After 150 years of friendship, the US and Canada come to blows

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Canadian officials used to think President Trump was joking during his first term when he mused in private meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about annexing Canada. All it took was a wild hockey showdown between the two countries to show that Canada is taking the threat very seriously.

Turning Canada into “the 51st" state has been one of Trump’s most persistent, if seemingly far-fetched, talking points at the start of his second term as president. He publicly proposes removing what he calls the “artificial line" between the two countries. He’s threatened to use “economic force," including tariffs, to compel Canada to join the United States.

He told Trudeau in a call earlier this month that he could erase the border by ripping up a 1908 treaty between Great Britain and the U.S. that helped set the 49th parallel as the boundary, according to people familiar with the call. He has started to refer to Trudeau as “governor." Canadian leaders are not amused.

Trudeau convened an emergency economic summit with business and labor leaders, encouraging them to lessen their dependence on the U.S. and to remind their American customers that both economies would suffer in a prolonged battle. He went to Europe to seek support from allies and make the case that if Canada isn’t safe from Trump’s threats, nobody is.

Then the gloves literally came off. When the U.S. and Canada squared off in an international tournament in Montreal last weekend, raucous Canadian fans greeted the American national anthem with boos.