In order to respond to the growing threat, we must first acknowledge it.
According to a recent NBC News report, U.S. President Donald Trump’s own advisers are struggling to make sense of his obsession with annexing Canada:
“Trump has been unapologetic in his quest to conquer the Canadians — an effort he said in January would be conducted by “economic force.” The result has been a disintegration of the relationship between the U.S. and one of its closest allies, and a stock market plunge over fears of ever-increasing escalation of a trade war. Both Canadian officials and Republicans initially thought the president was merely joking, ribbing Trudeau — a longtime foil — after they met at Mar-a-Lago in November. It was after that visit that Trump first publicly floated the notion of absorbing Canada. Few think he’s joking now, and the Canadians have stopped laughing.
A source with direct knowledge of the discussions told NBC News that Trump is heavily focused on Canada in conversations with aides, who believe he is completely serious about making the country the 51st state — even with Trudeau out of power and a new prime minister in place.”
And there are increasing concerns that Trump is seeking to grab both territory and resources:
“In private, Trump has made specific demands the Canadians say they could never agree to. The president made clear in a phone call with Trudeau last month that he wants to revise the boundary between the two nations set by a 1908 border treaty, as two Canadian officials said and was previously reported by The New York Times and Toronto Star.
If Trump truly objects to the boundary line, the proper forum to resolve the dispute is the International Court of Justice, a Canadian official said.
The president has also mentioned renegotiating agreements that dictate how the Great Lakes and Columbia River are governed, the official told NBC News, adding that Trump wants to control the Northwest Passage, a maritime path that begins west of Greenland and cuts through Northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean.
“He wants our water,” the Canadian official added. “He wants to take the water.”
When Trump first began musing about annexing Canada, most people assumed he was joking. Some in Canada defended the U.S. President and thought he was just ‘trolling’ then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. However, it soon became clear this was about much more than a strained relationship between the two leaders. Trump stated he “didn’t care” what Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said when Poilievre stated “Canada will never be the 51st State,” and has since threatened to annex Canada “through economic means.”
That’s a threat Trump is following through on as he imposes tariffs on Canada and pushes to wipe out the Canadian auto sector.
Unsurprisingly, this has made Trump incredibly unpopular among Canadians.
According to a Pollara poll this month, 76% of Canadians have negative feelings toward Trump, while just 14% have positive feelings.
58% of Canadians feel angry towards Trump and 18% feel frustrated. Meanwhile, just 8% feel comfortable and a minuscule 6% feel excited.
Even among Conservative voters, 61% have negative feelings towards the U.S. President, while 29% have positive feelings. Just a month ago, 44% of CPC voters had positive feelings towards Trump, indicating the rapid negative shift in sentiment.
This shift is unsurprising, because Canadians are now increasingly convinced that Donald Trump is serious about annexing Canada.
According to Angus Reid, 32% of Canadians took the threat of annexation seriously in January of 2025.
That number has jumped to 54%.
A majority of Canadians now believe that the leader of our closest ally (or once closest ally) intends to end Canadian sovereignty.
Take the threat seriously
It is now abundantly clear that Donald Trump pulled one of the most brazen bait-and-switches in political history in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.
Trump campaigned on lowering prices and ‘peace’ (Trump and Vance referred to themselves as the ‘pro peace ticket).
Since taking office Trump has imposed tariffs that drive up prices for Americans, has threatened multiple American allies with invasion/annexation, now says he was being ‘sarcastic’ when he promised to end Russia’s war against Ukraine in 24 hours, is promising a ‘short-term’ economic ‘adjustment’ and even ‘retruthed’ a post saying Americans should “shut up about egg prices”.
In effect, Trump ran as an ‘affordability candidate’ and is now governing as an imperialist candidate.
Trump has also repeatedly expressed that he believes he was “saved by God to make America great again,” the kind of messianic mindset that often pushes leaders into making imperialistic landgrabs to secure their ‘legacy.’
And of course, Trump is a big fan of leaders like Vladimir Putin & Xi Jinping, both of whom have their sights set on taking more territory for their already-massive nations (Ukraine for Putin & Taiwan for Xi). Contrast Trump’s attitude towards dictators with his attitude towards democratically elected leaders like Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine. Trump seems to despise ‘middle power’ democracies like Canada, Ukraine, Germany, and others.
