this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Summary

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a private meeting inadvertently broadcast via a hot mic, warned that Donald Trump is seriously considering annexing Canada to secure its critical mineral resources.

Speaking to business and labor leaders, Trudeau claimed Trump’s administration is keenly aware of Canada’s resource wealth and sees annexation as a means to control it.

The comments, cut off after staff realized they were audible, underscore growing economic and political tensions.

He also stressed the need to diversify trade, noting, “Geography means we’re always going to both benefit and be challenged by trade with the United States.”

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[–] Krik@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

I'm an outsider.

Do you think the military will comply with an order to invade Canada? Usually the higher ups are pretty sane people (in the West).

[–] Raiderkev@lemmy.world 16 points 19 hours ago

Member when this was just a south park joke?

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[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 74 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (4 children)

Trump is using Putins playbook. Constantly threaten to annex your neighbors. Neighbors take those threats seriously and start to build up a standing army at the border. Convince populous that the neighbors are threatening the nation and are preparing for an invasion. Yada yada yada. Start a “special military op“ and invade neighbor.

[–] DicJacobus@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

Putins playbook wasn't exactly that.

he already had control of Ukraine, the problem was his capos were idiots, pissed off the people. and the people kicked out his capo with torches and pitchforks.

he then declared all future ukrainian governments illigetimate. and his actions have been based on a vague idea of "It all used to be one country 300 years ago because of imperialism, and the current government is not legitimate"

That argument doesn't work with Canada and the US. Yes, the US tried multiple times to take British North America, but failed.

Effectively, America already does control Canada through influence and assertion. but Canada is still a sovereign country. Smooth brained fascist and imperialist Chuds, just want America to look bigger on a map. they think that if there is ever a war with China, they'll need Unfettered access to all materials in grasp. (which doesnt make sense based on their tariffs against taiwan, those tariffs imply they're going to let China take taiwan, therfore no war with China)

at the end of the day, its dumb chuds who treat world politics and the hundreds of millions of peoples lives affected by it, like its a game. and they're angry with canada because america has believed for decades that they're in a culture war, and canadians are the opposition because they're on average, much more liberal than american liberals.

[–] CritFail@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I mean Trump has literally forced both Canada and Mexico to move a standing army in the thousands to the borders now, so I see he is not wasting time with this casus belli.

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[–] conicalscientist@lemmy.world 35 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

This quite a historic geopolitical paradigm shift. It's been implicitly assumed that the two countries are forever allied out of mutual interest.

[–] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 36 points 19 hours ago

Trump is trying to speedrun the destruction of the US

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 198 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Nothing Trump says is a joke, unless he realizes he's getting too much pushback on it for going too far. Then it's a joke.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 65 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Trump has zero sense of humour. He never jokes. Every comment he makes is a serious possibility in his mind.

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[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 81 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Yo, this won't be an annex. It will be an invasion if he really wants it, same with Greenland. You think Canada will just roll over? Imagine if fucking Mexico decided to take back Texas. (At this point, please do, I could use some new leadership here)

I'm so sorry Canadians, yall just up there doing your thing and these assholes just trying to fuck your shit up.

[–] Excentrifugal_Forz@lazysoci.al 7 points 15 hours ago

It just reminds me of being bullied at school when I was young. Same shit different day.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 45 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (13 children)

I'm in the GTA. I'm ready to die for my country. Are Americans ready to say the same when their president gives them the order?

Rest assured you do not want to fuck with us Canadians. We are deeply embedded in your country. You would see terrorism the likes of which you have only seen in your nightmares. 9/11 will seem like happier times.

Seriously as a Canadian I want them to try.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

GTA

Greater Toronto Area? 🙅‍♂️❌️

Grand Theft Auto? 😄👌✅️

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[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 33 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

A lot of Americans would come fight right alongside you. People are pissed.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 12 hours ago

This is the main reason I'm sure that a hot war is not going to happen.

Picture how chaotic and dysfunctional the US was in the latter years of the Vietnam war, and that was at least theoretically a war against the great evil "Communism", when the people being killed were "Gooks", who were barely human (at least according to racist propaganda).

Any war on Canada would probably start with maybe 30% support, and only go down from there. Could you even trust American soldiers to follow orders and kill Canadians? Probably some would obey, definitely not all. At a minimum, many would be shooting to miss, rather than carefully aiming.

As soon as Canada was attacked, you'd have Canadians streaming across the largest land border in the world into the US to engage in guerilla warfare -- think the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, except with much less of a difference in accent. They'd probably be joined by plenty of Americans too.

And, while the US military is very experienced, the US public hasn't had to deal with war on their territory since the Civil War, generations ago.

I won't discount the possibility that the US drums up support for a war by staging a false flag attack or something. But, even with that, I think a majority of the US wouldn't want to risk American lives trying to kill Canadians.

[–] mitchty@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 14 hours ago

I’m in Minnesota, I’d take up arms against people trying to invade Canada. Fuck those fascists.

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[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 25 points 22 hours ago (3 children)

Fun, totally unrelated to absolutely anything fact:

Three of the top ten longest confirmed sniper kills were Canadian.

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[–] shittydwarf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 141 points 1 day ago (14 children)

We should join the EU, fast

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 4 points 12 hours ago

I fucking wish man. I have wanted to live in Iceland for my entire adult life and I finally could. I know they aren't EU but they are Schengen before someone says "well actualyl"

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 113 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (36 children)

That's not enough. They should immediately negotiate an agreement with Britain and France to have British and French nuclear weapons stationed on Canadian soil. Have them there long enough until Canada can acquire their own domestic arsenal.

