CANADA REIMAGINED — After Fox News reported that President-elect DONALD TRUMP mused about annexing Canada as the U.S.’s 51st state in order to avoid tariffs, the Liberal government was quick to point out it was just a joke. Public Safety Minister DOMINIC LEBLANC, who attended the Mar-a-Lago dinner where Trump dropped the quip, contextualized Trump’s comments on Tuesday. “In a three-hour social evening at the president’s residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving, the conversation was going to be lighthearted. The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us,” LeBlanc said. “It was a social evening. It wasn’t a meeting in a boardroom with 10 bureaucrats keeping notes. It was a social evening, and there were moments where it was entertaining and funny, and there were moments where we were able to do some good work for Canada.” — Trump’s trolling us: The incoming POTUS posted a cryptic image on Truth Social. "Oh Canada!" Trump wrote atop what appeared to be an AI-generated image in which he stood beside a Canadian flag, overlooking a mountain range. The mountain in the background bore a striking resemblance to the Matterhorn, a notable peak in the Swiss Alps — some 3,800 miles east of Ottawa's Parliament Hill. — Don’t fall for it: GERALD BUTTS, former principal secretary to the PM, posted on LinkedIn that Trump used the “51st State” line “a lot” during his first term. “He’s doing it to rattle Canadian cages,” Butts wrote. “When someone is trying to get you to freak out, don’t.” We’re not rattled, Gerry, but we are curious how that 51st would look. → Pros: Lower taxes, stronger dollar, larger food portions, better sports, stronger cocktails, Trader Joe’s, cheaper phone plans. And we’ll finally meet our defense spending commitments. → Cons: Having to hear “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People on repeat, more metal detectors, no universal public health care, fewer holidays, less accessible weed, no ketchup chips, the struggle to enshrine French as an official language. — Speaking of reimagined: Opposition leaders actually sat down in the same room together (outside of question period) to discuss Canada-U.S. relations. — Dinner debrief: The PM met with opposition leaders Tuesday to debrief his dinner with Trump. Trudeau encouraged his counterparts to leverage contacts and sources in the U.S. to relay that tariffs on Canada would also hurt Americans, according to a senior government official familiar with the meeting but granted anonymity to discuss it. Trudeau cautioned leaders against playing into the hands of Trump by inflaming things he says about Canada, the source said. Before the meeting ended, opposition leaders were given a chance to raise their concerns. Here’s each party’s take as they made their way out of the meeting. → Conservatives: Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE demanded the PM “fix the disorder that he’s caused at the border,” and reverse the carbon price and emissions cap on the oil and gas sector. → NDP: Leader JAGMEET SINGH called for at least 1,100 more border workers, and an expansion of the Canada Border Services Agency's mandate to investigate crossings. He accused Poilievre of trying to score political points in the meeting. → Greens: Leader ELIZABETH MAY called the meeting cordial, adding the PM did most of the talking. She agreed with Singh’s assessment of Poilievre. → Bloc Québécois: Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET signaled he would withhold criticism of the government until he heard more details of its plan. “I don’t want to fight too much publicly about an issue, which is very important for everybody, both in Canada and Quebec,” he said. “Americans are looking at us now.” | 
