{"id":5648,"date":"2026-09-01T10:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:07:34","slug":"trumps-war-on-canada-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5648","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s war on Canada has nothing to do with the economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

A seismic shift in American geopolitics explains the breakdown in United States-Canada trade relations. Understanding U.S. security policy is critical as Canada faces stark choices.<\/p>

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The Donald Trump administration\u2019s (NSS) appears to mark a sharp break in U.S. foreign policy. It explicitly rejects the U.S.-enforced, rules-based international order and liberalized trade regime that has guided American foreign policy since 1945. <\/p>

It resurrects, instead, longstanding and deeply rooted isolationist and protectionist ideologies that have shaped much of the history of American foreign policy. But, it also asserts the \u201cTrump Corollary\u201d to the Monroe Doctrine.<\/p>

The legacy of the Monroe Doctrine<\/h2>

Since its creation by President James Monroe in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine has been a mainstay of American foreign policy. It asserts the exclusive right of the U.S. to expel any perceived foreign threats from the Western Hemisphere. But it also claims the right to intervene in any hemispheric country whose domestic affairs present a threat to American security interests.<\/p>

The 2026 capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is ostensibly the most recent example, as far as the Trump administration is concerned. But the list is long.<\/p>

In its application of the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. has always looked south; now, it\u2019s looking north too. This is a seismic shift.<\/p>

American international relations over the past 80 years were hardly perfect. The U.S. often violated its own rules of the game. There was, however, strong political and economic co-operation among OECD and NATO countries.<\/p>

For Canada and the U.S., this was a period of deepening integration through NORAD (1957), the 1965 Auto Pact, the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the 1988 Canada-U.S. Free Trade, and the 1991 Canada-U.S. Air Quality Agreement, known as the acid rain treaty. This era is vanishing rapidly.<\/p>

The world is now entering an era in which hegemonic nations strive to assert domination in their respective spheres of influence. As the 2025 NSS argues: <\/p>

\u201cThe outsized influence of larger, richer, and stronger nations is a timeless truth of international relations.\u201d <\/blockquote>

The U.S. has made clear it no longer plans to conduct its affairs with allies as first-among-equals. Instead, might makes right.<\/p>

History of expansionism<\/h2>

The Trump Corollary should concern Canada given the importance of energy and mineral resources. The 2025 NSS expressly references the need for \u201cexpanding American access to critical minerals and materials.\u201d <\/p>

The Trump administration also sees hemispheric resources as geopolitical assets for the U.S. to own and control: \u201cStrengthening critical supply chains in this hemisphere will reduce dependencies and increase American economic resilience.\u201d <\/p>

The recent agreement that gives the U.S. controlling ownership of billions of barrels of Venezuelan oil production is a case in point.<\/p>

It\u2019s important to remember that the territorial expansion of the U.S. is the history of land purchases and conquest. The Louisiana Purchase and the Alaska Purchase are famous. So, too, is the Mexican Cession, the relinquishment of more than half of Mexico\u2019s territory to the U.S. in 1848. <\/p>

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The U.S. continued to acquire more territory in the 20th century, including the 1917 purchase of the Virgin Islands from Denmark. The American effort to purchase Greenland from Denmark in 2026 is consistent with historical U.S. expansionism.<\/p>

Economic warfare<\/h2>

Canada and Greenland are both integral parts of the Western Hemisphere. Both have significant energy and mineral resources the U.S. needs and wants. The constant references to Canada as the 51st state and to the Canada-U.S. border as \u201cartificial\u201d are not bluster. Canada and Greenland are both in the Trump administration\u2019s crosshairs.<\/p>

The U.S. is fully aware, however, that these ambitions aren\u2019t possible to achieve immediately. Therefore, it\u2019s weaponized tariffs against Canada for the purpose of breaking the country economically in the short term. Canada as the 51st state is the desired option; Canada as a \u201cVenezuela North\u201d is the acceptable second choice. Economic warfare, therefore, is the continuation of American geopolitics by other means.<\/p>

Concluding a fair trade deal with Canada was never on offer from the U.S. While the 2025 NSS speaks to \u201cfair, reciprocal trade deals,\u201d it makes clear that \u201cour priorities must and will be our own workers, our own industries, and our own national security.\u201d <\/p>

The goal to \u201cre-shore industrial production\u201d is a national security imperative, not an economic preference. <\/p>

This is why Trump is weaponizing tariffs. It\u2019s the tactic of choice to kill the auto industry and wound other key sectors in the Canadian economy. The geopolitical goal is clear.<\/p>

Those who place hope in the November mid-term elections or a future Democratic presidency will be disappointed. Let\u2019s not forget the Joe Biden administration actually doubled the Trump tariff rate for Canadian softwood lumber.<\/p>

How Canada must fight back<\/h2>

Canada is now on war footing, so it\u2019s taking steps to buttress the economy against a potentially long economic war.<\/p>

Geopolitics has implications beyond trade. Interdependence in trade with the U.S. has placed Canada in an extremely precarious position; military co-operation is no less fraught. In February 2026, the U.S. paused participation in the U.S.\u2013Canada Permanent Joint Board on Defence, which had operated uninterrupted since 1940. Even NORAD looks increasingly untenable.<\/p>

Realistically, fighter aircraft, submarines, naval vessels and armaments need to be produced in Canada or purchased from \u2014 or jointly produced with \u2014 Nordic, European and Korean allies and reliable partners.<\/p>

Norway and Finland have learned to live beside Russia. Canada will now have to live \u201cwith clear eyes\u201d beside a hegemonic United States.\n

\"The<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Greg Poelzer, Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan<\/em><\/p>

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.<\/p>

Read more One Justice rips open the \u2018scary\u2019 weaponization of the Supreme Court<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forget trade balances: The Trump administration is using economic warfare to break Canada\u2019s industries and secure absolute control over North American supply chains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's war on Canada has nothing to do with the economy - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=5648\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's war on Canada has nothing to do with the economy - 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