Donald Trump’s commitment to running his presidency like a real estate takeover continues apace. On Tuesday, he rounded out a surprisingly cordial press conference in the Oval Office with Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, by returning to the idea that the country might become America’s ‘51st state’. It would be “beautiful”, he said. A “really wonderful marriage”. Carney responded in terms presumably chosen to appeal to the US president: “As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale.”
When the prospect was first raised late last year, many Canadians dismissed it a “bad joke”, writes Margaret MacMillan, emeritus professor at the universities of Toronto and Oxford. No longer. It was a defining feature of last month’s Canadian election, and without Trump, Carney’s Liberal party “would not have had a chance”. The result has not just been to propel the former Bank of England governor into the top job but to reinvigorate the country’s sense of patriotism. |
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Who Watches the Watchers? 