.
Trump has claimed the U.S. has a trade deficit of US$200 billion with Canada. But according to Statistics Canada, when trade in goods and services are combined, Canada recorded an overall trade surplus of $94.4 billion with the United States in 2023.
‘No price that is too extreme’
Furey said that in the face of what is likely to be a “sustained attack on who we are” by the president, Canadians should be prepared for anything to defend the country’s sovereignty.
He added he agrees with former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, who, according to the Toronto Star this week, said at the launch of his latest book that there is no price too high to defend Canada’s independence.
“And if I was still prime minister, I would be prepared to impoverish the country and not be annexed, if that was the option we’re facing,” Harper said to an invitation-only audience, according to the Toronto Star.
Furey told Kapelos he agrees, saying “there can be no price that is too extreme.”
‘No authority’ to annex Canada: former ambassador
Former U.S. ambassador to Canada David Cohen — who served under former U.S. president Joe Biden until last month — largely dismissed the concerns around annexation, saying Trump has “no authority” to make Canada the 51st state.
“It would require Canadian consent and a negotiation, and I don’t know how much clearer Canada can be that it has no interest in being the 51st state of the United States,” Cohen told Kapelos, also in an interview for CTV’s Question Period, airing Sunday. “So this is just something that is not happening. And it doesn’t matter how many times Donald Trump says it, it still isn’t going to happen.”
Cohen also said that while Trump’s tariffs will certainly harm certain industries, he doesn’t believe that the U.S. alone has the power to completely ruin Canada’s economy. He added that he believes the damage to the American economy will eventually put enough pressure on Trump to back off of his tariff plans.
“I don’t accept that,” Cohen said, when asked about Trump’s ultimatum to face economic ruin or become a state. “I don’t accept that Donald Trump, that any president of the United States, has the capacity to cause economic ruin to Canada. I just don’t think that’s true.”
The former ambassador said that while Trump is “conducting business in a different way” than all the presidents who came before him, his advice to Canadian officials remains to “deal with a broad variety of stakeholders” across the U.S. government, if they hope to make headway in the bilateral relationship.
