‘Give your head a shake, old guy’ – ex-Canadian PM to Trump

Jean Chretien has said Ottawa should “play offense” and join forces with other states to counter the US president-elect

Jean Chretien, who served as Canada’s prime minister from 1993 to 2003, has lashed out at US President-elect Donald Trump over his suggestion of annexing the neighboring country.

In an article published by the Globe and Mail on Sunday, Chretien, who turned 91 that day, addressed Trump directly: “From one old guy to another: Give your head a shake! What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world… to join the United States?”

The former prime minister described the incoming US leader’s talk of absorbing Canada as “totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats to our very sovereignty.”

“We may look easy-going. Mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness,” the veteran politician stressed. He urged Canadian officials of all levels to start showing leadership.

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Chretien said it’s not enough for Canada’s major parties to merely voice their opposition to Trump’s takeover suggestion, and that Ottawa should start playing offense, as the only way to “break this cycle” of Trump’s “blackmail.”

The former prime minister suggested that Canada should confront the US over the flow of illegal firearms pouring in from across the border as well as Washington’s reluctance to recognize the Northwest Passage as Canadian territorial waters. In addition, Ottawa needs to join forces with Panama, Mexico, Denmark and the European Union, which have also been targeted by Trump’s territorial or trade-related demands of late, Chretien wrote.

Since his triumph in the November 5 presidential election, Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of taking over Canada, while threatening to slap a 25% tariff on goods crossing the border, to offset what he deems unfair trade surpluses.

In a post on his Truth Social platform last Tuesday, the US president-elect posted a map depicting the US and Canada as a single country and the words ‘United States’ slapped onto the whole entity. That same day, Trump told reporters that Washington could use “economic force” to absorb its northern neighbor.

Commenting on the Republican’s remarks in a post on X, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, similarly pushed back against Trump’s suggestions, insisting that “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period. We are a great and independent country.”