President-elect Donald Trump's remarks that Canada should become the US' 51st state sparked outrage worldwide, prompting a vigorous response from a former Canadian Prime Minister on Saturday (Jan 11).
Throwing his weight behind other officials who believed that Trump's comments were no longer "funny" and "humiliating", former Prime Minister Jean Chretien said, "Give your head a shake!"
Echoing this sentiment, Chretien wrote in an article published in The Globe and Mail newspaper that Canada would never consent to becoming part of the United States.
He further lauded his country's love of independence and said that Trump's remarks were "totally unacceptable insults and unprecedented threats" to Canadian sovereignty.
"To Donald Trump, from one old guy to another, give your head a shake!" Chretien said.
"What could make you think that Canadians would ever give up the best country in the world — and make no mistake that is what we are — to join the United States?," he questioned further.
"If you think that threatening and insulting us is going to win us over, you really don't know a thing about us," Chretien wrote in the article. "We may look easy-going, mild-mannered. But make no mistake, we have spine and toughness."
Trump shares map of US which shows Canada as part of America
Trump on Wednesday (Jan 8) shared a distorted map of the United States that showed Canada as part of America.
Sharing the post on his official social media platform, Truth Social, he captioned it as "Oh Canada!”
His post came hours after he threatened to use "economic force" to merge Canada with the US.
While delivering his remarks at Mar-a-Lago, on Tuesday (Jan 7), Trump said, “Economic force, because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like. And it would also be much better for national security. You don't forget, we basically protect Canada."
"We don't need anything they have. We don't need their dairy products, we have more than they have. We don't need anything, so why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada? And I said that to, as I called him, Governor Trudeau. I said, listen, what would happen if we didn't subsidize you if we didn't? Because we give them a lot of money, we help them," he added.
(With inputs from agencies)