Donald Trump keeps talking about Canada as the 51st state. Why isn’t King Charles saying something? [Video]

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On this side of the world’s longest undefended border, U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated comments about Canada becoming the 51st state have led to outright rejections of the idea as a “non-starter,” spontaneous bursts of national pride and dogged determination to “buy Canadian.”

The comments have also prompted a question from some, who wonder about the role of Canada’s head of state as Trump repeatedly casts his eyes and rhetoric northward:

Why hasn’t King Charles said anything about all this?

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told CBC this would be a matter for the Canadian government, on whose advice the King acts.  

All this gets at the fundamental nature of Canada as a constitutional monarchy, where the monarch is a figurehead and the elected government of the day acts in the monarch’s name.