Let’s call this ‘Give me a reason.’ Trump Is Coming for Canada. Who Do You Want at the Helm, the Global Strategist or the Guy with a YouTube Channel?
Let’s get back to the core of this election. We’ve spent the last few weeks focused, rightly, on domestic challenges like housing, affordability, and health care.
But it’s time to widen the lens again. Because this election isn’t just about what’s happening inside Canada, it’s about what’s coming at Canada from the outside. And at the centre of that storm is our increasingly unpredictable, estranged sibling next door: the United States.
Trump is coming. Whether it’s tariffs, trade extortion, soft annexation, or the dismantling of NATO, the danger is real. And while he keeps quiet (which should scare us more than when he screams), his press secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, just told CBC “the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state hasn’t gone away.”
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is a flashing red light.
And yet here we are, acting like tariffs were just a 2018 problem, like softwood lumber and cross-border supply chains won’t be back on the table before the ink dries on our next Parliament. They will. And with Trump in office, Canada is a target, not a partner.
So, who do you trust to handle that? Because I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what Pierre Poilievre brings to that table! Can anyone name one global accomplishment? Twenty years in Parliament, and not a single international negotiation, not one NATO file, not one moment where global peers looked to him as a leader. And please, don’t let Poilievre’s first real experience of international peer leadership be with Donald Trump or J.D. Vance. That’s not diplomacy. That’s walking into the lion’s den wearing a blood sausage neck scarf.
Meanwhile, Poilievre throws around the notwithstanding clause like a chew toy, flirting with the erosion of Charter rights the same way Trump is bulldozing judicial independence in the U.S. You can’t tell me that’s not a slippery slope, because we’re watching the Americans fall down it in real time.
But here’s the kicker. Unlike Poilievre, Mark Carney has already earned Trump’s respect. They know each other. Trump may not like Carney, but he respects him. Because Carney has walked into G7 rooms, IMF briefings, and global summits, and held his ground. He’s a heavyweight. He’s been Governor of the Bank of Canada and Governor of the Bank of England. He chaired the Financial Stability Board during the 2008 crisis and has sat at the table with the world’s most volatile leaders, and walked away with deals, not drama.
So yes, this started with tariffs. But it’s about much more: It’s about NATO and our role in global security. It’s about border sovereignty and cross-border trade. It’s about energy, food security, AI, and digital infrastructure, which are the real assets of a modern nation. And yes, it’s about the man in the White House, and whether the man in Ottawa knows how to handle him.
Ask yourself: what are the guiding principles that shape your decisions for this election? Mine are simple: Hire based on expertise, not slogans. Trust the person who’s proven they can handle crisis. Don’t give the keys to someone who’s never driven the car, especially when there’s a snowstorm coming.
Because make no mistake: Trump was never just coming for the White House. He’s coming for us. And I don’t want to wake up one day to find our Prime Minister smiling politely as Trump puts Canada on the auction block, while his press secretary tweets about how “grateful we should be to join the family.”
That’s not sovereignty. That’s not leadership. That’s colonization by handshake.
So unless someone can give me ONE solid international accomplishment from Pierre Poilievre, I’m going with the guy who’s already been tested, and knows how to say “No” when it matters most.
Because Trump doesn’t need to use tanks to take us over — just someone weak enough to let him in.
Nancy's Notes 