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"Oh the Urbanity" a Canadian YouTuber just put out a video titled "Donald Trump is 100% serious about annexing Canada" where I think he puts forward a really convincing argument for the title argument, and for why it needs to be taken seriously.
I won't force you to watch the video but here it is, I'll give you his 13 points for it and explain them.
1: "Repeated preoccupation"
This isn't just a "one off brain fart" like a lot of Trump's rhetoric, he's been consistent about it over and over again. From Trump himself "So when I say they should be a state, I mean that, I really mean that"
2: "Aides say he's serious."
Includes a tweet from White House Deputy Chief of Staff to take him at face value and sources to CNN reporting other aides say similar, take his claims seriously.
3: "Canada says he's serious"
Some of the politicians in Canada believe that Trump is very serious about this threat too.
4: "Questioned our border"
He's talked about believing the Canadian/US border to be illegitimate (Something he also points out is that Trump has not done the same with Mexico) and that this is the rhetoric used before trying to take over another country.
5: "Loves big real estate deals."
Trump is narcissistic and loves to put his names on things and claim big accomplishments. "Is there any bigger real estate deal than doubling the land mass of the USA?"
6: "Fits into his world view"
Urbanity believes Trump has a view of great powers dominating over their local spheres of influence
7: "Threatened other countries"
He's talked about this with other countries like Panama and Greenland, showing the expansionist mindset. Along with the reported plans being developed for a potential Panama invasion.
8: "Consider his influences"
People that Trump likes are Pat Buchanan (who has talked about taking Canada and Greenland before) and McKinley (Trump's favorite president) who annexed multiple territories.
9: "Admires Vladimir Putin"
Trump has shown a lot of respect to Putin before and often victim blames Ukraine for being invaded.
10: "Pretexts like Drug Cartels"
They're trying to claim that Canada has been taken over by drug cartels and they need to wage a war to take it back from harming the country. It sounds like the Bush administration talking about WMDs.
11: "Spins Canada as abuser"
They talk about things like Doug Ford putting a tax on electricity exports as an "act of war" by Canada, and treat retaliatory tariffs as unprovoked aggression.
12: "Information Bubble"
Trump lives in an information bubble where the main sources he listens to are the ones that feed from him like Fox News. His ideas about Canada wanting to be taken over from Fox News talking about "Maple MAGA" likely reinforce his desire even more.
13: "No Personal Morals"
Urbanity views Trump as a man who has scammed people before with various business projects, shitcoins and the like. There's little reason to expect he wouldn't disregard the sovereignty of other nations.
While he doesn't mention this, I personally think another major point to consider is that Trump is not consistent on what he wants from Canada. One day he says it's the trade deficit, next day he says its drugs, then the next day its immigrants, the next day he says nothing can be done at all and he just wants the state. It sounds like excuses just being made up based off how he feels that day.
Urbanity goes on to argue that even if the threat isn't likely, it is no reason to take it as less serious. The main thing being that Trump is enacting a trade war, which is still causing serious harm to the Canadian economy and their people.
Like if a mafiaso moved in next door and started joking about killing you. Even if the chance was low, it's understandable to take their words seriously. "Threats don't have to be higher than a 50% chance to take them seriously"
He draws a corollary to Ukraine where there was a lot of disbelief and doubt about Russia invading in 2022, until as we're all aware, it happened. "But they did it"
All in all I think this is very convincing that Trump really does want to annex Canada and that we as a society should be taking that possibility seriously. And as Urbanity also points out, even if it's unpopular now, Trump's followers and the Republican party have been shown to be rather flexible at following his lead against their prior beliefs. They might be against him in 2025, but what about 2026 or 2027 when they've had years of Fox News and Trump speeches repeating the stories of Canadian Cartels and "Acts of War"?
So for discussion, there's a few questions.
Do you think Trump has serious intentions to annex Canada? Is it right of him or wrong of him to do this? If he does ramp up rhetoric (or efforts) to annex or invade, would you wish for the Republicans to oppose him or continue to support him as duly elected president? And how likely is it that Trump will transform from his rhetoric to serious action (beyond the trade wars)?
Of course he's serious. Trump loves Canada, and he thinks Canadians are great. He thinks they could be even better as part of the US, and they could help Make America Great Again. He thinks they are weak alone, and their current political and economic trajectory are unforunate, and if they continue as they are then Canada may become liability rather than an ally.
If Trump wants to annex you, that's a compliment, a huge compliment. But he's not going to send troops into Canada. He wants Canada to want to join the US. He sincerely does not understand why so many Canadians dislike the US. He thinks he's offering Canada a good deal, the best deal.
In the long run, I think he will be proven right, but he'll be gone before then.
It's because he's going about it in the worst way possible. He's basically insulting them, telling them their trade policies (that he renegotiated!) aren't fair, and that they're letting drugs and whatever else over the border, then trying to coerce them with economic warfare and veiled threats of invasion. This isn't some rogue country that happens to be next to us, but probably the closest of many close allies. If there's ever any chance at a union it's through even closer cooperation. The first order of business should be trying to get all tariffs and duties down to zero in both directions, and negotiating some kind of Schengen-style agreement to get rid of border controls.
The people who feel the most insulted are also the ones who screwed up the country with their (and it has been exclusively their) idiotic economic policies. I have zero problem with the complete destruction of their culture and their political power, because they have had zero problems with destroying mine.
And I suspect that, should they win again (for the sole purpose of fighting this stupid trade war), that the Western provinces are going to get good enough at foreign diplomacy that this might occur regardless of what Ottawa wants. Alberta in particular has had some success in this and I think that's a bigger deal than others recognize.
Of course it should, but if we're going to do that, having some actual political lever to pull for economic policy will be useful. Hence the suggestion that Canada should join the
EuropeanUnion.Simply wrong. Canadian nationalism has been the province of the right since being disowned by the woke left and their captain Trudeau for the last decade. I and many Canadians I know who are like me were sympathetic to the Trump administration and their goals before they took power and started showing their immense capacity for bullying and self-sabotage on the world stage. Ideological alignment is one thing, but question the sovereignty of my country and insult the flag that I served under and you’ve made yourself an enemy.
When I was an Ontarian I was a Doug Ford supporter and I think his comments represent this way of thinking best; there is no contradiction in this line of thinking and it has not even damaged him and his image as the strongest Canadian leader in the current trade war: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.7449512
Post-nationalism is nationalism for Eastern Big City Canadians. Being interested in the whole country's growth rather than invested in holy crusade against it is indeed a "right-wing" thing though.
Your desire to get credit for putting your life on the line for people who hate you is understandable.
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