When Donald Trump shares delusional maps from the Oval Office, showing the American flag covering Canada, Greenland, and Venezuela, it is more than a warning sign. It’s aggression. These kinds of actions are dangerous, direct, and need serious response.
Canada stands with Denmark, with the people of Greenland, with our allies, and with our NATO partners. But the truth is, the international relationships we once relied on are changing fast and some have stopped working for us. We can’t keep pretending the old deals will protect us.
Canada’s sovereignty is not for sale. It is the foundation of who we are. It’s our economy, our security, and our way of life. If the United States can casually talk about “taking” Greenland, then we are already in serious trouble.
And let’s not fool ourselves, if America takes Greenland, NATO is over and Canada is next. Bullies don’t stop: if they get what they want, they think that’s permission to take more.
We see what Carney promises and warns about in Davos. But we also see what Carney delivers in his budgets. Cuts to jobs. Cuts to the social safety net. Cuts on taxes for the rich and their private jets. He’s making us weaker while saying we need to be stronger.
This is a different world now and this moment demands leadership. We cannot outsource our defence and pretend our sovereignty is guaranteed by being next to a superpower and the assumption that everyone likes Canada.
We need to start by investing in our greatest strength: Canadians.
We need to invest in the people that create the wealth in this country, with strong wages, real protections on the job, and economic security we can count on.
We need to ensure we have the capacity to protect our sovereignty. That means building Canadian-controlled defence capacity that doesn’t rely on American technology like the F-35. It means protecting Arctic security and the Northwest Passage working in partnership with, and guided by, Inuit communities who have safeguarded the North for generations. And it means investing not just in equipment, but in the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces who do the work and carry the risk.
We also need to strengthen our trade relationships with allies. Over the past few years, the United States has been increasingly an unreliable and hostile trading partner whose careless tariffs have led to the loss of thousands of hard-working Canadian jobs. To counter this, we have to make it easier for people to buy Canadian, build stronger ties across the Atlantic and Pacific, and ensure our goods can reach the world. This includes supporting the calls of the Manitoba NDP government to invest in expanding the Port of Churchill and the rail lines that feed the Arctic. We need trade agreements that put workers and communities first.
Trump’s recklessness and unpredictability is enabled by a system built for billionaires and corporate profits. Canada must do different, it is time to change the system.
The strength of our sovereignty rests in the strength of the people who keep this country moving. When times are tough, we look out for each other. That is what being Canadian is all about.