There are at least three ongoing disputes between Canada and the USA over sovereignty.
The biggie is the Beaufort Sea, for under the sea bed there is a lot of oil. To promote their respective sovereignty interests, the USA has started handing out oil rights, and Canada has started sea bed mapping.
Related to this is the USA’s contention that Canada does not hold sovereignty over all of the Northwest Passage. When big oil was looking into developing the route, Canada was supportive, but took care to attend upon the S.S. Manhattan’s voyage so as to preserve sovereignty. Since then, Canadian support for use of the passage for oil shipments has waned, and the USA’s resistance to Canada’s assumption of sovereignty along all of the route has grown.
The least significant dispute is over Machais Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy, where long after Canada stopped having lighthouse keepers, they had my uncle Gordie and a few others staff the station simply to promote Canada’s sovereignty.
Nuke’m both and OG sort them out. In a less extreme scenario, use land forces to take over both countries and seal the perimeter with new Wal-Mart supercenters.
Canada and Spain had always been at odds over Atlantic fishing rights; Spanish boats are notorious for fishing just outside the territorial waters of any country with fish, and Canada, having happily drained the Grand Banks of most of its fish, has managed to convince itself that other countries took all the fish.
Anyway, during the early 90s Spanish (and other European) vessels were in the habit of sitting just outside Canadian territory sucking turbot - an ugly, tasteless fish, but one of the few fish left in the North Atlantic - out by the ton. Spain and Portgual, in particular, were notorious for this; since they joined the EU in 1986, they had had to go abroad to catch fish, since part of the EU deal was that they stop overfishing European stocks. The fish stocks started dropping even more than usual. Canada was furious, claiming that European boats were using illegal fishing equipment and darting in and out of Canadian waters.
Efforts to come to multilateral agreements on fishing restrictions were fruitless, and it became a huge problem for Canada. The economy of NEwfoundland is heavily dependent upon fishing, and Canada had grounded much of its own fishermen in an effort to save the fishing stocks. Now the European fleets were fucking the entire plan up, and cheating to do it. So Canada decided to make an example of someone.
To the amazement of everyone, Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, and Coast Guard vessels actually chased down and captured a Spanish fishing boat, the Estai, after actually firing warning shots. Sure enough, the Estai was using illegal equipment. This led to a hysterical scene when the Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Brian Tobin - later the premier of Newfoundland, whaddya know - stood before a captured net in New York City and declared to a bemused crowd of reporters that the Spanish were jerks.
As you can imagine, the Spanish government went absolutely apeshit. Insofar as they were concerned, it was an act of crime, or war, or piracy, or possibly all three to capture a ship by force in international waters. A case was filed in the Hague. They didn’t deny using illegal equipment, but to be fair Canada didn’t deny capturing the ship in international waters. So they both had a point.
The EU passed a resolution condemning Canada. In a fascinating twist, this caused a huge uproar in the United Kingdom, whose fishing industry A) felt, like a lot of Britons, like they were a lot closer to Canada than Europe, and B) weren’t fans of Spain’s fishing tactics, either.
Canada decided to keep pressing, and two weeks later a Coast Guard ship armed with a big long scissor contraption of some kind chased after two more Spanish boats and cut their nets off. NETS, you pervert.
Well, the Spanish were not going to stand for this shit, so they sent a big ol’ navy frigate to protect Spanish fishing vessels. Canada announced they weren’t stopping anytime soon and that they’d send some of their shiny new warships, too. This Mexican standoff lasted just a few days. Thankfully, an eleventh-hour deal was reached before anyone started shooting. It seems absurd, but this is the sort of dumbass stuff that starts wars sometimes.
Reminds me of an old fake news story from The Onion about a bridge built from Canada to Mexico. Wasn’t that funny of a story except for one line, where some random American complains about hearing all the mariachi music and Rush.
Well, after I stopped laughing (sometime around June of next year- God knows I love watching slapfights), if I were representative of the US I’d probably tell the children to go to their rooms, probably without dinner.
OK, all kidding aside, we would have to back Denmark if Canada attacked (as RickJay said), but no matter who we backed it would be a very short fight. That relatively open border to the north would make a nice staging point for a few armor divisions, and that would be the end of that.
