Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued insistence that Canada become the country’s “cherished” 51st state, there doesn’t appear to be much of an appetite for a merger on either side of the border.
A new poll conducted by the non-profit Angus Reid Institute found that 60 per cent of Americans have “no interest in seeing” Canada join the U.S., while 32 per cent are “interested but only if Canadians want to.”
Six per cent agreed with the statement that the U.S. should annex Canada using political and economic pressure, and two per cent believe the U.S. should annex Canada using military force.
Overall, opposition to annexation in Canada remains high, at 90 per cent.
But more and more Canadians — 54 per cent up from 32 per cent in January — now think Trump is serious about his threats, whereas only 34 per cent of Americans take him seriously.
Angus Reid asked, based on Canadian political preferences, how respondents would vote if there were a referendum on joining the U.S.
One in five Conservatives said they’d vote to join the U.S., compared to low numbers among other party supporters: two per cent of Liberals, three per cent of NDP supporters and one per cent of Bloc Québécois supporters say they’d vote to join the U.S.
However, the poll also asked how that support would change among Conservative voters if the federal Liberals won a majority in the next election, and support to join the U.S. rose to 33 per cent.
The online poll surveyed 2,005 American respondents, and an equal number of Canadians. Angus Reid Institute conducted both the Canadian and American surveys from Feb. 27 to March 3.
Online polls can not be assigned a margin of error, but for comparison purposes, a sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20, according to Angus Reid.
At a press conference Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the two countries are now more like rivals than close allies given the ongoing trade war.
“I think Canada is a neighbour. They are a partner. They have always been an ally. Perhaps they are becoming a competitor now,” she told reporters.
This week, Trump reiterated his desire to annex Canada, saying that it only makes “sense” for Canada to become another American state to make tariffs disappear, to reduce taxes and secure its military defence.
