Bringing Canada into the United States, however farcical the prospect may seem, would alter the political map in a way likely to cost Republicans.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Canada should be the 51st U.S. state, erasing the 5,525-mile border the nations share and alleviating the need for tariffs he’s threatened against one of America’s top allies.

Trump is provoking an increasingly strong and unifying backlash, and he may soon realize that Canadians are not as easy to manipulate as his fellow Americans.