How many are they going to have once NATO and the Commonwealth start supplying them with units and personnel to shore up their defenses? How many can they build between now and whenever this fantasy takes place?
Yeah, securing the Northwest Passage would be mostly a matter of having naval assets that can operate in that environment. Securing it against Russia et al. would do little for defending Canada elsewhere.
« undefended » does not mean « unwatched ». The 49th is heavily surveilled by air by both Canada and the US.
Having someone try to cross the border, travelling many kms, to shoot a few cows in North Dakota? And then sneaking back north? There will be an air strike from the USAAF (which has a major base at Minot).
Now there’s a great slogan!
Too bad they don’t grasp how the Rest of Canada feels about Toronto 
Okay, I live in Ottawa, and walked by that place quite often when it was being built.
It’s a fucking fortress.
We probably could crack it open, but at the collateral cost of destroying most of the Byward market, including national treasures like the Chateau Laurier that’s basically right next to it.
The rumors are, they have enough bang-bang shit on site to wipe out most of our downtown area if shit gets hot.
They won’t evacuate, they’ll just turtle up for a few weeks
An airstrike on what? The half dozen rednecks who crossed the border on their ATVs will be long gone by the time the sun rises.
The name of the game is attrition. Canada can’t defeat the US through force of arms, but they can do enough damage to make the American people lose any support for continuing the fight. We’ve seen in Ukraine and Gaza what an outnumbered and outgunned force can do.
No, because I do not think Trump is going to order an invasion of Canada.
But if he does, U.S. diplomats in Ottawa should not count on advance notice. That’s especially true if Rubio is still Secretary of State. Trump likes to humiliate him.
I know this is a crazy prediction. But Trump doesn’t care about the welfare of our diplomats, and I do not think he cares much about keeping secrets, beyond the possible secret that he wants to capture Canada militarily. So there’s no need for our diplomats to engage in the traditional courtyard burning of the files.
I agree that all of this wargaming is fantasy. But as we’re indulging, there is no way NATO and other Allies would–or could–send any military aid
And while as a citizen of Soviet Canuckistan I have advocated making the US the 11 province, have a button that says “US Out Of North America!” have made a detailed study of Canada’s defence scheme number one, the 1920s plan to defend against a US invasion, suggested a historical what if scenario where Sitting Bull stays in Canada and links up with the Métis to create a transnational autonomous Indigenous region that survives to the present, cheered the idea of the Louis Riel Defence Brigade that pledged to lie on their backs and use their rifles to put up a curtain of lead to shoot down cruise missiles tested in Canada and believe William Shatner would rally Canadians on both sides of the border, it is difficult for me to imagine much of a resistance should the US invade.
As for an official military resistance, to the degree it would be possible to mount something, it would be akin to ordering Canadian armed forces into a suicide charge that would be futile and thus, in my view, immoral.
As for asynchronous or guerrilla resistance, well, hundreds of bombings and I don’t know how many mass and school shootings seem to have made little impact on the US over the last several decades, and I doubt Canada would be able to inflict much more damage. The issue of reprisals would also be worth considering.
But I will ask my students, who are of military age, what they think they would do in the event of a US invasion.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Richard Rohmer’s 1970s novels about a US invasion, Ultimatum and Exxoneration [sic]. It must be admitted, they were pretty awful.
I’ve heard good things about We Stand On Guard, which is apparently the #1-selling graphic novel on Amazon Canada right now.
Futile, yes, but I don’t think “immoral”. Should Canschlus happen, I don’t want us to be Austria, that just let it happen. Let history record that Canada did what it could, even if it was ultimately a failure.
I understand and appreciate your point but I am not keen on advocating others do what I am unable (age!) to do myself. Old people sending young people to die for the causes and rewards of old people seems immoral to me.
I believe it was the journal The Last Post, a sort of Ramparts North, that suggested in the wake of an American invasion, Canadian shock troops and flying squads should be sent to capture key American assets, like mines, smelters, mills, offices, factories, etc. Such assets were, of course, in Vancouver, Toronto, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Halifax, Fort McMurray, etc.
Thus what might stop a US invasion would be the belated realization they were bombing Us companies in Canada.
