Are Canadians fed up with Donald Trump – even before he assumes office? 100% yes and rightly so.
Let me ask Americans a question. Let’s say the situation was reversed. Let’s imagine that Canada’s population base was 8.5 times larger than that of the US. Canada’s Prime Minister was trolling your President, calling him “Premier Trump” of the great province of America. In their first meeting, “joking” about the US becoming Canada’s 11th province, or perhaps its 4th territory. Then the “joke” becomes a daily rant. And finally our Prime Minister states that Canada won’t invade the US using military force but will enact economic sanctions that will force the US to become part of Canada. He justifies this by saying (untruthfully) that your President told him that such sanctions would cause the US to dissolve and that many Americans want to become Canadian. Our Prime Minister was constantly lying about how Canada subsidizes the US because of a trade imbalance, and how Canada’s military defends the US. Would this make you angry? Would you be saying “enough is enough” after almost 2 months of this nonsense? Well, that’s exactly the point that Canadians have reached.
Fox News host Jesse Watters, in a recent interview with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, pressed Ford about the ‘hostile’ nature Canadians have towards annexation, further adding to his remarks of the ‘privilege’ of a U.S. takeover by stating, “That’s what everybody else in the world wants — American citizenship. For some reason, that’s repellent to you Canadians, and I find that personally offensive, premier…so this might just have to be a hostile takeover.”
Texas Congressman Brandon Gill stated just days ago that Greenland, Panama and Canada should be “honoured” that Trump wants to bring these “territories” into the American fold. To clarify for the Americans who don’t know otherwise, Canada is not a territory. We are a sovereign country who is not honoured by these vile threats – we are angry that these comments are being normalized!
Trump threatens takeover of Greenland and Panama with military force if necessary, and taking over Canada by economic force – is this not the least bit reminiscent of Russia and the Ukraine?
Let’s look at Trump’s ridiculous claims.
1. The US doesn’t need anything from Canada – not our agricultural product, not our lumber, not the cars that are manufactured in Canada and shipped to the US. He failed to mention $128.5 billion dollars of Canadian crude oil shipped to US refineries, $33.75 billion in nuclear reactors, boilers and machinery, $22.4 billion dollars of petroleum gas, $19.9 billion in aluminum, steel and iron, $11.9 billion in electrical equipment, another $11.9 billion in medical, pharmaceutical and optical products, $3.2 billion in electricity sales to the north-east states.
2. The US is subsidizing Canada and therefore Canada should become a state as the US shouldn’t be subsidizing another country. That comment explains why Trump has gone bankrupt so many times. He has no clue how economics works. Subsidizing means giving something for nothing. Canada’s trade surplus with the US means we are the ones sending more goods to the US than they are sending us. If anybody’s subsidizing anybody, it’s us. Canadians send real goods to the US in exchange for financial promises. Who's "subsidizing" who here? Sounds like we’re the ones being had.
The oil refineries in Texas were designed and manufactured specifically to process the heavy crude oil that Canada sends south. Canada exports $128.5 billion in crude oil and in return imports $29.8 billion refined oil - the rest stays in the US. That’s a huge number of jobs that Canada “subsidizes” in the US. Don't want our oil? You'll have to import it from Venezuela!
Another example was a medical grade fibre produced at Canadian pulp mill that the US needed in order to produce N95 masks that were used extensively during the Covid outbreak. Trump decided to invoke the Defense Production Act, thereby forcing 3M to stop exporting N95 masks to Canadian health care workers. What he forgot is that those same N95 masks that were made in the US needed a critical component that is only produced in Canada. There is a reason why trade has been such an important issue for both countries.
3. Canada needs to strengthen its border with the US because illegal immigrants and drugs are flowing into the US in numbers never seen before. If drugs and illegal immigrants are "flowing into the US" - that is on the US Customs and Border Protection Agency. Canada's Border Services Agency is responsible for what crosses into Canada. As far as drugs flowing into the US from Canada and Mexico (which, again, is the responsibility of US Customs to stop), less than 20 kg of fentanyl came from Canada vs over 9,000 kg of fentanyl from Mexico. Approximately 1% of all of the drugs and illegal immigrants that "flow into" the US enter from Canada. I'd say that Canada has done a pretty darned good job of securing our border!!! Every country in the world takes responsibility for securing its own borders. Why Trump believes other countries should do this for the US is beyond me. I suppose it must be something to do with his own massive failure to secure the southern US border by building the wall and getting Mexico to pay for it. It is easier to blame others than to take responsibility for your own failures.
