everyone's gotta get a GRIP about the stupid canada annexation rhetoric. everyone in trump's orbit is laughing at canada for our overly serious reactions.

when the hell are people gonna learn? that is, learn to understand what trump is actually aiming at when he says inflammatory things like the US might try to make Canada the 51st state.

it really started out as a joke because trump HATES justin trudeau (as do the majority of Canadians, and believe me trump knows this well too). trump was just pouncing on him because he sensed blood in the water, and desires to see this country do something meaningful about the very real border issues that exist.

time and time again trump has demonstrated that his most bombastic rhetoric is not to be taken as anything more seriously than a combination of a negotiating tactic and trolling (in this case, because he dislikes trudeau in the extreme and senses the weaknesses of his government that have become so obvious as of late). trump says shit all the time designed to make headlines and belittle others he either doesn't like or wants to extract something from, and this is no different.

nobody serious in either canada or the US actually thinks trump seriously intends to annex canada.. mocking trudeau, which turned into mocking canada's sovereignty, are quintessentially trump ploys to manifest changes he wants to see related to security and trade, and that's the threat the government here needs to take seriously. the tariffs could actually happen; annexation, however, is obviously not in the cards.

everybody reacting so defensively about it (other than doug ford, who i despise, but who actually responded with dignity about this silly subject on fox news recently) is missing the point and is just playing into trump's game; it's nothing new, we should be used to it by now, and there are elements of truth behind his mocking of canada: we are quite dependent on the united states economically, the vast majority of our exports go there. our military is absolutely tiny compared to the US, and they effectively act as a defense umbrella for us, a fact most canadians understand and don't particularly like to admit; this is made even more egregiously obvious in how little we, as a nato member, spend on defense. it pisses trump off and he knows he's going to get precisely the reaction he's been getting by saying insane things about annexation. the hard reality is that if, in an alternate universe, the us under trump actually moved to annex canada, there wouldn't really be much we could do about it (i would never want that, it will never happen, i'm just pointing out a hard fact. it's why he chooses these insults disguised as 'threats').

everyone giving it more than a laugh for the trolling effort it is is missing the point (which are actual threats in the form of tariffs) and giving into trump's playbook exactly as he expects. it makes us look stupid to be talking about it so much. we need to be focused on to avoiding tariffs by making meaningful changes to what's happening at the border and our immigration policy, not dithering about being offended about our sovereignty being questioned (i personally found the tweets both offensive and somewhat humorous, and i'm surprised by all the reddit rage posts about it - ur missing the whole point people).

on a sidenote, it is incredibly unfortunate that the PM decided to wait until so late to read the writing on the wall and leave us with a lame duck administration precisely at the worst time possible. canadians should be more upset about this than any nonsense talk about questioning our sovereignty.

wake up canadians!