Yeah, as a fellow old guy too old to fight on the front lines, I understand that. But elsewhere, I’ve advocated for a version of the Home Guard. I could stand at a local roadblock with a gun, and tell them “This far, no farther!” I’d probably end up dead, but at least I’d make a good story.
Propaganda will win it for us, not guns.
The government would be amazingly stupid to relocate to a place the Americans could get to that easily.
They’d flee to England.
We don’t know - Americans have a terrifically high tolerance for violence - , but as a Canadian, what fucking good does that do me, anyway?
Anyway, today: More threats. More tariffs. Republican talking heads pushing their viewers towards thinking this would be okay. Time to stop being Pollyanna about this.
Government-in-exile! That’s a better idea. Naturally the PMs would have to advise the king against granting Trump a state visit. That kind of snub would bruise his ego so much he’d probably call the whole thing off and then brag about how he stopped the Deep State from starting a war.
In the abstract, yes. When it happens to their sons who’ve been drafted to fight partisans in the streets of Montreal, not so much. Flag-draped coffins are bad PR.
Against a unified United States, fighting no other big wars at the time, probably. And I’d say that when you are certain of defeat, surrender is indeed the moral choice.
But we are talking about a future scenario where a lot has changed.
Tariffing Canada polls poorly in the U.S. Invasion would poll very poorly. Maybe the speculation in this thread, about mutiny on the U.S. side would become increasingly realistic.
There might be a time to be defeatism, but this is not it.
P.S. Good thing I don’t post here with my real name. Some down here might find this post treason.
The problem isn’t overwhelming the Canadian government or interrupting the supply of ketchup chips and skinny bagels. It is that guerrilla actions would be a thing, and that the United States itself is quite open.
I wish I had as much faith in NATO Article V as some do. No disrespect intended to Canada’s partners in NATO but I think the only impact NATO would make in a theoretical war is that there would be some variation in the uniforms that the dead bodies are clad in.
I also feel like Trump is not as subject to Article V as one might suppose. If Canada cuts off the potash supply to the US, we’ve gone ahead and declared a form of economic warfare designed to cripple the US and he has no choice but to respond. And since people in the US don’t know how to say no to drugs, all that fentanyl coming from Canada is a clear and present danger as well. I’m sure he could find some other reason with ease. Trump will tell NATO that Canada is the threat, Canada threw the first punch, etc. and NATO can join him or NATO will be next. Remember, this is the guy who has said out loud on TV that Russia should be able to do whatever the hell they want. I’m sure NATO’s military forces are good but I don’t think they are defend Canada/fight the US/fight Russia all at the same time good.
And? That just gives Trump and company a good excuse to declare martial law and hunt down “terrorists”. It doesn’t matter to Trump if Canadians kill half the population of the US; none of them are Trump, and therefore they don’t count as people.
Since it is unlikely Trump can even spell NATO, I think it unlikely he will be much bound by treaties with it. He is so naive and unaware even of his own appalling ignorance, the notion that there might be other problems, issues, complications literally doesn’t occur to him.
He is like someone who wakes up and thinks, “people are always complaining about not getting good traction with their cars. Obviously the problem is that wheels are round. They’re always getting away from you, slipping and sliding all over the place. But if we just made them square, problem solved! We are going to be the world leader in square wheels.”
Anyone who tries to point out the problem with square wheels is fired, millions of government dollars are give to the Musk Elon, the project is eventually put on the shelf, and the rest of humanity cleans up after him.
Whatever the reality of problems with invading Canada, from sabotaging oil and potash pipelines (I know potash is not sent via pipelines!) to drone strikes on Mar-a-Lardo and whatever won’t occupy his attention for more than 3 seconds. He’ll just draw the invasion route on a map of the world with a Sharpie and move on.
Would US troops fire on Canadians? As noted above thread, much would depend on circumstances on the ground in different scenarios. Would a resistance grow? It depends on how much of difference the US takeover would make. Given how many Canadians work in US-owned companies, consume US cultural products, have strong connections to countries other than Canada, it might well be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
That the vaunted French resistance in World War II has been greatly exaggerated and elevated into myth might give us pause. Nonetheless, I will dust off my copy of Yank Levy’s “Guerilla Warfare.” He was born in Canada, after all.