Kevin O'Leary says he wants to talk to Trump about a U.S.-Canada ...

Kevin O'Leary's comments come after repeated statements by Donald Trump encouraging Canada to become 'our 51st state'

Published Dec 27, 2024  •  Last updated 1 hour ago  •  5 minute read

Kevin O'Leary in January 2024. Photo by Kent Nishimura /Getty Images

Canadian business mogul Kevin O’Leary has expressed an interest in meeting with Donald Trump to discuss the idea of “an economic union” between the United States and Canada.

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After Trump claimed on social media that Canadians could pay 60 per cent less in taxes by joining the U.S., O’Leary told Fox Business on Thursday that he wants to pitch the U.S. president-elect on a more limited integration of the two nations.

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After telling Fox Business that he would visit Trump’s Mar-A-Lago, the president-elect’s so-called “winter White House,” O’Leary clarified to National Post that he has not been invited to the resort in Florida, but will be attending the inauguration in January, where he may broach the subject.

“What is of interest and what has caught the imagination of Canadians is an economic union beyond what we have now, because  the world’s changing pretty quickly and we both have things that each other need, and there’s never been two countries more aligned,” Leary told the Post.

The businessman pointed to America’s growing demand for energy and natural resources, which Canada has an abundance of, as a great starting point where the two countries would benefit immediately. Enhancing the economic relationship between Canada and the U.S., Leary added, would permit the countries to shift their strategic focus to curb the influence of China and Russia. He said he views the budding relationship between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and incoming U.S. secretary of the interior Doug Burgum as evidence of the growing overlap between Canadian Conservatives and American Republicans on the issue.

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O’Leary was cautiously optimistic that a new Canadian government in the new year, coinciding with an ascendant Trump administration, unsaddled by worries of a midterm election, could be the right ingredients to build momentum behind the idea of an economic union.

“We have a unique time in Canada. This government’s collapsing. (Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau’s been a horrific manager, and the numbers say that. You don’t have to look at anything else except the economic numbers. They’re a disaster on every measure,” he said. “You know, Trudeau’s like a little mouse running around the kitchen, and his own party has a broom, and they’re going to get the mouse. They’re going to get him soon. I don’t know when, but it’s soon. And that’s a whole new reset for the country…. Trudeau is the worst prime minister in the history of the country. He will go down in history as the idiot king.”

“Somebody has to start the narrative,” O’Leary said, pointing to his personal relationship with Trump as a starting point to begin the discussion.

O’Leary first floated the idea of an economic union between Canada and America in an appearance on Fox Business.

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“There’s 41 million Canadians — basically the population of California, sitting on the world’s largest amounts of all resources — including the most important, energy and water. Canadians, over the holidays the last two days, have been talking about this. They want to hear more,” said the Montreal-born entrepreneur and reality television personality, who is a vocal Trump supporter.

“There’s obviously a lot of issues and more details, but what this could be is the beginning of an economic union. Think about the power of combining the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door.”

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O’Leary already lives in the U.S. The Shark Tank investor currently resides in Florida but lived for decades in Boston, Mass. He recently said he left the state due to high taxes.

The idea of deeper integration between Canada and the U.S., and sometimes Mexico, has been a source of discussion for decades, often compared to a North American equivalent to the European Union, with a shared currency and identification papers. O’Leary pitched similar ideas for an “economic union” during his Fox Business appearance.

“Give a common currency, figure out taxes across the board, get everything trading both ways, create a new, almost EU-like passport. I like this idea, and at least half of Canadians are interested. The problem is the government’s collapsing in Canada right now,” O’Leary noted, referring to Trudeau’s embattled government, his cabinet reshuffle and a potential federal election. “Nobody wants Trudeau to negotiate this deal — I don’t want him doing it for me — so I’m going to go to Mar-a-Lago. I’ll start the narrative. The 41 million Canadians, I think most of them would trust me on this deal.”

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Such negotiations have historically stalled because of the initiative’s complexity, according to a report from the nonpartisan research group the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“The sad truth of North America is that very few leaders of Canada, Mexico and the United States have ever entertained serious discussion of North American goals or plans,” the report says.

“The three governments are not organized to approach North American issues, and officials in each government prefer to deal with problems by themselves or bilaterally…. An even more important reason why these ideas have not been discussed is the complex set of fears and prejudices that lurk deep in the souls of the three countries.”

O’Leary’s comments come on the heels of repeated statements from Trump encouraging Canada to become “our 51st state” and belittling Trudeau as “the Governor of Canada.” He first floated the idea during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trudeau and members of his cabinet. Trump has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff against Canada upon taking office in January and on Nov. 29, he joked to Trudeau that if Canada wants to avoid tariffs, it could always become the 51st state.

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A month later, Trump’s still repeating the same joke. 

Canada’s “taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote in a Christmas Day post on Truth Social, a media platform founded by the president-elect.

Trudeau appeared to break his silence on Trump’s trolling for the first time on Thursday in a terse message on X.

“Some information about Canada for Americans,” Trudeau wrote, above a video narrated by Tom Brokaw about the broad brushstrokes of Canadian politics, landscapes and history which aired ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

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