Half of Canadians favor union with US – tycoon

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary said Trump’s ‘51st state’ idea should be used to deepen economic ties

US President-elect Donald Trump’s idea of annexing Canada is a great opportunity to think about forming a true union between the neighboring states, Canadian investor and Shark Tank reality TV star Kevin O’Leary has said. He claims many Canadians would back deeper ties with their southern neighbor. 

Trump ruffled some feathers in Ottawa recently when he claimed that Canadians would benefit if their country became America’s “51st state.”

“Canadians over the holidays – the last two days – have been talking about this. They want to hear more,” O’Leary told Fox Business on Friday.

Closer ties between the two North American countries could have its benefits, even if “there’s obviously a lot of issues,” he added. According to O’Leary, the Canadian public wants “to understand what the proposal really is.”

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“Think about the power of combining the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door,” the businessman argued.

“So secure [the northern territories], give a common currency, figure out taxes across the board, get everything trading both ways, create a new, almost EU-like passport – I like this idea and at least half of Canadians are interested,” he said.

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“You don’t have to sell the country, you don’t even have to merge it, but you can create a union,” O’Leary said. He added that liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is “immensely unpopular” at home and will likely lose power in the coming months.

Trump campaigned on a promise to protect American trade interests and threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian goods. The idea to make Canada a US state reportedly stems from a conversation earlier this month between Trump and Trudeau at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was present at the meeting, told reporters that the leaders were making jokes, and that Trump’s line about the 51st state was “in no way a serious comment.”