In turn, if Canada needs to secure its border against the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the US, then Canada should demand that the US secure its border against the flow of drugs and guns into Canada!
4. The US defends Canada. Whoa – let’s do some fact checking here. American air and anti-missile defenses have secured our northern border since the 1950s. However, it’s probably more accurate to say that we have each other’s backs (until now). Canada and the US are joint partners in NORAD, with Canada operating 4 NORAD bases in the north (Yellowknife, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit and Inuvik) and the US operating 1 northern NORAD base in Alaska. US and Canadian forces work jointly at all 5 bases. There are also NORAD headquarters in both the US and Canada. The Commander of NORAD reports to both the President of the United States through the Secretary of Defense, and to the Prime Minister of Canada, through the Chief of the Defence Staff and Minister of National Defence. There are no US military bases in Canada. There currently are, however, 156 active-duty members of the U.S. military deployed in Canada, roughly 50 of whom serve with NORAD. The balance serve as defence attaches at the US embassy in Ottawa, study at Canadian military colleges, and coordinate with Canadian troops and officers across the country. Is this what Trump means when he refers to “protecting Canada”? America has never protected Canada from anyone. In fact, the United States is the only country to have ever attacked Canada (and we all know how that turned out). The U.S. has never come to the defense of Canada in any real way. We, on the other hand, have many times helped the U.S. with their military expeditions. In fact, Canada has probably done more to protect the U.S. than the reverse. Canada was heavily involved in the war in Afghanistan, due to their commitment to NATO. Canada entered WW2 before the U.S. did, suffered a higher percentage of casualties and a larger percentage of their population served. Canada acts as the early warning system for the US. That system doesn’t involve missiles targeted at Canada but at the US. Remember 9–11? When dozens of U.S. planes with thousands of US passengers were in the air and had to land but couldn’t enter US airspace, Canada provided sanctuary to 38 commercial jets (mostly with Americans on them) which had to land in Gander, Newfoundland. Over 7000 passengers in a town with no resources to handle that many tourists. The local townspeople made sandwiches, lodged people in their own homes, striking workers called off a strike in order to make sure these guests weren’t left without bus service. Was that the U.S. “protecting” Canada then? Or what about the time that 6 American diplomats with the US Embassy in Iran were desperately on the run and Canadian diplomats (at the risk of their own death) took them in, hid them, and then allowed them to be smuggled out on Canadian passports. Was that when the U.S. “protected” Canada? Oh – and by the way – are you aware that Canadians serve in the US military and vice versa in a variety of roles? For example, a Canadian Rear Admiral serves as Vice-Commander of the US Navy’s east coast and north Atlantic fleet.
1. The US doesn’t need anything from Canada – not our agricultural product, not our lumber, not the cars that are manufactured in Canada and shipped to the US. He failed to mention $128.5 billion dollars of Canadian crude oil shipped to US refineries, $33.75 billion in nuclear reactors, boilers and machinery, $22.4 billion dollars of petroleum gas, $19.9 billion in aluminum, steel and iron, $11.9 billion in electrical equipment, another $11.9 billion in medical, pharmaceutical and optical products, $3.2 billion in electricity sales to the north-east states.
2. The US is subsidizing Canada and therefore Canada should become a state as the US shouldn’t be subsidizing another country. That comment explains why Trump has gone bankrupt so many times. He has no clue how economics works. Subsidizing means giving something for nothing. Canada’s trade surplus with the US means we are the ones sending more goods to the US than they are sending us. If anybody’s subsidizing anybody, it’s us. Canadians send real goods to the US in exchange for financial promises. Who's "subsidizing" who here? Sounds like we’re the ones being had.
The oil refineries in Texas were designed and manufactured specifically to process the heavy crude oil that Canada sends south. Canada exports $128.5 billion in crude oil and in return imports $29.8 billion refined oil - the rest stays in the US. That’s a huge number of jobs that Canada “subsidizes” in the US. Don't want our oil? You'll have to import it from Venezuela!
Another example was a medical grade fibre produced at Canadian pulp mill that the US needed in order to produce N95 masks that were used extensively during the Covid outbreak. Trump decided to invoke the Defense Production Act, thereby forcing 3M to stop exporting N95 masks to Canadian health care workers. What he forgot is that those same N95 masks that were made in the US needed a critical component that is only produced in Canada. There is a reason why trade has been such an important issue for both countries.
