Using Tariffs To Make Canada A State? It’s Been Tried Before

WINDSOR, CANADA - MARCH 4: Trucks cross the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, ... More Michigan on the first day of President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on March 4, 2025 in Windsor, Canada. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
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President Trump likes to muse about his plans to annex Canada. While proclaiming his love for the Canadian people, he has also threatened the nation with “economic force.” “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”
Some of this talk is probably just trolling; politicians understand the utility of baiting their opponents into outraged arguments. But Canadians seem to be taking Trump seriously.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Trump’s threats “a real thing” and predicted Canadians would fight back hard, boycotting U.S. products and shunning travel to American destinations. (Preliminary data suggest he may be right.) (Nadine Yousif, “Trudeau Says Trump Threat to Annex Canada ‘Is a Real Thing,’” BBC, Feb. 7, 2025; and John Grant, “Canada-U.S. Aviation: Airlines Respond to Weakening Demand,” OAG Aviation Worldwide Ltd. blog (Mar. 26, 2025).)
VANCOUVER, CANADA - MARCH 28: Tags reading "Buy Canadian Instead" are seen on the empty shelf of ... More American products at a supermarket on March 28, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada. In response to US President Donald Trump's tariff threats, Canadians have adopted a "Buy Canada" approach, choosing domestic goods over American ones and canceling trips south of the border. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
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Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, has struck a similarly defiant note. “The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” he said on March 27. “It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner.” (Max Saltman, “Old U.S.-Canada Relationship Is ‘Over,’ Warns Canadian Prime Minister,” CNN, Mar. 28, 2025.)
If Canadians are taking Trump seriously, it’s understandable: They’ve been down this road before. The United States has had designs on Canada for centuries, stretching back to the earliest days of American nationhood. More to the point, this isn’t the first time Americans have weaponized tariffs in the service of annexation: U.S. political leaders tried it in the 1890s, too. (Kristofer Allerfeldt, “How the U.S. Has Tried to Annex Canada Before — And Why Some Canadians Wanted to Become American,” The Conversation, Mar. 10, 2025.)