Take a deep breath.

As the letters published in these pages attest, Donald Trump’s comments about Canada becoming the 51st state are deeply offensive.

But rest assured, annexing Canada would be so difficult and so oversetting to the current balance of power in the U.S., it won’t happen.

For one thing, forcing a foreign territory to join the U.S. is against the U.S. Constitution.

The constitution’s Admissions Clause, Article IV, Section 3, states: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.”

This is not to say the U.S. doesn’t coerce nations to further its own advantage or that Trump won’t continue signing “emergency” executive orders to force his agenda ….

But should Canada — or Greenland or Panama — and the U.S. ever draft a treaty to amalgamate, U.S. Senate filibuster rules require at least 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to bring a bill to the floor — a........

© Times Colonist