Elbows Up in Canada
The world is pushing back on Trump's conquest dreams. So are Americans.
"Elbows up" – the hockey term for protecting yourself from an aggressive opponent – has become Canada's rallying cry. On Sunday hundreds gathered on Parliament Hill, waving maple leaf flags and displaying a unity rarely seen in Canadian politics. The message was unmistakable: Canada is not for sale.
"We've had over 150 years of thinking of our neighbor as big and powerful, but also not an adversary. Well, that has now changed," former Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy told the cheering crowd. "Mr. Trump has put himself in the ranks of the authoritarians. He wants to destroy the things that have given us as Canadians who we are."
An ally pushed too far
What exactly prompted such an unusual display of national fervor from our typically reserved northern neighbors? Just a casual threat from the President of the United States to annex their country as the 51st state.
"We've been shown too much disrespect by the Trump administration at this point," declared Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on CNN this week. "It is much more than just political rhetoric. It is a fundamental threat."
Those aren't the words of some hyperventilating opposition politician or Twitter activist. That's the chief diplomat of America's oldest ally and largest trading partner, publicly declaring that the United States is threatening Canada's sovereignty.
"This is not a joke anymore," Joly told the BBC. "This is actually based on the conversations we've had with many of the Trump administration officials."
During private calls in February, Trump reportedly told Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau that he doesn't consider the 1908 treaty demarcating the border between the two countries valid. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later delivered an ominous message to Canada's Finance Minister: Trump had "come to realize that the relationship between the United States and Canada was governed by a slew of agreements and treaties that were easy to abandon." Lutnick followed with a startling list of threats – ejecting Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, tearing up the Great Lakes agreements, and "reviewing" military cooperation.
No wonder Trudeau bluntly stated last week: "What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us." When Justin Trudeau — the diplomatic equivalent of a golden retriever puppy — starts talking about foreign-orchestrated economic collapse and annexation, we've entered uncharted territory.
Trump's global shopping list
Let's start with Greenland. Trump flew his son to Denmark's autonomous territory aboard the family Boeing with a bobblehead of himself perched on the cockpit control panel. "Make Greenland Great Again!" he posted as Junior landed. When Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen refused to sell, Trump threatened tariffs "at a very high level." His logic? If America is already on the hook for defending it, "we might as well have more control over what happens there," as Secretary of State Marco Rubio helpfully explained.
The Panama Canal is another target. Trump characterized Jimmy Carter's 1999 handover as a folly that "squandered the advantages of U.S. power." He falsely claimed China operates the waterway (Beijing-owned firms run some ports, not the canal) and that American ships face discrimination. When a reporter asked if he would rule out using military force to seize it back, Trump breezily replied: "I'm not going to commit to that, no. It might be that you'll have to do something."
And then there's Gaza – perhaps the most disturbing fantasy of all. Standing beside a grinning Netanyahu, Trump declared America would take "a long-term ownership position" of Gaza, transforming the war-ravaged territory into the "Riviera of the Middle East." Two million Palestinians? They should leave because Gaza is "a demolition site" where they've "lived like hell."
As if to underscore the absurdity, Trump posted a surreal AI-generated video to Truth Social. This is what happens when imperialism meets Instagram filters: a nightmarish resort brochure video featuring a golden statue of himself, Elon Musk eating hummus, Hamas militants transformed into bikini-clad belly dancers, and Netanyahu lounging shirtless on a beach. "No more tunnels, no more fear, Trump Gaza is finally here!" chirps a creepily upbeat dance track as Musk showers bystanders with cash.
Imperial madness or geopolitical logic?
Is there method behind this imperial madness? Strip away Trump's bombastic delivery and real estate developer's swagger, some of these imperial ambitions actually make strategic sense, something Danielle Pletka, the geopolitical yang to my yin, has pointed out as well - even though she says “no thanks” to Canada itself.
The Canal remains a vital artery for global shipping that China is steadily encircling with infrastructure investments. Greenland isn't just a trophy acquisition — it's increasingly strategic real estate as polar ice retreats, exposing shipping routes and untapped resources that Moscow and Beijing are eyeing hungrily. America has valid reasons to worry about its backyard, much as it did when Monroe warned European powers to keep their imperial ambitions an ocean away. Today, the concern isn't Spanish galleons or British warships but Chinese port operators and Russian icebreakers. Trump's sledgehammer diplomacy may be self-defeating, but his territorial paranoia isn't entirely divorced from reality.
What's more frightening is how Trump's annexation fever may inform his approach to Ukraine. In a striking moment, Trump expressed sympathy for Putin's fears about NATO expansion: "Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that." His former national security adviser H.R. McMaster revealed that Putin once suggested a moral equivalence between U.S. interventions in Latin America and Russia's invasion of Ukraine by citing the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine. If Trump accepts this perverted logic, Ukraine may face pressure to cede territory.
Unexpected resistance
What's truly ironic about Trump's bullying tactics is that they're having exactly the opposite effect of what he presumably wants. Canada's transformation from polite neighbor to unified resistance has been remarkable. Citizens are removing Jack Daniel's from liquor cabinets, crossing Florida off vacation plans, and renaming Americanos to "Canadianos" in cafés. Ontario Premier Doug Ford – the same man who once volunteered to personally drive a truck to pick up American vaccines during COVID – now threatens to cut electricity to 1.5 million American homes in Michigan, New York, and Minnesota. When Commerce Secretary Lutnick called to tell Ford to stand down, Ford reportedly told him he'd "go harder."
Global institutions are pushing back on Trump's broader conquest dreams. Article 4 of NATO – which commits members to "consult together whenever the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened" – suddenly looks relevant to Canada and Denmark. Arab nations have flatly rejected his demand that they absorb Palestinians displaced from Gaza.
New world disorder
The looming question is how far this will go. Polling suggests Americans aren't exactly enthusiastic about their president's imperial projects. According to Data for Progress, 61% of likely U.S. voters oppose taking over Canada, 62% reject seizing Gaza, and 53% don't want Greenland. Even the Panama Canal takeover, Trump's most "popular" conquest fantasy, only garners 41% support.
As Minister Joly pointedly told CNN, Trump's imperial fever has global implications: "China is looking at what's going on in Europe and what's going on in Ukraine. And having a bad deal on Ukraine would send a message on Taiwan." When America abandons its commitment to the rules-based international order it created, every aspiring imperial power takes note.
The 51st state? Not if Canadians have anything to say about it — and suddenly, they're saying a whole lot more than "eh" or "sorry." They're saying, loud and clear: elbows up.
> Trump posted a surreal AI-generated video to Truth Social
Please just post a link to the video, not a CNN article that describes the video.
I'm a Canadian snowbird lounging in Florida while this kerfuffle stews. Not an 'elbows up' kinda guy. I thinks there are some hints that Canadian politicians have shown some humility and are trying to take Trump's advice which I paraphrase as "clean up your room". There's much to improve in Canada: pipelines, LNG terminals, interprovincial trade, the anti-fentanyl justice system (our police are hamstring by the need for a RICO type law and a soft and a crime judiciary) and a destructive green lobby. If we do the right things, some self-improvement, an outgrowth of humility, we can be a first tier country again. If we don't and just remain mad at our mom, and don't clean up our room, we'll be proving the Frank Zappa rule again. Adulthood is just like high school, there's just more money involved.