Carney is suggesting Canada has been attacked and we’re at “war”, but the PM won’t even pause military overflights, officer exchanges or training missions with the attacking country.
At a press conference to announce the suspension of trade talks with the US and the imposition of countervailing tariffs, the prime minister was asked: “Why does it feel like, today, Mark Carney is going to war, trade war?” He replied, “You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.”
The New York Times took the PM at face value. Their article was headlined “‘Attacked’ by Trump on Trade, Canada Is ‘at War’ With U.S., Carney Says”.
Will Carney translate the rhetoric into action? Will Carney pause officer exchanges, training missions and joint naval deployments? Stop US warplanes flying over Canada? Or cancel any of Canada’s 500 military accords with US?
Last April former defence ministers Peter McKay and David Pratt wrote, “It is estimated that since the 1940s, the two countries have signed more than 2,500 agreements covering North American security, defence, research, communications, logistics and maritime operations.” A decade ago, the Department of National Defence suggested there were 500 active accords, noting there are “eighty treaty-level agreements, more than 250 memoranda of understanding, and 145 bilateral forums on defence” between the two countries’ militaries.
Through NORAD, other bilateral military accords and soldier exchanges hundreds, maybe thousands, of Canadian troops are directly assisting US military operations around the world every single day. Canadian Colonel Alain Lafrenière was recently Deputy Mission Commander of US Navy exercise Pacific Partnership 2026 and Canadian Colonel David K. Turenne oversaw core air operations at the massive US military base in Qatar during last summer’s US/Israeli attacks on Iran.
A year ago, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and Just Peace Advocates promoted an email petition campaign calling for a pause in officer exchanges with the US until Trump stopped threatening to annex Canada. Several thousand individuals sent emails to the defence minister.
Polling demonstrates that Canadians want to get tough on the US. According to a poll released by The Maple in April, 55 percent say it should be illegal to join the American military.
The public is onboard for pausing officer exchanges, military overflights, training missions and military accords with a US military led by an annexationist president. Will Carney act?