But in Canada vs Denmark, if the US did not get involved, and it was just nación a nación who would win? Who’s got the most war toys and largest armed force between the two?
If both countries were left undisturbed, Canada would win, eventually, for the same reason that the US eventually dominated the Second World War. Canada has a much larger population and resource (and therefore potential industrial) base.
Plus, we could impede Danish progress by covering Denmark with the snow shovelled from just one of our shopping malls.
We need to keep an eye on these shifty Canucks. They have something like 90% of their population within 100 miles of our border. 90%! Doesn’t that just seem a bit suspicious? :dubious:
Denmark has a much more heavily armed army, which befits its geographic position in NATO. It has far more in the way of tanks and heavy artillery, WAY more. Active troops are about equal in number, but Denmark fields a lot more heavy equipment.
But the Danish army could never invade Canada. Canada has genuine punching power in the naval department; Denmark does not. Canada operates twelve Halifax-class missile frigates, more than a match for anything the Danes can offer. Denmark has, by my count, three Neils Juel corvettes and four Thetis-class frigates. The Thetis Juel ships are more coastal patrol/fishery enforcement ships than full-blown warships. They cannot match the striking power of a Halifax. the Neils Juel are a better match, with Harpoon missiles, but aren’t quite as modern and far less numerous than Canada’s fleet. In any event, neither country has the sealift capability to mount such an invasion.
It’s unlikely, therefore, that either country could threaten the other with significant numbers of ground troops; Canada’s are too weak to invade Denmark, and Denmark could not land troops in Canada in the face of the Canadian navy and air force. I’d pick the Canadian navy to win the sea battle, but that would be more or less the end of the war.
Canada, Spain, Denmark, and the Turbot War are all entertaining, but wasn’t there another example?
Didn’t Greece and Turkey, both NATO members, go at it for a while in the 70s when Turkey took over half of Cyprus? Last I knew, the island was still split…
Old Jean-Luc, 100 years old, was dying in a hospital bed in Paris. The Angel of Death came down to him and said, “Jean-Luc, you’ve been a good man for a century. God wishes to reward you before I carry you away to Heaven. What is your final wish?”
Jean-Luc looks at the Angel of Death and says to him, “Angel, my final wish is for Canada to invade Mexico, but be beaten back at the border and retreat back north. Then I want them to invade again, and again be beaten back from the border and run for home. Then I want them to invade again, and be repulsed at the border, then return north.”
The Angel was shocked, and asked him, “Jean-Luc! What has Canada ever done to you that you hate them so?”
Jean-Luc merely smiles beatifically, looks at the Angel, and says, “Nothing. But it would mean the Canadian military had run roughshod over the US six times…”
Maybe it would be like Iceland v. the UK in The Great Codfish War. As far as I remember the response of the rest of NATO was to say “Hey, you boys stop that!” while making popcorn and settling down to watch the excitement
Seriously? The dispute would mean nothing if it weren’t for the fact that they could be used to make a territorial claim on the North Pole (and any mineral resources beneath it). I would hope that NATO would take the position that no one can claim the North Pole just like no one can claim part of Antarctica.[1] In any case NATO was formed to support members that are attacked, not to support members attacking anyone else. So the remaining NATO countries would be obligated to come to the aid of Denmark in your scenario, against Denmark.
[1] If not, the first undisputed attainment of the North Pole was the air expedition led by Roald Amundsen, which means it’s rightfully ours
I don’t really have any recent first hand experience with the Danish military but from my days of being deployed in Europe (during the Cold War) the Danish military was fat and rusted. Bad to terrible conscripts made up a large number of the troops and the equipment was sub par even by mid-80s standards.
It was much more formidable on paper.
However still Denmark last I checked had around 13,000 troops in the Danish Army. Canada had like 70,000 active duty and 30,000 reserve troops in the 90s (last time I can remember knowing anything about Canada or Denmark’s military strength.)
So while Canada has had some famous SNAFUs as of late in regards to reports on military readiness I don’t think their troops are at the point where they would lose to 13,000 Danes under most any circumstances.
