William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a contributor for Young VoicesDuring the recent US-Canada Economic Summit, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, frantically remarked that “…Trump’s threat to annex Canada is a real thing,” and suggested that President Trump desires to annex Canada specifically “…because he wants to access [Canada’s] critical minerals.”Unfortunately, despite Prime Minister Trudeau’s claims, President Trump’s campaign to transform Canada into America’s 51st state has not become “a real thing” because of President Trump’s conquistadorial agenda or desire to acquire Canada’s mineral resources.Rather, Trump’s bid to annex Canada has become dangerously serious, due to the fact that, under the auspices of the Trudeau government, the most quintessential aspects of the Canadian nation and Canada’s national identity have been relentlessly undermined and eroded.In fact, it has become impossible for the Canadian people to define ‘what it means to be Canadian’, outside of merely ‘not-American’, and therefore Trump’s proposed deal to subsume the Canadian state within the American nation has become curiously appealing to Canada’s youth and a new generation of beleaguered Canadians.Firstly, Canada was previously renowned for the incredible ‘life chances’ that were accessible to all Canadians and the remarkable quality of life that every Canadian citizen freely enjoyed.Sadly, since the advent of the Trudeau government, Canada’s standard of living has declined precipitously. For instance, a slew of respected economic indicators and reports have all concluded that Canada’s standard of living is in freefall “…and isn’t poised to stop declining for at least a generation.” Furthermore, according to the Fraser Institute, the Canadian state is currently mired in “…the longest decline in individual living standards of the last 40 years” as a result of its nonexistent economic growth and surging population.In addition, all species of crime have skyrocketed in Canada since the advent of the Trudeau government and Canadian society has become drastically unsafe. In fact, throughout its 2024 Report on the Criminal Justice System, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute repeatedly criticizes the dilapidated condition of Canada’s criminal justice system and actually concludes that Canada’s criminal justice system appears to have “…given up on its core responsibilities.”Secondly, Canada was once heralded as a peacekeeping nation and a champion of oppressed peoples everywhere.But, throughout the Trudeau era Canada has lost any real peacekeeping capability and the Canadian state is now entirely unable to meaningfully protect its own citizens and support its allies, never mind any beleaguered or oppressed peoples throughout the international political system.For example, every aspect of Canada’s military has been permitted to deteriorate and Canada’s national security apparatus is now utterly deficient. Sadly, almost 50% of Canada’s military equipment is actually ‘unavailable and unserviceable’ and “Only 58 per cent of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) would be able to respond if called upon in a crisis by NATO allies…”In fact, Canada’s Minister of National Defense, Bill Blair, was recently forced to concede that Canada’s military is “…[in] a death spiral”as a result of the severe shortcomings that have become entrenched within Canada’s Armed Forces.Finally, the Canadian state was once a paradigm of democracy, multiculturalism, and the liberal ideal in action.And yet, under the auspices of the Trudeau government, democracy in Canada has degenerated precipitously and Canada’s once vibrant, multicultural, society has now become fraught with political polarization and violence.In fact, the Democracy Project has reaffirmed that Canadian society has been has become violently polarized and that “Political disagreements [in Canada] are spilling over into real interpersonal conflict,” as a result of the casual extremism that now plagues the Canadian state and distorts political discourse in Canada. In addition, even the Democracy Index itself has explicitly confirmed that, although the Canadian state has long been extolled as one of democracy’s foremost exemplars, Canada currently suffers from severe “…democratic deficits.” Incredibly, Canada’s democracy has actually degenerated so severely that “For the first time since the launch of the Democracy Index in 2006, western Europe has overtaken North America to become the highest-scoring region in the world in 2023…[and] not [because of] any significant positive momentum in Europe, but [specifically because of] the decline in Canada’s score.” Despite the fact that it should be little more than good-natured play and a friendly jest between longtime allies, Trump’s current bid to annex Canada and transform it into America’s 51st state is not at all benign. Rather, Trump’s bid to annex Canada has suddenly become dangerously serious, because under the auspices of the Trudeau government, the most quintessential aspects of the Canadian nation and Canada’s national identity have been relentlessly undermined and eroded.More importantly, it is clear that, if the Trudeau government and Canada’s leaders at all earnestly desire to avoid Canada’s annexation into America’s 51st state, then they must immediately endeavour to restore the hallmarks of the Canadian state and re-establish the remarkable quality of life, robust international peacekeeping, and unparalleled democracy that have been, for decades, the cornerstones of Canada’s national identity.William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a Contributor for Young Voices. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among others. Follow William on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.
