Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has taken a dig at US President Donald Trump after Canada defeated arch-rival United States in the Four Nations Face-Off final on Thursday.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau posted on X shortly after Canada won 3-2 in the ice hockey match in Boston.
You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 21, 2025
His post came hours after Trump repeated his desire for Canada to become the US’s “51st state” and urged the US hockey team to prevail in the match.
“I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting,” he added.
Canada and the US have met 20 times in best-on-best tournaments since the 1976 Canada Cup, with the former winning 14 of those games. The US has not won a best-on-best title since beating Canada in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey final.
Donald Trump-Justin Trudeau Feud
Donald Trump, who returned to power last month after defeating Democrat Kamala Harris, has repeatedly called Canada “the 51st state” and taunted Justin Trudeau by referring to him as a mere US state governor.
Tensions between the two neighbours soared after Trump ordered 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports.
He, however, on February 4 delayed the start of tariffs for a month after the US neighbour agreed to tighten border measures and end the scourge of drugs like Fentanyl.