As President-elect Donald Trump continually threatens steep tariffs and turning Canada into the 51st U.S. state, Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac, who has some deep ties with our American neighbours, thinks these threats are unlikely to become a reality.
“I think it's not something that's going to come to pass," said McIsaac, who lived and worked south of the border for more than 20 years before making his way back to his hometown several months before being elected the Sunshine City's mayor.
"He certainly throws this stuff out there as an idea, and some of it's pretty good negotiating,” McIsaac told OrilliaMatters.
Trump has threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods entering the U.S. – unless Canada takes action to secure its border – but McIsaac highlighted that such a move would be damaging to the U.S., as well.
“It would be too hard on the industries in the United States. I mean, they're going to suffer – electricity, oil, automotive parts – it'd be a significant hardship to the U.S. economy,” McIsaac said.
McIsaac spent much of his professional career in numerous parts of the U.S., including Texas, Minnesota, Georgia and Tennessee.
A chartered professional accountant, McIsaac held a number of executive-level positions for various organizations during his time stateside. To name a few, he served as chief financial officer with Cirrus Aircraft and Alimak Hek Inc., as director of the Duluth Airport Authority, and as treasurer of the (U.S.) National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Canadian politicians have already made counter-threats with regard to the tariffs, McIsaac said, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatening to halt energy exports to the U.S. in December.
Whether idle or not, however, McIsaac pointed to how Trump’s threats have already had an impact on relations between the two countries.
“Just him mentioning that intent has Canadians saying, ‘Hey, we're now going to do this to strengthen the border. We're going to do that. We're going to do ABC,’” McIsaac said.
“He's getting something out of it, and I think that's a wise negotiating position, but in terms of whether he would seriously follow through with that, I doubt it. But, you know, anything's possible," said McIsaac.
In December, the federal government announced a $1.3 billion plan to bolster border security, including expanding detection capabilities for illegal drugs and guns, deploying new canine teams, and much more.
There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 7, 2025
Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.
Nonetheless, Trump yet again made headlines today by suggesting he would consider “economic force” to annex Canada.
"That would really be something," he said. "You get rid of the artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better national security. Don't forget: We basically protect Canada."
In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there “isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States” in a social media post Tuesday.
“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” Trudeau added.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre similarly said that “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.”
“We are a great and independent country,” Poilievre said in a social media post.
“We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks,” Poilievre said. “We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods.”