3. Canada needs to strengthen its border with the US because illegal immigrants and drugs are flowing into the US in numbers never seen before. If drugs and illegal immigrants are "flowing into the US" - that is on the US Customs and Border Protection Agency. Canada's Border Services Agency is responsible for what crosses into Canada. As far as drugs flowing into the US from Canada and Mexico (which, again, is the responsibility of US Customs to stop), less than 20 kg of fentanyl came from Canada vs over 9,000 kg of fentanyl from Mexico. Approximately 1% of all of the drugs and illegal immigrants that "flow into" the US enter from Canada. I'd say that Canada has done a pretty darned good job of securing our border!!! Every country in the world takes responsibility for securing its own borders. Why Trump believes other countries should do this for the US is beyond me. I suppose it must be something to do with his own massive failure to secure the southern US border by building the wall and getting Mexico to pay for it. It is easier to blame others than to take responsibility for your own failures.
In turn, if Canada needs to secure its border against the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the US, then Canada should demand that the US secure its border against the flow of drugs and guns into Canada!
4. The US defends Canada. Whoa – let’s do some fact checking here. American air and anti-missile defenses have secured our northern border since the 1950s. However, it’s probably more accurate to say that we have each other’s backs (until now). Canada and the US are joint partners in NORAD, with Canada operating 4 NORAD bases in the north (Yellowknife, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit and Inuvik) and the US operating 1 northern NORAD base in Alaska. US and Canadian forces work jointly at all 5 bases. There are also NORAD headquarters in both the US and Canada. The Commander of NORAD reports to both the President of the United States through the Secretary of Defense, and to the Prime Minister of Canada, through the Chief of the Defence Staff and Minister of National Defence. There are no US military bases in Canada. There currently are, however, 156 active-duty members of the U.S. military deployed in Canada, roughly 50 of whom serve with NORAD. The balance serve as defence attaches at the US embassy in Ottawa, study at Canadian military colleges, and coordinate with Canadian troops and officers across the country. Is this what Trump means when he refers to “protecting Canada”? America has never protected Canada from anyone. In fact, the United States is the only country to have ever attacked Canada (and we all know how that turned out). The U.S. has never come to the defense of Canada in any real way. We, on the other hand, have many times helped the U.S. with their military expeditions. In fact, Canada has probably done more to protect the U.S. than the reverse. Canada was heavily involved in the war in Afghanistan, due to their commitment to NATO. Canada entered WW2 before the U.S. did, suffered a higher percentage of casualties and a larger percentage of their population served. Canada acts as the early warning system for the US. That system doesn’t involve missiles targeted at Canada but at the US. Remember 9–11? When dozens of U.S. planes with thousands of US passengers were in the air and had to land but couldn’t enter US airspace, Canada provided sanctuary to 38 commercial jets (mostly with Americans on them) which had to land in Gander, Newfoundland. Over 7000 passengers in a town with no resources to handle that many tourists. The local townspeople made sandwiches, lodged people in their own homes, striking workers called off a strike in order to make sure these guests weren’t left without bus service. Was that the U.S. “protecting” Canada then? Or what about the time that 6 American diplomats with the US Embassy in Iran were desperately on the run and Canadian diplomats (at the risk of their own death) took them in, hid them, and then allowed them to be smuggled out on Canadian passports. Was that when the U.S. “protected” Canada? Oh – and by the way – are you aware that Canadians serve in the US military and vice versa in a variety of roles? For example, a Canadian Rear Admiral serves as Vice-Commander of the US Navy’s east coast and north Atlantic fleet.
Support Democrats or support Republicans – but don’t expect Canadians to accept the complete lack of respect being shown by your incoming President. His behaviour is childish, boorish, rude, unstatesmanlike, some might say unhinged, and certainly not befitting of the office he is about to occupy. 49.8% of Americans voted for a man who, in 2023, was found liable of sexual abuse, was convicted of 34 felonies in 2024 and sentenced in 2025. Not to mention the report by Special Counsel Jack Smith which stated that, had it not been for Trump’s imminent return to the Presidency, he would have been convicted of the “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.” That choice is on you. But Canada is not a doormat. We have earned the right to be treated with respect by the American President. We will never become the 51st state. We did not elect this convicted felon and will not put up with his vile behaviour.
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