At a Parliament Hill press conference on Jan. 3, Green Party leader Elizabeth May had choice words when responding to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's recent comments that Canada should become the 51st state.

"We love our country, and it's a country. It's a nation, and we do not aspire to be the 51st state," said May, who has been the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands since 2011. "If it was a joke, it was never funny, and it ends now," May said.

Part of May's speech, in which she highlighted the Green Party's proposed strategy for Canada鈥揢.S. relations, took a tongue-in-cheek approach, firing back at Trump with quips and alluding that he needs to get more educated on the Canadian political system. In part, she appeared to be responding to a comment when Trump said he told Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky that he should run for prime minister of Canada.

"By the way, Mr. Trump, please, before making public pronouncements that Wayne Gretzky should run for prime minister, give yourself or get yourself a briefing on the nature of parliamentary democracy: a Westminster parliamentary system and a constitutional monarchy where no one runs for prime minister.

"We have elections for members of Parliament. We don't get to pick and choose among our billionaire friends for who gets a seat at the cabinet table. If they're not an elected member of Parliament, well, the Canadian system is different from that of the United States of America."

Clips of May's speech have since gone viral on , appearing to gain her some U.S. social media fans who hailed her tongue-in-cheek suggestion that some states could join Canada instead.

"You think we want to be the 51st state? Nah. But maybe California would like to be the 11th province," she said, going on to add Oregon and Washington to that list.

"We've already got a carbon trading system between California and Quebec. We've got some strong alliances on our West Coast from British Columbia," she said.

May, who is American-born herself, highlighted what these states would get from her perspective if they joined Canada

"Universal, free health care. No more one-year-olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list and their parents are in the news because they're trying to do a GoFundMe so they can get their daughter to a doctor."

Since May's speech, at a Palm Beach, Fla. press conference Tuesday, Donald Trump made a threat to use "economic force" to absorb Canada into the United States. He also would not rule out using military force to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal.

Canada and the United States, that would really be something, he said.

You get rid of the artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like and it would also be much better national security. Don't forget: We basically protect Canada.