Donald Trump says Canada: “wants the benefits” of being a U.S. state “without being one.” But he forgot to tell us what those benefits would be.

Would it be a country with no universal health care, which Canada has and the US doesn’t? Would it be an electoral system where political parties control district boundaries to rig the vote? A country where money buys elections in ways unheard of in Canada? Are these benefits?

Is being a country with no regard for children’s safety a benefit? The USA has more school shootings annually than the rest of the world combined. That is a sobering thought, as is the movement from the government to lower children’s protection against disease through immunization. This is a benefit?

Is it a benefit to be part of a country that opens concentration camps to detain people whose sole crime was to wish for a better life? And to so compassionately then deport them to countries where they have no connection, don’t speak the language and are held in prison indefinitely without charge or trial? Canadians wouldn’t allow their government to do that and don’t see how such cold-heartedness benefits Americans.

A country that keeps starting wars it can’t win sends its young people to die for undefined reasons. Can anyone give a credible explanation why the US has attacked Iran and Venezuela? I thought not. America was once almost universally admired. Under Donald trump it is fast becoming a pariah. This is a benefit? Countries are looking for reasons not to trade with the US because it does not live up to its agreements. This is a benefit?

America’s love affair with firearms gives them tens of thousands of deaths each year. Gun control is a joke. This is a benefit? Violent crime is 50 per cent high in the US than in Canada. This is a benefit?

I could goon, but you get the picture. Canadians have no desire to become Americans. Donald Trump is dreaming if he thinks we somehow want the benefits he is unable to articulate that come with American citizenship. It isn’t his first fantasy, probably won’t be his last.

News reports say that Canada made concessions in the latest round pf trade negotiations that set off Trump’s latest musings. Such negotiations are a matter of give and take, giving something to get something. Supposedly, when Canada made a concession the Americans just asked for more, without offering anything in return. no wonder there was no deal.

Fair trade between nations should be the goal. No deal is better than a bad one. And nobody here sees any real benefit in becoming American (especially with Donald Trump as president).

Anyone else have any American benefits they think Canadians want?