Canada needs the bomb. It sounds insane, but I am not joking. That is the obvious lesson of the Ukraine war. Canada is already an advanced near-nuclear state. They could have a domestic arsenal within a year or two if they wanted. And borrowing a few nukes from London or Paris in the meantime would provide cover to allow that.

And I say this as an American. I know Canadians may be loathe at the idea of a Canadian nuclear arsenal. But be realistic. It is the only way for Canada to ever be able to credibly deter a direct threat from the US. We can no longer be trusted.

Canada needs the bomb.

[–] shittydwarf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 87 points 1 day ago (15 children)

The fact that that your comment even makes a bit of sense is so completely fucked. Of course I don't speak for everybody but I think it's fair to say that most Canadians do not want to be a nuclear power. We do not want to hurt or threaten anyone, particularly our American brothers? When Pearl Harbour was attacked we declared war on Japan before America did ffs.. shit is fucked up down there

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 day ago

When Pearl Harbour was attacked we declared war on Japan before America did

Must be nice having allies like that. Those are the kind of friends you should hold on to and not inflict ridiculous tariffs on or anything like that.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 71 points 1 day ago (11 children)

American here: yep. NATO is going to become effectively useless in short order, and it’ll be all our fault. Save yourselves; hopefully we can get our shit together at some point, but I’m not counting on it tbh.

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[–] leadore@lemmy.world 27 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Ya know, even with all the apt comparisons to Hitler and Putin, one thing I didn't have on my bingo card was him actually trying to expand US territory by invading and annexing other countries. I thought that was one big difference.

Everything else I could imagine is now in progress: Disregard/end of the Constitution and rule of law--check. Dismantling of democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship--check. Mass deportations and concentration camps--check. Full-on implementation of Project 2025--check. Blatant corruption, lawlessness and self-enrichment for trump family and oligarchs--check. Implementation of Christian Nationalist policies--check. Dismantling of federal agencies and beneficial aid programs--check (so far DOJ/FBI, USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Dept of Education).

As yet unchecked, but only a matter of time (it's only been 3 weeks!): dismantling of additional agencies and programs: SNAP, medicaid first, then social security, medicare, all the stuff they hate. Use of military against civilians, requirement to carry ID papers with proof of citizenship, sham elections, and more!

Unanticipated by me: Musk given free reign to dismantle whatever parts of the US government he feels like, and now invasion and annexation of other countries and territories!?! In the sights: Panama Canal zone, Greenland, Canada, and Gaza. Could this really happen?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 13 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Could this really happen?

No. Just like most of his agenda so far, he's dead serious and wants to do it, but he keeps finding out he's far too inept to pull it off.

Hitler was evil AF, but he was also smart and charismatic, and he knew how to fill a government with supervillains.

Maximum effort, trump might start amassing some military on the border. When that happens watch the other news for shit they're trying to sneak by.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

knew how to fill a government with supervillains

Isn't that what's happening right now?

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[–] leadore@lemmy.world 12 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I hope you're right. I fear you're not.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 6 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

He couldn't even shut down USA aid. All he needed to do was have a semi-intelligent person walk into there and see what the consequences would be for shutting it down. He's consistently just playing checkers on a chess board and having to roll every move back.

He's going to piss a lot more people off and make a lot more problems but he does not have the competency in himself or his team to pull off an operation like that against an actual trained country.

Don't get me wrong, he will eventually shut a bunch of very important shit down probably inadvertently.

Maybe we'll lose a third of the population to an illness or something on his watch.

I'm a bit more worried overall that he's now going to permanently be in power than anything. I don't think the US has it in them too kick him to the curb, and I'm definitely not going to count on the military backing us in a coup.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (6 children)

But he did shut it down. The office was cordoned off, the flag and signage removed, administrative employees placed on leave and overseas employees ordered to return home. Leaving massive amounts of food and medicine to spoil on ships.

Yes, a judge has ordered a "pause" on the shutdown until a hearing takes place, but we haven't seen them go back to work so far, since it's Friday--we'll see what happens Monday. Point is he's going ahead and doing illegal things and daring someone to stop him. My concern is whether they'll ignore court orders. Because it's not like there's a way to enforce them other than he chooses to comply.

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[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 73 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

at least they recognize the gravity of this insanity.

USA here. I believe (but I dont know for sure) that any "hot" attempt on Canada will bring forth blood on american streets.

just hang in there and defend yourselves by any means you can while we try to get hands on this beast and strangle it.

I am sorry.

edit: clarity

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[–] eatthecake@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It's sad that all I can do as an Aussie is buy some real maple syrup. It also says a lot about what Canada gives to the world. There's a damn good reason that Americans put the Canadian flag on their backpacks. We say here that New Zealand is to Australia what Canada is to America. They are our better, kinder sibling, the ones who didn't join the war, the ons with more honour and integrity. Go Canada.

[–] rabber@lemmy.ca 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

In my opinion the most similar country to Canada is actually Australia.

  • our colonial past
  • our continued colonialism
  • we all live in one area and the rest of the country is uninhabitable
  • our wildlife kills us regularly
  • bogans and rednecks are basically the same thing
  • drinking culture
  • housing crisis, but precisely that you are brainwashed like us into thinking that owning a house is literally all that matters in life. I think our two countries are the most extreme version of 'success is literally owning a detached house'. Our societies both are in on the exact same pyramid scheme
  • funny accents with funny dialogue options

I don't think we are kinder than you guys. I have a theory that our kindness is actually just a lack of honesty or directness, or in harsher words, spineless. That said my experience with Australians has been universally good. I should visit straya, never been...

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