Canada Day - In the Time of Trump
- Ashok Dhillon
- Jul 1
- 6 min read
Why does Trump want Canada as ‘a cherished 51st State of the United States’?
For our American friends, a very brief history of Canada, plus, a modest list of Canada’s assets, and contributions, as, some Americans can be woefully uninformed about their giant northern neighbour, in spite of the fact that Canada as a country (not as a trading block like the EU), is one of America’s largest trading partner. It is also one of the biggest buyers of American produced goods, and so one of America’s biggest clients! It is also one of America’s closest allies, and close cultural partner in language, movies, music, media and sports.
Canada Day celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation on July 1st, 1867. On this day, Canada became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, and was celebrated as Dominion Day.
In 1982, the Canadian Government under the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (father of the recent former PM Justin Trudeau), repatriated the Canadian Constitution from Britain to Canada, which meant that Canada was no longer under the authority of Great Britain, but was now a fully independent Sovereign Country. So, appropriately, on October 27, 1982, Dominion Day was officially changed to the present - Canada Day.
Canada is the second largest country in the world, after Russia, in land mass, and therefore bigger than the United States. The US is also slightly smaller than China (for context).
Like Russia, Canada is richly endowed by enormous quantities of natural resources like oil, natural gas, and metallurgical high grade coal (for making steel); it has vast forests (lumber); the great Canadian shield which has precious stones (diamonds, emeralds, amethyst, aquamarine, garnets, and many more); and precious metals (gold, silver, and platinum); it has large deposits of uranium (critical to the nuclear industry); and for the high-tech industry it has critically needed rare earth minerals, lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, cobalt, and vanadium; and the more common but must-have industrial minerals – iron ore, tungsten, sulphur, gypsum, zinc, potash and much more.
Apart from being the leading producer of some of these in the world, Canada is also a leader in agriculture products such as pulses, wheat, durum wheat, corn, canola, seeds, sunflower, soybeans etc., and on top of that, Canada produces, cattle and all dairy products, and lets not forget eggs. Additionally, Canada is one of the world’s largest producers of potash, which is vital for fertilizers.
Canada’s arctic region is prized for its potential for additional vast natural resource riches, particularly oil and gas. In a warming world, the thawing arctic seas present the possible ‘northern-passage’ for world-trade shipping routes that could be incredibly lucrative as it would be a game changer in terms of shipping cost-savings for world trade.
Last but not certainly the least, one of Canada’s greatest assets in today’s increasingly parched world is its reserves of fresh water. Canada has the world’s largest reserves of fresh water. It is said, future wars are going to be fought over fresh water - as the world hurtles towards the destruction of the planet, and all its natural resources.
Canada is the second largest country in the world, but it has one of the smallest populations per square kilometre, or per square mile. At about 40 million people, Canada is one of the least densely populated countries in the world, and yet is one of the most developed, and one of the richest.
Canada generally celebrates Canada Day as most countries celebrate their independence day, but this year, Canada Day has taken on a greater significance for Canadians, because its very independence is being threatened by US President, Donald J. Trump, who keeps insisting that Canada should be ‘a cherished 51st State’ of the US.
While most Canadians have loved the US and the American people, and have had great relations with them for decades, but, there is no way that the overwhelming majority of Canadians would consider becoming a part of America, because of the countries’ critical differences.
Canada is by and large a polite and modest country, in spite of the fact that it is among the biggest, and a world leader in natural resources, agriculture (as mentioned above), industrial-technologies and high-tech, and of course culture.
In technology one of its most notable achievements was the ‘Space Arm’ which, more accurately, is the ‘Canada Arm’, with which NASA could carry out its space shuttle programs. The Canada Arm was critically vital to carry out the entire space program as it facilitated so much of the actual ‘work’ done in space. Canada also had produced the worlds most advanced telecommunication technologies, which at one time included the preferred hand-held phone used by almost every world leaders, the legendary, iconic, ‘BlackBerry’.
Canada is also a leader in world class technologies such as AI, quantum computing, advanced robotics and automation, biotech innovations, sustainable energy innovations, next-gen agricultural tech, health devices, water purification and again so much more.
Canada is also responsible for life-saving, game-changing discoveries such as insulin and penicillin! Not to mention we have a pretty good universal healthcare system, covering all and coveted by many countries.
And Canada and Canadians developed games that changed America – games like ice-hockey (of course), lacrosse, basketball, and surprise, ‘American’ football. Just to give an idea.
In a perpetually strife torn world, Canada has often been the most critical leader in global diplomacy, and is a passionate civil and human-rights advocate around the world.
In modern times, Canadian armed-forces have gone to war in the two Great Wars, as part of the British Empire, and they have distinguished themselves in battles that are some of the most iconic actions in history. Today, Canada, though with ridiculously small armed forces, steps up frequently as a leader of some of the peacekeeping missions for the United Nations, making it renowned for providing diplomatic leadership in some of the most dangerous and contentious conflicts in the world.
Canada is also one of the leaders in the efforts for denuclearization of the world’s nuclear arsenal. Canada has always punched above its weight, quietly and modestly, in almost all spheres of human activity, including war. That is why Canada, in spite of all similarities to America, is incompatible to America; its culture of polite modesty is antithetical to the American psyche.
Canada’s nature as a peacekeeper is in stark contrast to America’s decades-long love of war.
Canadians have guns but mostly in rural or undeveloped regions for hunting. Except for a minority of Canadians, most Canadians don’t want, or feel the need for owning guns, and have therefore far fewer incidents of gun-violence, and still less incidents of ‘mass shootings’.
As for culturally, in Hollywood, some of the most iconic actors, directors, and script writers are Canadian (Captain Kirk of Star Trek, William Shatner; Pamela Anderson of Bay Watch; the two Ryans – Ryan Reynolds and Ryan Gossling, Jack Black, Keanu Reeves, and so on and on). Also our animators are amongst the best in the world.
In music – Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, The Guess Who, Joni Mitchell, Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, Leonard Cohen, Celine Dion, K.D. Lang, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Avril Levigne, Alanis Morissette, Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Jann Arden, RUSH, The Weekend, Drake – to name just a few.
In sports Canada has produced some truly remarkable athletes in the world. In sports such as ice hockey, basketball, football, skiing, figure skating, soccer, swimming, gymnastics and so many other sports. There are too many to recount but suffice it to say that we are well respected at the Olympics and in the Commonwealth Games.
Despite its vastness and all its grand empty natural spaces, and its legendary winters, Canada is a stunningly beautiful country, and Canadians are a hardy, happy people, unified in spite of their incredible racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity.
Politically, Canada is mostly Liberal, with enough Conservatives to make it interesting. And it has two official languages, English and French, which also makes it politically interesting.
Finally, Canada is consistently ranked as one of the top three countries in the world to live in, the other two usually being much smaller Scandinavian countries. For such a large diverse country, it functions surprisingly well. So we will continue to be a great, polite, friendly neighbour, but no thanks to Trump’s offer for adoption, as the 51st State.
All things considered, Canada is a prize, and one can understand why Trump wants it.
Canada Day - In the Time of Trump - July 1, 2025
Canada is truly the best!!