Further, Trump seems to blame the victims of aggression, rather than the aggressor. He falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war, and recently criticized Ukraine for “picking on” Russia:
Canadians have been taking this all in, and a majority of us have concluded – accurately in my view – that Donald Trump is serious about annexing our nation.
Acknowledging the seriousness of this moment is key to addressing it. We all feel the desire to bury our head in the sand and hope everything goes back to normal, but that appears unlikely. We have to acknowledge reality, and prepare for it.
And here are four ways we can do that.
1 – Invest in rebuilding the Canadian Armed Forces while cutting purchases of US weapons & buying from Europe & South Korea instead, alongside expanding our domestic military production capacity
Let’s be 100% clear. Canada poses no military threat to the United States. We are a U.S. ally, our militaries work closely together, and Canadian troops have fought and died alongside Americans. We answered the call when America asked for help after 9/11 and we lived up to our NATO obligation when America invoked Article 5 (an attack on one is an attack on all). If the United States ultimately decides to stay in NATO and maintains its alliance with Canada, we should remain friendly allies.
While there are always differences between our two nations, it wasn’t Canada that initiated the rupture in Canada-U.S. relations.
It was Donald Trump’s threat of annexation.
So, when we talk about rebuilding the Canadian military to ensure our sovereignty, we aren’t talking about attacking the United States. Not only would that be absurd, but it would be completely contrary to Canadian values.
Nor are we assuming that even a massive military buildup would bring us anywhere near parity with U.S. military power.
The United States (at least a United States led by someone who respects Canadian sovereignty) would be a big beneficiary if Canada built up our armed forces, given that it would ensure a stronger defence of North America.
In the current context, however, the weaker Canada looks the more tempted the annexationists will be to try something. By contrast, if Canada appears well-defended, those who push for annexation are less likely to see any attempt as worth the cost. Further, a well-defended Canada will elicit more respect even from those who are hostile toward us.
And so, as I’ve noted in previous articles, Canada should issue $200 billion worth of Canadian Sovereignty Bonds to give Canadians the chance to invest directly in a large-scale military build up. And that buildup should be built on purchasing weapons from Europe & South Korea, rather than an unreliable United States. At the same time, we should also invest in ramping up production of everything we can make here in Canada to boost our resiliency, and provide opportunities for more Canadians to be trained in the use of firearms.
A message of strength – backed by a real tangible investment in making our country as well-defended as possible, would be a powerful way to dissuade those who want to seize our nation.
2 – Don’t let annexation threats be normalized or downplayed. Instead, explain the stark reality: If annexing Canada through ‘economic force’ fails (and it will fail), taking Canada against our will would mean the U.S. President ordering Americans to kill Canadians
Right now, Donald Trump is benefitting from a mix of disbelief and cagey wording around annexation. Many people see the notion of Canada being annexed by the United States as so absurd that they choose to pretend the notion doesn’t even exist. Trump defenders also fall back on his reference to ‘economic force’ to claim that there would be no violence.
But this is naive.
90% of Canadians oppose joining the United States.
Economic warfare against Canada from the U.S. will only deepen the resolve of Canadians. After all, America and Donald Trump have become far less popular in Canada since the tariff & annexation threats began.
Yet, every time Donald Trump is told by a reporter that Canadians reject joining the United States, he dismisses it, most recently claiming Canada “only works” as a U.S. State.
Trump has also called the Canada-U.S. border an “artificial line”.
And so, what’s being left unsaid is that if economic force fails to break Canadians, and if Donald Trump still wants to annex Canada, that leaves just one option:
Using military force.
And let’s look at exactly what that means.
If the U.S. President ordered American troops to cross into Canada to overthrow the Canadian Government and end our status as a sovereign nation, many Canadians would resist.
The Canadian Armed Forces would be ordered to defend Canada against an illegal American invasion.
Thus, at some point following the order from the U.S. President to invade Canada, American troops would confront Canadian troops within Canadian territory.
