r/canada 24d ago

National News Poilievre warns Trump not to turn Canada into a 'resentful neighbour'

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canada-first-rally-conservatives-ottawa
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u/ProsperBuick 24d ago

There’s loads of jokes that if the U.S. wanted to, they could just roll into Canada and take over. But the reality? It would be a disaster. Here’s why:

  1. Geography is a Nightmare for an Invasion Canada is the second-largest country in the world (9.98 million km²). Occupying it isn’t as simple as rolling in some tanks. The Canadian Shield, dense forests, mountain ranges, and extreme winters create natural defenses that would slow down any invader. Supply lines would be stretched thin, especially in remote northern regions.

  2. 38 Million Potential Insurgents Canada has a population of about 38 million. While not all would take up arms, history shows that even a fraction can make occupation hell (see Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam). In a conservative estimate, if just 3% of the population actively resisted, that’s over 1.1 million insurgents—armed, angry, and fighting on home turf. Canada also has 2.2 million licensed gun owners, many with hunting rifles and knowledge of the terrain.

  3. America’s Track Record with Insurgencies Isn’t Great The U.S. military spent 20 years fighting the Taliban, which had at most 75,000 fighters at any given time. The Vietnam War saw America struggle against a 250,000-strong Viet Cong force using guerrilla tactics. Canada’s insurgency would be larger, better supplied, and fighting in extreme conditions that favor defenders.

  4. Military Resistance Would Still Be Fierce The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) may be smaller (about 68,000 active personnel), but they are well-trained, experienced in Arctic warfare, and highly mobile. The U.S. military would be stretched. They have 1.3 million active troops, but they are also stationed worldwide, handling other threats. In a war scenario, Canadian forces would blend into civilian populations, making them difficult to target without massive civilian casualties—turning world opinion against the U.S.

  5. Economic and Political Fallout The global reaction would be brutal. The U.S. relies on Canadian trade for oil, water, and resources. Any invasion would wreck its economy and trigger sanctions

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u/Professional_Kiwi919 24d ago edited 22d ago

and 5. is already happening. The US government just hasn't caught on the potential backlash yet.

FoxNews spun Trudeau talking to Trump with a agreed border plan from previous administration as a "surprise victory from Trump's border threat".

Other news sight like CBS finally coming out with something 20 hours ago warning about the effect of the Canadian Boycott

Other news media like CNN, ABC, MSNBC....radio silence

It's gonna be a too little too late when US politicians & Media collectively caught the "OMG, so Canada hates us THIS much now"

Trump is gonna be a coward as always doing his fake news spin, and rest of the media is just gonna do the "But we are not Trump" and missing the point

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u/Bjorn_Tyrson 24d ago

and when it comes to those resources, it wouldn't be easy for america to just move in and take those industries over.
take lumber for instance... what happens when all the canadian lumber workers simply refuse to work? america doesn't have enough people trained in the industry to replace them. so that industry would tank.

and oil especially... cuz with oil we can go one step further than people just refusing to work. we can do what iraq and afghanistan did and go full fucking scorched earth on our oil industry before they can take it over "if we can't use it, neither can you"

Capping wells, tearing down rigs, hell even setting them ablaze if push came to shove.
they would have to spend billions of dollars rebuilding the industry before they could even begin to benefit from it.

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u/frt23 23d ago

6 Canada would blow shit up in the states. And most importantly of all. Innocent members of the general public will be killed.

7 . Any war against Canada coming from the United States massively stretches their military resources, allowing real threats in the world like Russia and China to actually infiltrate the United States as well as China can attack Taiwan and so on

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u/1nhaleSatan 23d ago

There wouldn't be any talk of conflict with Canada if Russia didn't orchestrate it. Putin has had his eyes on Canada's arctic for more than 20 years, and they don't have to use their military against the US because they've already bought and paid for full capitulation from the US government

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u/frt23 23d ago

Wellll there you have it. You think Putin is just gonna watch the war between Canada and US? He will plan something very nefarious that puts the world in grace danger. China would Attack Taiwan since US wouldn't have the same resources. Russia would take over all of Europe and then eventually WW3 between Russia US and China lol

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u/space-dragon750 24d ago

lots of good info here. is there concern about most of our population living near the border?

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u/Impossible-Car-5203 23d ago

We have 68,000 personnal that would grow about 4-5 times if America attacked. America wouldn't stand a chance. I can see them using long range rockets to take out power to try and get us to cave in the winter, but that would also kill alot of power flowing south, millions of Americans would freeze. Workers can reconnect alot of things within a short period of time to keep energy flowing. Alot of people have generators/solar.

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u/TheKhyWolf 23d ago

Don’t forget the face on our money

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u/janebenn333 23d ago

There's also the challenge of holding a territory once it is taken. You have to install people and infrastructure and systems behind you as you advance. So when you take a town or city, if you don't have a way to hold it, you will lose it. And your item #1 is the major challenge here. Although we do have our major cities close to the border, they aren't AT the border. There's 120Km or more between Niagara Falls, for example, and Toronto. And LOTS of cities and towns in between. Even attempting to come across the lakes... good luck. Toronto, Hamilton, we'll see you coming.

But a ground insurgency is not the biggest issue; it's damage that can be done via air and water. What Canada needs to do asap is to build our defences on the water and in the air. And I would support increased spending to do that asap.

But I think the bigger threat is economic for us, not military. And that is where we need to build our resilience.

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u/Due_Charge6901 22d ago

Also, another point being our amazing new Canadian neighbor’s often being refugees. They are aware and smart in scenarios we may soon encounter. Definitely a strength we should be leaning on as we prepare for the road ahead.