Trump's plans to annex Canada backfires as Mark Carney condemns 'American betrayal'

Canada gave a resounding two fingers up to Donald Trump in Monday's national election. The US president's months spent demanding that the British Commonwealth nation become America's 51st state saw Canadians hit back at the ballot box. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, who positioned himself as best able to fight Trump's nation-grabbing ambitions, was swept back into power in a stinging rebuke of US aggression.

"America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country," said Carney, condemning "American betrayal" as he celebrated victory. "These are idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so he can own us. That will never, ever happen."

Canada's Conservative Party, which had been leading by 25% in opinion polls earlier this year after 11 years of government by the beleaguered Liberal Party, saw Trump's chaotic trade war and demands to annex Canada doom them to defeat.

Though Carney appears to have fallen short of winning an outright majority in the Commons, he is set to lead a coalitiongovernment that claims a mandate to fight back against Trump's kleptomania.

The Liberal victory was a damningrepudiation of the aggression displayed by Trump, who even as Canadians were voting on Monday bizarrely called on them to put his own name on their ballots. He promised to cut Canadians' taxes, "quadruple in size" their steel, lumber, aluminium and automotive industries and enjoy "zero tariffs or taxes if Canada becomes the cherished 51st state of the United States of America." He added on social media: "IT WAS MEANTTO BE!"

Trump's obsession with annexing Canada has grown daily. "Canada only works as a state," he recently said. "It would be one of the great states... this would be the most incredible country."

He proposed that Canada's prime minister become the new state's governor and claimed that without massive US subsidies "Canada ceases to exist as a viable country".

His bellicose rhetoric paused in recent days as he focused on launching a global trade war - including a 10% tariff on British imports and an onerous 25% on most Canadian imports - but his compulsion to annex Canada remains undiminished.

Trump's acquisitiveness has provoked once unthinkable fears that America might invade Canada - raising the disturbing question of how Britain might react.

The mounting crisis has not escaped King Charles, who, as Canada's constitutional head of state, must walk a delicate tightrope between supporting his Commonwealth subjects and trying not to alienate Britain's long-term ally America.

Charles called Canada "a proud, resilient and compassionate country" on that nation's Flag Day in February and said that the sight of its maple-leaf flag arouses "a sense of pride and admiration".

Meeting Prime Minister Carney - former head of the Bank of England - at Buckingham Palace last month, Charles notably wore a red tie, which was seen by royal watchers as a subtle message ofsupport for Canada, a nation long associated with the colour.

In recent weeks he has also worn Canadian military medals while visiting a Royal Navy vessel, planted a maple tree behind Buckingham Palace and presented a ceremonial sword to his Canadian attendant.

But many Canadians wish that the King would make a more emphatic statement of support.

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer only exacerbated the crisis last month when he refused to back Canada against Trump's push to annex the nation.

After meeting with Trump in the White House, Starmer was asked if they had discussed Canada and replied: "I think you are trying to find a divide between us that doesn't exist. We are the closest of nations. We didn't discuss Canada."

In a statement yesterday Starmer appeared to roll back on those words when congratulating Carney on his win. "I welcome your leadership on international issues and I know we will continue to work closely on defence, security, trade and investment," he said.

Yet as Trump continues demandingthat Canada be annexed by America, the spectre of war between the two longtime allies has gone from wildly improbable to disturbingly plausible.

The vast majority of Canadians - 73% in the latest poll - are understandably outraged at Trump's belittling proposal to relinquish their independence and become just another star on the Stars and Stripes.

"We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US," vowed Carney.

Ontario province premier Doug Ford, who claims that even Trump's own party is mystified, says: "We're dumbfounded why he's doing this. Not one Republican agrees with him. Behind closed doors they tell me they have no idea why he's doing it."

Anti-American sentiment has exploded across Canada, which became a sovereign nation in 1982 while keeping King Charles as head of its constitutional monarchy.

Canadians in recent weeks have routinely booed and jeered the Star-Spangled Banner whenever the US national anthem is played at sporting events. They are boycotting American goods while state-run liquor stores have removed American booze from their shelves. High Street shop windows all bear signs boasting of goods made in Canada.

Trump's tariff war even provoked Ontario to threaten to cut off its supply of electricity to northern US states.

Canadians en masse have cancelled holiday plans in America and sold their vacation homes there. Airlines have even shut down routes flying from Canada into the US as travel plummets.

"When you p*** off a country and threaten to annex them, they are not going to want to travel here," says Matt Levy, owner of a New York City tour guide company, which has seen a 50% drop in Canadian visitors.

Canadian travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group reported a 40% drop in holiday travel to America in February - and soaring cancellations.

The Canadian-American border, which for the past century has probably been the most peaceful in the world, is suddenly fraught with tension.

Fears of a US invasion, however remote, are more troubling as Trump has fewerseasoned voices of reason in his cabinet during his second administration. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, when asked during his recent confirmation hearing if he would ever condone military force against US allies, refused to say no.

Trump's resurrection of 19th-century imperialism - he has also proposed a hostile takeover of Greenland and taking control of the Panama Canal - has many in his own Republican Party mystified.

Yet as he runs roughshod over the US Congress and flouts the US courts, hisability to single-handedly plunge America into a war with Canada becomes increasingly credible.

Trump's designs on Canada have dramatically reshaped its political landscape there. When Justin Trudeau stepped down as Canadian prime minister last month after a decade of Liberal rule, it seemed that the opposition Conservative Party was destined to sweep into office at the next election, expected in September. But Trump's voracious land-grabbing appetite ignited a sudden revival of the Liberal Party's popularity, prompting them to call a snap election that unexpectedly returned them to power.

"I don't care," said a petulant Trump last month. "I think it's easier to deal, actually, with a liberal, and maybe they're going to win, but I don't really care. It doesn't matter to me at all."

Yet despite his expansionist ambitions, Trump may not like the way the balance of power changes if Canada actually becomes the 51st US state.

With its 41 million-strong population, Canada would eclipse California as the

largest state, adding around 54 Congressional Representatives to the existing 435 - giving it great power within the government. If Canadian voters veer to the left, as they did this week, they could also make it hard for Republicans to ever return to the White House.

But if American tanks begin massing near the Canadian border, what will Britain do? Which of its two former colonies will it side with? And which "special relationship" will it favour?

And will King Charles wearing a red tie be enough to save Canada?