I obviously can't speak for all of my countrymen, but I can say that people are really, really pissed about the annexation threats. We're upset about the tariffs, but we're absolutely incendiary about the threats to our sovereignty.
US media seems to be sanewashing the annexation threats as a "joke", but we take it very seriously up here. Your president has said many times that it's not a joke. Believe him.
AFAIK literally no contemporary US politician but Trump has ever entertained the idea of annexing another country, but I have zero confidence that anyone around him would do anything but roll over if he gave the order. He isn't just pretending to be crazy for galaxy-brained game-theoretic reasons, he literally is crazy and unpredictable and surrounded by shameless enablers. Even though the military would be legally obligated to refuse an unlawful order from him, I no longer have any confidence that they actually would.
This was in the WSJ on March 24th in an article about Canadian travel:
>"The administration has held firm on its messaging. “Canadians will no longer have to worry about the inconveniences of international travel when they become American citizens as residents of our cherished 51st state,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said."
I guess I should have been more explicit: no politician that I know of was talking about annexing Canada or Greenland before Trump, and the people you quote above are only endorsing it because they would never contradict anything Trump says.
No contemporary politician, perhaps, but we're a young country and don't have to look too far back to see how much of the US was annexed from French, Spanish, and Mexican territory. And let's not forget Caribbean and Pacific territories.
Absolutely, the US once was an unapologetically imperialist nation and Trump wants to turn the clock back to a global club of bullies each with their own sphere of influence.
Canadians were always insecure, the recent events just exacerbated it and brought it to the fore. Canadians have to have a hard look at themselves, they overall fare poorly on many fronts: jobs, taxes, housing and (gasp!) healthcare compared to the US. If they fared better they would not feel so threatened/outraged. I'm however pessimistic that they are capable of that level of introspection, because the smartest/wisest Canadians have already left and immigrated to the US. These smart/wise people always knew their country was sub-par despite the delusional rhetoric of superiority that Canadians often indulge in against the US (we have 'free' healthcare!).
US media seems to be sanewashing the annexation threats as a "joke", but we take it very seriously up here. Your president has said many times that it's not a joke. Believe him.