Those American troops – having entered Canada with hostile intent – would have already been permitted to fire upon Canadian troops.
It is important to state this clearly and without equivocation: Annexing Canada against our will would require the President of the United States to order U.S. troops to kill Canadians.
Why do I mention this in such a stark way?
Because we need to make it clear what “annexing Canada” means rather than letting people politely talk around it.
It’s not funny.
It’s not a joke.
It’s not a cute little policy proposal.
It means erasing the sovereign status of our nation, and it’s a plan that – if implemented – would result in significant numbers of Canadians being shot to death and bombed to death by a nation that purports to be our ally.
It is important to state this as publicly as possible, because it ensures Trump can’t get away with slowly normalizing the idea – a process that can make the absurd and deranged seem reasonable given enough time. Instead, people need to feel the full shock of the absurdity and danger.
3 – Recognize that Canada has many allies in the United States and cultivate those relationships.
On March 15, 2025 – The Governor of Colorado posted the following:
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly also issued a statement criticizing Trump’s annexation threats the same day:
And on this issue, Governor Polis & Senator Kelly are much more aligned with U.S. public opinion than Donald Trump is.
According to the same Angus Reid survey which found 90% of Canadians reject joining the United States, 60% of Americans say they have “no interest in seeing Canada join the United States,” while 32% say they would be interested “in Canada joining the United States but only if Canadians want to.”
That’s a full 92% of Americans who oppose Canada being annexed against our will.
Further, just 6% support the U.S. annexing Canada using “political and economic pressure,” while just 2% “think the United States should annex Canada using military force.”
2%.
That’s the level of support for the idea of Americans crossing into Canadian territory and killing Canadians to end Canada’s status as a sovereign nation.
Donald Trump’s obsession with annexing Canada lacks support in the United States. The more he pushes it, – assuming Canada and defenders of Canada clearly call him out – the more this disconnect between Trump and public opinion will become evident.
Also, while the Republicans are currently scared of Trump and give in to him on nearly everything, they ultimately want to get reelected. If Trump starts pushing for something only a tiny fraction of the American population supports, he will get pushback from within his party.
With this in mind, Canadians need to continue reaching out to our allies in the United States and cultivate deeper relationships with them. In a battle between an annexation-obsessed Donald Trump and Canadians, tens of millions of Americans will feel a closer affinity to Canada, and our country needs all the friends we can get.
This also means that we should – to the greatest extent possible – hold negotiations and discussions with Governors in friendly border states rather than falling all over ourselves to negotiate with Donald Trump.
4 – Embrace deeper trade and military cooperation with Europe as the United States does the opposite
While Canada is obviously in a different position than Europe – literally – we can still benefit from deepening ties with the United Kingdom and the European Union. The EU is a massive market that is in the early stages of a large-scale rearmament program, and they are feeling significant pressure from the realization that America is not the nation they thought it was. Europe faces the prospect of having to fight Russia alone, and they are also facing annexation threats as Trump greedily eyes Greenland.
Europe is looking for partners that share democratic ideals, and Canada fits the bill.
With an overall GDP of about 2.3 trillion Euros, Canada is comparable to Italy (2.45 trillion Euros), and not too far off from France (3.28 trillion Euros) and the United Kingdom (3.43 trillion Euros).
Canada also has a lot of what Europe needs. We can provide energy, minerals, and agricultural products that Europe often sources from the United States and Russia.
And Europe has a lot of what Canada needs, including high-end goods and advanced military equipment.
Given that both Canada and Europe wish to reduce reliance on a suddenly-erratic United States, and given that Europe is desperate to avoid dependence on Russia, there is a deal to be made here.
As the U.S. zigs towards bellicose imperialism oddly mixed with isolationism, Canada should do the opposite and zag towards deeper mutually beneficial cooperation and stronger trade/defence ties with like-minded allies.
If Canada takes the steps mentioned above, we can become a more well-defended and resilient nation that cultivates American allies, lays out the stark consequences of a violent annexation attempt, and deepens our bond with powerful European nations. Not only would this dissuade a seemingly-deranged U.S. President from further pursuing annexation, it would also help Canada become a much stronger nation in the long-run.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
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