Summary
Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s 24th prime minister on March 14, declaring “We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” rejecting Donald Trump’s annexation threats.
Carney won the Liberal leadership with 85.9% of the vote despite having no elected experience.
He called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s suggestion that Canada would be better as “the 51st state” simply “crazy.”
Carney is expected to call an election soon as he faces the challenge of managing Trump’s trade war that threatens to push Canada into recession.
There was once a literal war with guns between the US and Canada (War of 1812} and Canada won.
Things have changed a lot since then. The US has over 1 million active personnel to Canada’s <100k. If it comes to a real invasion, things would not go well.
The real question is how many Americans would be willing to participate in that invasion.
Given the U.S.’s recent experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, countries far smaller and with far fewer resources (natural and industrial) than Canada, I like our (Canada’s) chances!
Plus our military may be small but it’s elite, composed of professional soldiers extremely well-versed in US (and NATO) operations and tactics. If Middle Eastern countries with largely irregular forces can give the U.S. migraines using guerrilla tactics, we can do the same with far better results.
Canada also has NATO.
A declaration of war from the current leader of NATO will likely fracture what is currently NATO. Europe will want to help Canada, but they will be preoccupied with suppressing Russia’s aggression, because there is no longer a NATO.
Canada won’t have NATO. At best it will have half of NATO.
The recent film Civil War gives a good example of what could happen. There is certainly a subset of Trump supporters that would follow orders. But a large segment would likely split off and further divide the country.