Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, is confident that Canada will not become the 51st U.S. state, considering the cultures of each nation are drastically different and would not bode well.
Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the president-elect threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods coming into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico until the two bordering countries work to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigration into the U.S.
During the pair’s meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump reportedly joked with Trudeau and suggested that Canada become the 51st U.S. state if the 25 percent tariffs cripple Canada’s economy.
While the idea of Canada becoming a U.S. state has been welcomed by the likes of Canadian businessman and investor Kevin O’Leary, one poll suggests that the majority of Canadians are widely against joining the U.S.
A poll conducted by the Canadian-owned market research and analytics company Leger shows that just 13 percent of Canadians would be open to the nation becoming the 51st U.S. state, while 82 percent were against the idea.
The poll found that the residents of Alberta, a province in Western Canada, were the most accepting of becoming a U.S. state, as 19 percent of residents accepted the idea.
Leahy, who previously lived and owned a company in Toronto and whose father was born in Hemingford, Quebec, before becoming a U.S. citizen, said the likelihood of Canada becoming a U.S. state is highly unlikely given the nations’ clashing cultures.
“Let me put a pin in this balloon. I love the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, but it’s not going to happen. I’ll tell you why – it’s because most Canadians, at their heart, are basically whiny European socialists. That’s the bottom line. Culturally, we’re different,” Leahy said on Monday’s episode of his radio show, The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Leahy cited Canada’s gun laws as one of the cultural differences between the nation and the U.S.
“Did you know that in Canada, they do not have a right to bear arms? They don’t have a Second Amendment. You have to be licensed to own a gun. It’s a privilege in Canada. This is a fundamental problem,” Leahy said.
“We don’t want a bunch of whiny European socialists who don’t believe in the Second Amendment,” Leahy added.
When it comes to different provinces of Canada joining the U.S., however, Leahy said Alberta, based on the Leger poll, would likely be an at-best purple state if it were to join the U.S.
“I will say this, there’s a possibility that one of the provinces, Alberta, the one that’s got the highest percentage of support, might want to come into the United States at some point. Four and a half million people there. They’d come in, they’d be probably a purple state, purpley, shall we say. Like Colorado before it went totally blue. I’d welcome Alberta. The rest of Canada? Too whiny European socialists. I don’t think it would fit,” Leahy said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
