Trudeau’s comments, first reported by the Toronto Star, were picked up on an open microphone when Trudeau believed the media had been escorted out.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on…,” Trudeau said, according to audio from the Canada-US Economic Summit in Toronto shared by CBC News, before the microphone cut out.
Trudeau made the comments after delivering an opening address at the summit, and after journalists had left the room, CBC reported.
In an interview with CNN before Trump’s inauguration, Trudeau said that Trump’s comments about turning Canada into the United States’ 51st state are just a distraction from the consequences of Trump’s tariff threats.
He added that Canada becoming another US state was “not going to happen.”
“Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American,” he told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” in the interview in early January.
“President Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that, by that conversation, to take away from the conversation around 25 per cent tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete,” Trudeau said in the CNN interview.
Trump followed through with his threats to impose tariffs on Canada last week, announcing a new 25 per cent duty on most Canadian goods imported into the US. However, after Trudeau made commitments to bolster security at Canada’s border, Trump announced a pause on the proposed tariffs for at least a month.
After a call with Trump, Trudeau said Canada would be implementing its previously announced A$2 billion border plan, as well as committing to appointing a “fentanyl czar” and listing cartels as terrorists.
He added that Canada needs to be prepared if Trump decides to go ahead with the tariffs after 30 days.
“We need to be ready to respond robustly,” he said. “We also have to be ready to support Canadians through the responses we’re giving and through a difficult time of tariffs.”
Canada had planned to retaliate to the U.S. action with 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion Canadian dollars (A$173 billion) worth of American goods.
Trudeau said it’s also time to have “genuine free trade in Canada,” while strengthening its trade relationships with other countries.
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said she is happy the meeting is focused on internal trade, trade diversification and responding to US tariffs.
“It’s clear that we can’t just tinker around the edges with incremental steps right now,” she said. “We’ve got to be bold so that businesses and communities can pivot to be more resilient and less reliant on what happens in the US,” Laing said in a statement.
The summit is being hosted by the government’s newly created advisory council on Canada-US relations, and includes business and labor leaders, Indigenous leaders and public policy experts. Several federal cabinet ministers are also attending.
Joining the Canadian Chamber of Commerce are representatives from the Global Automakers of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Canadian Manufacturing and Exporters plus the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said he intends to tell the government that if tariffs are imposed, businesses and workers will need help in the form of direct government relief, tax relief or wage subsidies.
