Is Trump joking about making Canada 51st state? Canadians don’t think so, poll finds

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

When asked about the proposal in a Feb. 9 interview with Fox News, the president said he was being serious.

“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?”

What do Canadians make of Trump’s unprecedented overtures? Many are not shrugging them off, according to new polling.

In a February Pollara poll conducted in Canada, just 10% of respondents said they believe Trump is joking when he talks about incorporating the country into the U.S.

Meanwhile, 34% said they believe he’s serious, and close to half, 47%, said they think it’s a negotiating tactic. Eight percent said they weren’t sure.

Women were also more likely than men to say Trump is being serious — 40% vs. 28%.

Fielded between Jan. 20 and 27, the poll sampled 1,506 Canadian adults and has an estimated margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

However, few Canadians actually believe the country will be absorbed by the U.S. in the near future.

Just 5% of respondents said this is definitely or likely to happen in the next four years, and 9% said there is a fifty-fifty chance. Meanwhile, 78% said it definitely or likely will not happen.

The poll also found that the majority of Canadians, 68%, have a negative view of Trump, while just 22% have a positive view of the U.S. president.

And Canadian views on the U.S. as a whole have soured since last year.

Slightly less than two-thirds of respondents, 63%, said they have a very or somewhat negative view of their southern neighbor, while 30% said they have a very or somewhat positive view.

By comparison, in a June 2024 poll — when former President Joe Biden was in the White House — 53% of respondents said they held a positive view of the U.S., and 40% said they held a negative view.

This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Is Trump joking about making Canada 51st state? Canadians don’t think so, poll finds."