President Donald Trump wants to revise US-Canada boundary, questions 117-year-old treaty: Report

Donald Trump has not taken too kindly to Canada since he returned to the White House almost two months ago. From threats to impose sweeping tariffs to floating the idea of making the neighbouring nation the “51st American state” and also publicly dismissing the US-Canada border as “an artificially drawn line”, Trump has managed to successfully shock the world.

Amid the simmering tensions, a New York Times report has revealed that during two phone calls with outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on February 3, Trump said he wanted to “revise the boundary” between the two countries, while also questioning the validity of a 117-year-old treaty which was signed under the then Republican presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and the UK’s King Edward VII.

The treaty finalised the international boundary between the US and Canada, which was then a British colony.

According to the report, the two leaders spoke twice that day, mainly over efforts to stop Trump from imposing tariffs on Canadian imports, as well as the President’s “long list of grievances” over the nations’ trade ties.

During one of the calls, Trump told Trudeau “he did not believe the treaty that demarcates the border between the two countries was valid” and that he wants to revise the boundary. He offered no further explanation,” the New York Times report said, citing sources.

In response, the Canadian leader, who is set to demit office on March 9, said the 1908 treaty was replaced by the Canadian Constitution.

Trudeau also reminded Trump that his father and former Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, patriated the Constitution and established the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which gave the country full sovereignty over its own territory.