The cover of the August 2006 issue of Homeland Security Today (HSToday) magazine, with Supt. Mike Gaudreau of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) standing before the Canadian Parliament building. Gaudreau was with the RCMP’s Organized Crime and Border Integrity Division dedicated to securing the US-Canadian border. The photo was taken by Roxanne Ouellette with the cooperation of the RCMP exclusively for HSToday.
March 16, 2025 by David Silverberg
Americans, especially those currently in government, have no idea how blessed the United States of America is to border only two countries.
Russia borders 14 countries. So does China. That means 14 different governments, foreign policies, wars, disputes, currencies, cultures, languages, migrants, smugglers and everything else that comes along with a territorial border (and this doesn’t take into account maritime borders, which can be much more complex).
Instead, the United States borders Canada and Mexico, two countries with which it has been at peace for the past century. Until Jan. 20 of this year these were friends and major trading partners. Canada is formally allied to the United States through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Southwest Florida benefits from Canadian tourism and seasonal visits and until the accession of President Donald Trump, its local tourism bureaus were making efforts to encourage even more Canadian visitors.
People of Mexican origin built businesses and contributed to Southwest Florida communities in a wide variety of ways. Mexican-origin workers, documented and undocumented, filled Southwest Florida’s building trades, staffed hotels and restaurants, and provided the people to pick the fruits and vegetables of its fields.
Now, Trump, his cronies and his regime are engaged in a determined, relentless effort to turn these friends into foes. He insults and disrespects these countries and their people, subjects them to punitive and completely unnecessary tariffs, mocks and defames them and even threatens their independence and sovereignty.
One veteran, well-respected analyst even believes that a decision has already been made to invade and conquer Canada. The only question is when and how.
The attacks on Canada especially hit home for me. I take them personally.
I would like to tell you why.
A laughable notion
In the 1920s Canadian military planners had to come up with a strategy in the event of war with the United States. If such a war broke out and US troops violated Canadian territory, the Canadian Army planned to invade the United States in turn and take the city of Fargo, North Dakota. They would then hold it until allied British troops came over and opened a new front elsewhere.
I learned this directly from the Canadian Minister of National Defence (with a “c”), Perrin Beatty, during an interview in his office in 1987. At the time, I was the international trade reporter for the newspaper Defense News.
Beatty and I both laughed at the notion—not just the notion of conquering Fargo, ND, but the completely absurd idea that the United States and Canada might ever go to war.
After all, both the US and Canada were English-speaking NATO allies. American and Canadian troops fought side by side against Fascism in Europe during World War II. More recently, in 1979 Canadian diplomats provided refuge for American diplomats hiding from Iranian revolutionaries who had overrun the American embassy in Tehran. With fake Canadian passports provided by the Canadian government, the six Americans were smuggled out of Iran. The whole story was so dramatic it was made into the movie Argo, which in 2013 was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three, including Best Picture.
More pertinent to our discussion, Beatty was determined to upgrade Canadian defense capabilities to meet the country’s full NATO commitment. A recent exercise had revealed operational gaps that needed to be closed.
Canada was also considering purchasing a fleet of nuclear submarines, which is what had brought me to Ottawa. France and Britain were in a fierce competition to supply them. (The United States does not sell nuclear submarines.) Canada wanted them to safeguard and patrol the Northwest Passage, which even then was being affected by global warming breaking up the polar ice.
In the end, Canada never made the purchase, it being deemed too expensive by a succeeding government.
No matter what the story, in every encounter I had, Canadian authorities were helpful, cooperative and forthcoming. It made me appreciate just how close US-Canadian relations were in meeting common challenges and pursuing common interests.
To this day, the full sweep of US-Canadian defense cooperation is broad and deep and goes well beyond NATO. The two countries created the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in 1958 to guard and monitor Soviet—and later, Russian—polar air activity.
