Canada. The true north, strong and…free? Not if President-elect Donald J. Trump has anything to say about it. And he does. At a press conference in Florida on Jan. 7, he floated the idea of using economic force to convince Canada to become the 51st state, calling the border between the two countries “an artificially drawn line.” Perhaps he was speaking to his snowbird neighbors in Florida, the nearly four million Canadians who make up the state’s largest international market.
Canadians are a sneaky-privileged bunch, and we know it. We are abundantly rich in energy and natural resources. Within our borders is 20 percent of the world’s total freshwater but only 0.5 percent of the world’s population—it does get cold in the winter, after all. Our neighbor/neighbour and closest friend has the world’s largest economy and military. Our two nations’ histories, cultures and economies are intertwined. We cross each other’s borders with frequency and ease. We compete together in professional sports leagues, and my compatriots are certainly aware that a Canadian hockey team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993. We share the longest international border in the world (and it’s very real), and we don’t fret if the other measures it as 5,525 miles or 8,891 kilometers.
As a Canadian who has spent much of his adult life living, studying and working south of that border, I am eternally grateful to and for the United States of America. Knowing both realities intimately, I can point to a hundred things that make each country extraordinary. I am continually in awe of the generosity of the American people, the way they value community, ingenuity and excellence, and, of course, the cheaper gas prices.
But the most important thing about this friendship is that we are different. It is our complementarity that highlights the gifts we are to each other. It is something analogous to Pope Francis’ understanding of the relationships between different Christian churches. “How many important things unite us!,” he wrote in one of his landmark teaching documents. “If we really believe in the abundantly free working of the Holy Spirit, we can learn so much from one another! It is not just about being better informed about others, but rather about reaping what the Spirit has sown in them, which is also meant to be a gift for us” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” No. 246).
For almost a decade Canadians have watched the soap opera of American politics from the best seat in the hemispheric house. The drama of President Trump versus the storied democratic institutions erected to withstand demagoguery has been engrossing. Canadians have always been close enough to the fire to feel the heat but far enough to not get burned. The spectacle of Mr. Trump’s first term, the chaotic aftermath culminating on Jan. 6, 2021, and his unbelievable resurgence in 2024, taught us that he has to be taken both literally and seriously, regardless of the subject matter preoccupying him at any moment. Canada becoming the 51st state is only a preposterous idea until Donald Trump thinks it isn’t. And it was only a matter of time before Canada became a subject of his preoccupation.
Mr. Trump’s musings come at a time when Canada is politically unstable. After a decade in power, the ruling Liberal government is dysfunctional, and a deeply unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 that he will resign as party leader. The man poised to be the next prime minister, the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre, is himself a bit Trumpian, using populist rhetoric to foment fear and frustration among Canadians who are naturally feeling anxious about the state of the economy, the health care system and housing affordability. In the next federal election, Mr. Poilievre’s party could form a majority government—giving it the ability to pass legislation without any votes from the other parties’ members—while garnering less than 50 percent of the popular vote. There is no doubt the country is divided politically.
But not on everything. A recent poll found that 82 percent of Canadians do not want to become the 51st state of the United States. Even in generally more conservative provinces, like Alberta, three-quarters of Canadians don’t like the idea. Regardless of who is elected the next prime minister, he or she would stand up to President-elect Trump on this existential issue.
Like Canada and the United States, the Catholic Church is, in some important ways, divided. But over the past three years of the Synod on Synodality, Catholics also gained a greater appreciation for our deep, fundamental unity. Yes, we disagree about this issue or that teaching. But at the core of our communion is a common faith, rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ. In listening sessions around the world and at the two gatherings at the Vatican in 2023 and 2024, Catholics took seriously the task of discerning a path forward through many difficult and complex issues, holding many perspectives and opinions in tension, while refraining from judging and condemning one another in a sincere search for the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Speaking about these synodal conversations in an interview on the “Jesuitical” podcast in 2023, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy, the recently appointed archbishop of Washington, D.C., said: “The beautiful thing about our local dialogues was people who disagreed came together and in faith shared and were energized and supported in their faith, even though they were disagreeing. That’s what we have to strive for.”
That is what I hope Canadians across the political spectrum strive for now.
Considering the political turmoil now found on both sides of our very long border, it is not surprising that Cardinal McElroy, who has a deep knowledge of both U.S. politics and international relations, was appointed the archbishop of Washington. In his first press conference this week at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, a short distance from the White House, the cardinal was asked how he plans to deal with President Trump’s new administration. He said, “All of us as Americans should hope and pray that the government of our nation is successful in helping to enhance our society, our culture, our life and the whole of our nation.” Eh-men!
Canadians are in for a rocky few months of politics. The Liberals must find a new leader. The party will likely lose a confidence vote in Parliament when it reconvenes in late March, triggering a general election. Whoever the next Liberal leader is, the party is expected to suffer a crushing defeat to the Conservatives.
But first, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States of America. And if his threats to impose crippling tariffs in a bid to annex Canada are anything more than empty bluster, who the next prime minister is may not be the most pressing question for Canadians.
