okay, so what's going on with canada? can any kiwis with real knowledge of the situation gimme an idea how reasonable the concept of trump making canada, or part of canada, the 51st state is? why is the canadian government shitting itself so badly right now?
Canada's current situation is a result of incoherent management from the past 8 years.
Trudeau's ministers are about as effective as Trudeau himself. He is a control freak, and even his ministers who have the experience for their position are not able to do their jobs. This is a fault of how Canada's election system functions. You need to select ministers from the people you got who were elected. Morneau said "fuck that" in 2020, and was very vocal about his disagreements with Trudeau. This is how you end up with a teacher as a finance minister. Even she had to go defend Trudeau's untenable, retarded positions in public. If you wonder why a minister who is perfect for his/her role is saying stupid shit in public, Trudeau is likely why.
There is incompetence with the provincial governments as well. Education being a provincial competency, and Immigration being a federal competency, have spent the past few years throwing the ball to each other. This is how you get these diploma mills and unfettered, uncontrolled mass immigration. Diploma mills who take tens of thousands of dollars from Indians, that money I suppose just vanishes in someone's pockets. You have many such instances of some competencies that should really be managed by a single entity.
I haven't been paying too much attention as to who is advising Trump. America has a vested interest in Canada, not because of its people, but because of the landmass, and some of its resources. Having control over Quebec's hydro and ports would be a major competing point for the eastern states. Canada has large amounts of natural resources, especially in the great north, some of which has been mismanaged by Canadian authorities, and sometimes sold to China at joke prices. Uranium, gold, cadmiun, titanium etc... When Trump says he doesn't need lumber from Canada, he means it as in he doesn't need it from the current people in charge.