On May 10, 2024 the two celebrated NORAD’s 66th anniversary. “But we’re more than just friends across the 49th parallel,” said Lt. Gen. Blaise Fawley, a Royal Canadian Air Force commander, at the time. “We are a team. We monitor the seas and skies together. We crew aircraft together. We train and exercise together. We also live, and strive, and grieve together.”
Canada is a participant in the International Space Station program, providing the vessel with key technologies and robotics. Canadian astronauts have been working with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since 1983, sending 14 astronauts on 17 space missions with their American colleagues.
US and Canadian industry didn’t just work together on civilian projects and products like auto manufacturing, Canadian companies offered significant capabilities in defense, particularly when it came to training and simulation. As the Defense News trade reporter I did extensive coverage of Canadian companies, mostly located in Montreal, and their products and technologies serving the common needs of the US, Canada and NATO.
In contrast to so many countries around the world, US and Canadian relations were close, collaborative and cooperative.
But the closeness of US-Canadian ties were really revealed when they were put to their most strenuous test.
Stress test
On Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists struck the United States in the heart of New York and Washington, DC.
For the first time, NATO invoked Article 5 of its treaty: an attack on one was an attack on all. Canada was immediately by America’s side.
Canada accepted US-bound flights that couldn’t land in the United States because the airspace was shut down. That left thousands of passengers and crew stranded.
Canada mobilized to meet the need and Canadians opened their facilities and even their schools, gyms and homes to welcome travelers.
The challenge and response was so massive it was given the name Operation Yellow Ribbon. In Newfoundland, Gander International Airport accepted 38 airliners with over 6,000 people.
The whole effort even inspired a Broadway musical, “Come From Away”—which recently played in Southwest Florida at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers.
Over time, Canada strengthened its border security, its counter-terrorism efforts and its intelligence sharing with the United States.
Canadian forces served alongside American troops in Afghanistan and did so for 14 years. They suffered 159 fatalities in combat and 22 more in other circumstances, the highest per capita casualty rate among coalition members. Sadly, the first four died in a friendly-fire incident at American hands at a place called Tarnak Farm. Even so, the Canadian commitment remained unwavering.
Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan. (Photo: ISAF HQ)
Canada paid in treasure too, spending an estimated $18.5 billion dollars on the effort by 2011.
I had the opportunity to observe Canada’s counter-terrorism efforts first-hand. After 9/11, I focused my journalistic efforts on US homeland security and was founding editor of a magazine, Homeland Security Today, or HSToday, which reported on all aspects of this new and emerging discipline, department and effort.
It was always clear to me and the rest of us at the magazine that US homeland security meant North American homeland security. The United States homeland wouldn’t be safe unless it worked together with Canada and Mexico. The leaders of all three countries understood that as well and repeatedly met to synchronize their countries’ efforts.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Vicente Fox and US President George Bush posed at the Mexican ruins of Chichen Itza during a March 2006 summit to coordinate common security measures. (Photo: Reuters/HSToday)
Canada was right there with the United States, standing against Islamist terrorism. Canada strengthened its borders, mobilized its forces and sharpened its intelligence collecting.
Canada even suffered from its own instance of terrorism on Oct. 22, 2014. A lone gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, shot two ceremonial guards at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, killing one, and then entered the Canadian Parliament building, presumably intending to murder top officials. However, he was killed in a shootout with security guards and the heroic Parliamentary Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers.
It was a demonstration that terrorism didn’t respect national boundaries in North America and all civilized countries faced the same threat—and had to meet it together.
The cooperation didn’t just cover governments. As in the common military defense, Canadian industry offered its technological capabilities to the United States and the world in combatting the jihadist menace and closing vulnerabilities.
A personal view
Those are the governmental, defense and security areas of cooperation and I was privileged to see, experience and cover them first hand.
On a personal level, I and my wife have also experienced Canadian hospitality during vacation visits to Vancouver, Quebec, Halifax, Saint John and Niagara-on-the-Lake. In July 2017 we traveled to Ottawa to see the celebrations of Canada’s 150th anniversary and enjoyed them along with millions of Canadians.
