I think it's time to balance things out a bit with my political talk here as I've been putting Trump on blast a lot lately. Honestly, more has been happening in the past 30 days than the entire term of Biden.
Anyway. Trump has repeatedly floated the idea that he would like to buy Canada and integrate it into the US. I'll get into the common criticisms given for this in a bit, but for now, I'd like to offer some serious justification for this that I think few, if any, are talking about.
If Russia/China/North Korea were to stage an actual attack on the US, people think that they would go...
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea that he would like to buy Canada and integrate it into the US. I'll get into the common criticisms given for this in a bit, but for now, I'd like to offer some serious justification for this that I think few, if any, are talking about.
If Russia/China/North Korea were to stage an actual attack on the US, people think that they would go for the mainland first, but this would be obvious suicide. Instead, I think it would actually be far better to just hit Canada first and then establish a serious foothold there. Canada spends about $27.7 billion for their defense. In comparison, the US spends around $850 billion. In terms of raw manpower, Canada has about 72,000 people employed in their military. The United States, on the other hand, has about 2.86 million people employed in their military.
Russia may be sucked dry now in terms of military resources due to Putin's insane war in the Ukraine, and North Korea is a joke in all but its nuclear capability, but China has an absolute surplus of bodies to throw at us, and they could easily overwhelm Canada's defense just due to sheer numbers alone. Establishing a foothold in Canada would also allow China to blockade and seize control of Alaska. And even further, once China establishes a foothold, it will be incredibly hard to get them out. The Canadian wilderness is mostly untamed and mountainous. Trying to roll ANY equipment through that would be hell. Any available roads can be used as chokepoints.
That said, actually getting stuff TO Canada though is an entirely different story. The Pacific is crawling with the US Navy and the Japanese military in general, not to mention Australian forces on top of that. And very recently, Trump has cemented ties with Japan in both the economic and military sense. I also think this was a very smart move. Japan is a very nice ally to have in general. It always struck me as very odd that when
Japan asked to buy F22 jets from us, we would not sell such to them due to, what it seems, was bureaucratic bullshit.
Still though, if China finds a way to get to Canada, that would be a HUGE blow to us and to Canada both. This also goes beyond the military. Canada has, famously, had an absolute wealth of natural resources and land, and they do fuck all with it. Not even housing. We could get into the exact reasons for that, but in the end, I don't care. It's beyond stupid, even in an environmentally conservative sense. Canada can still build out their country while still preserving huge chunks of their environment and natural beauty. Nevertheless, they have not done so at all, and because of this, they have absolutely stagnated, and now they are very behind, economically.
And then there's the fact of all the possible drug shipments coming through. This is something that I can believe. Canada would indeed make a really great staging point for China-sourced drugs or even just precursors. And finally, it's just kinda disappointing and frustrating that Canadians and Americans can't just freely travel to and from the northern and southern countries. It's always seemed right to me that we just make it official and unite the two countries together already.
So, all said and done, a buy-out of Canada would be mutually beneficial in terms of military, economic, and border purposes. Buuuuutttttt... There's two very big problems to all of this. Money and popular sentiment.
Wayyy back when, we got the Louisiana Purchase and the Alaska Purchase for pennies on the dollar, but that was a very different time when land wasn't hoarded like it is now, so I don't think that's gonna happen ever again. Even if the people were willing and Canada was offered to the US, the price tag would just be... So outrageously expensive. Like, where are we even going to get that kind of money? We're still up to our eyeballs in debt after COVID and it wasn't exactly low, even before that whole mess. And even if Trump actually slashes a huge amount off of government spending, I still just... I don't see it happening, guys. Sorry. It's too damn much.
The other issue is that Canadians, for better or worse, just simply don't want to unite their country with the US. Now, I'm sure they have their own patriotic pride in their country, but I REALLY don't think Trump running his damn mouth on Twitter 24/7 helped this whatsoever. This proposed purchase would be rocky and would rightly make Canadians uneasy, even in the best of times. And now? I certainly don't think they're going to entertain this idea these days with even the slightest tolerance. And it's sad, but it is what it is.
