Canadian investor and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said Thursday that he wants to help broker a deal with President-elect Donald Trump that would create some sort of “economic union” between the US and Canada – declaring that at least half of his countrymen would support such a merger.
O’Leary’s interest in unifying the US and Canada comes after Trump, 78, has repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that Canada should become “our 51st State.”
“Canadians over the holidays – the last two days – have been talking about this,” O’Leary said of Trump’s proposal, during an interview with Fox Business. “They want to hear more.”
The Montreal-born businessman acknowledged “there’s obviously a lot of issues” that would arise if Canada attempted to join the US but said Trump’s interest in the matter “could be 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,” O’Leary continued.
“So secure [the northern territories], 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,” he asserted.
O’Leary, 70, noted that a major impediment right now is the “collapsing” Canadian government under Liberal Party Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is very likely to resign or be voted out of office by October 2025.
Trump — who thinks Canada has been ripping off the US over trade — has been taunting Trudeau for weeks by referring to Canada as a prospective US “state” and the prime minister as its “governor.”
“Nobody wants Trudeau to negotiate this deal,” O’Leary argued. “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.”
In a Christmas Day Truth Social Post, Trump argued that Canada should become a US state because the taxes of its citizens “are far too high.”
The president-elect declared that “if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%.”
Trump also asserted that Canadian businesses also “would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World” if the Great White North was to join the US.