As an undergraduate student in 1976 I traveled north to meet my intellectual idol, professor Marshall McLuhan, to explore studying under him at the University of Toronto. We had a delightful lunch and lengthy, stimulating discussion. Though a position didn’t come to fruition, I’ll always treasure that meeting.
Even today, although I now live in tropical Naples, Fla., I will never part with my thick Canadian toque, complete with embroidered maple leaf, and scarf, bought in a favorite Ottawa shop.
So now, when the American president—my president, even though I voted against him—attacks Canada and Canadians, it hits home in a very personal way.
Let me put this on the record: As a United States citizen—as a human being—I find Trump’s attacks on Canada to be beyond outrageous. In fact the English language lacks the words to fully convey their awfulness and unacceptability. They are monstrous and perverted. They are barbaric and disgusting, they are revolting and obscene. They are wholly unjustified, completely unprovoked, and utterly indefensible. Let me revert to some ancient language: they are wicked. They are evil.
They’re also treasonous given that they are so inimical to United States interests and serve the goals of Vladimir Putin and Russia.
But horribly, they’re not random or thoughtless.
Personally, while I’m not usually a conspiracy theorist, in this instance I see something much larger and more dangerous at work. (See: “Warning! A Trump-Putin-Xi conspiracy theory”).
As though to confirm my worst fears, an analyst whom I greatly respect, Malcolm Nance, worries about roughly the same thing, only in more detail.
I have some personal acquaintance with Nance, so I can vouch for him. For 20 years he served in the US Navy as a cryptologist and served on many intelligence and counter-terror missions. I became familiar with him when he submitted an op-ed to Homeland Security Today that I edited and published. He’s author of numerous books, among them, The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West, published in 2018. It was one of the first books to comprehensively detail Russian interference in the 2016 election—and label Donald Trump as a Russian puppet.
When the Ukraine war broke out, Nance didn’t sit on the sidelines. He cammied up and joined the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, putting his bullets where his mouth was.
So I take Nance seriously—and you should too.
On March 8, Nance published an analysis on the Substack platform: “URGENT WARNING: Trump is Planning to Invade Canada & Greenland.”
Nance puts his bottom line up front:
“The political rhetoric in the first five weeks of the Trump regime is giving clear indications that the United States fully intends to invade and seize Canada and Greenland at President Trump’s command. The possible timeline is 6-18 months of political destabilization to weaken the Canadian economy, split political parties, and carry out secret destabilization efforts, including identifying and making contact with Canadians who would betray their country.”
It's a playbook used by Putin in Ukraine. Trump and his Cabinet are politically and psychologically “shaping the battlespace” in military parlance. The insults and tariffs, trade wars and denigration are part of a well-worn Trump practice of wearing down and diminishing opponents. It’s worked in a domestic American context, now it’s being applied to Canada.
Next step is to use traitors to create an anti-Canadian internal element that opposes Canadian sovereignty and calls for union with the United States.
We have seen this before: Adolf Hitler did it in Sudetenland and Putin did it in the regions he coveted in Ukraine and then annexed.
In Nance’s view this is something Trump might try in western Canada using fringe political groups like Wexit, which advocates that the oil-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan split and join the USA.
“Groups such as these, under the guidance of the Republican party via clandestine pathways operated by the CIA, could receive tens of millions of dollars to fund a nationwide information warfare campaign to give the appearance that there are a large majority of Canadians who want to leave and join the USA,” he writes. With enough obfuscation and disinformation, much of it funded by Elon Musk, “the confusion would be enough to give Trump cover that he was ‘rescuing’ the Canadian people from an extremist liberal autocratic government.”
Trump has called Canada “not viable” as a country, said “Canada would not exist without the United States” and called the US-Canadian border “an artificial line.” (And what border is NOT an artificial line?)
Then, Nance points out: “On February 24, 2025, Elon Musk tweeted on his social media platform X that ‘Canada is not a real country.’ Musk surely deliberately chose those words after being privy to the discussions about annexing the country in a rapid invasion.
“They are almost the very words and justification that Putin used for the invasion of Ukraine,” he pointed out.
The downsides to an attempted American takeover of Canada are immense but both Trump and Elon Musk have in the past shown great appetites for risk. So, for that matter, has Putin but even his best calculations foundered in Ukraine, as Trump and Musk’s might in Canada.
“The occupation of Canada would quickly become a continent-wide, high-intensity modern war akin to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Nance points out. “It would rapidly devolve into a higher-intensity insurgency, which could lead to the deaths of thousands on both sides. Any operation would most likely collapse the American economy and precipitate a violent Second American Civil War.”
Damage being done
Whether Trump invades or not, he’s already done extensive and possibly irreparable damage to US-Canadian relations and to personal interactions between Canadians and Americans.
This was expressed by outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a press conference on March 4: “Canadians are hurt. Canadians are angry. We are going to choose to not go on vacation in Florida. We are going to choose to try and buy Canadian products ... and yeah we’re probably going to keep booing the American anthem.”
Starting April 11, Canadian visitors to the United States staying over 30 days will now be fingerprinted upon entering the country. They’ll have to fill out an I-94 form proving they are approved legal visitors. They’ll have to report their arrival date and the length of their stay.
Essentially, they’ll be treated as hostile aliens and that’s already happening. For example, this month a Canadian entrepreneur was arrested during a border crossing from Mexico, chained and incarcerated for having an incomplete work visa application form.
There is already resistance to Trump’s anti-Canadian moves. In the US Congress, Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-2-RI), introduced the No Invading Allies Act (House Resolution 1936) on March 6 to withhold funds to prohibit Trump from invading Canada, Greenland or Panama.
It would be nice if that passed and could actually stop Trump from attacking allies either militarily, economically or verbally, but legal safeguards are at best an iffy proposition with this regime.
Of course Canada is not being idle either. An election has brought forth a new premier, American tariffs are being met with Canadian tariffs, and a new wave of patriotism is sweeping over Canada. Canadians are determined not to be America’s 51st state and no one can blame them, especially given the nature of the Trump regime.
The whole monstrosity is completely unnecessary. It’s entirely the result of one single, sick, twisted individual creating a crisis that only he thinks he can solve in pursuit of ends that are megalomaniacal, to say the least, arguably treasonous and certainly unconstitutional.
Both Trump and Musk like to see themselves as big, bold disrupters who flout conventional wisdom and practices. But this is not merely introducing a new chip or product or company into the marketplace. This is an atrocity with the potential to literally kill millions of people and physically destroy both countries.
A time to speak
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Security Council on Feb. 21, 2022. (Photo: Kremlin)
On Feb. 21, 2022, just before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he held a Security Council meeting. His ministers sat obediently and silently before him at one end of a giant room while he sat alone behind a desk at the other.
One by one the ministers trooped to a lectern to give rote endorsements of his proposal to recognize the independence of Ukrainian provinces occupied by Russian-backed insurgents. It was tantamount to endorsing the invasion of Ukraine.
Only Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, hesitated, to Putin’s great annoyance. “I would support the proposal…” stammered Naryshkin. Putin prodded him to give a clear endorsement. Naryshkin tried to evade the question. Putin turned the verbal knife slowly, repeatedly until finally Naryshkin submitted and endorsed independence, knowing full well what it would mean. “You can take your seat,” Putin said dismissively when he was done.
It was the last chance for anyone in Russia to speak out against what was clearly a crime, a travesty and what would prove a devastating blunder.
Three days later, Putin launched a brutal war of aggression against an independent, democratic Ukraine.
In the United States there’s still time to speak out against injustice and the mistreatment of people who have been our allies, our partners and most of all, our friends. Trump may be sitting behind the big desk but we don’t have to be Naryshkins.
By standing up and speaking out for Canada and Canadians, for immigrants, for allies, for democracy—and for Ukraine—Americans are also standing up for themselves and for the United States of America.
And writing as one American, we can simply do no less.
Liberty lives in light
© 2025 by David Silverberg
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