The recent release of the U.S. National Security Strategy makes one thing increasingly clear: Canada should join CANZUK (Australia, UK, and New Zealand trade pact) without delay and immediately pursue serious trade agreements with China and India.
In fact, following this strategy document - and its insulting “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, which brazenly plans to assert U.S. preeminence over the entire Western Hemisphere, treating Canada as little more than a compliant vassal amid punishing tariffs designed to break us. Canada should go further. Ottawa should formally declare U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra persona non grata and demand his immediate departure. That may sound extreme, but when Washington dispatches an envoy who openly mocks Canadian sovereignty concerns and parrots a doctrine that reduces us to hemispheric subjects, the message is unambiguous: U.S. interests come first, and Canadian independence is dismissed as an inconvenience.
To the domestic critics in Canada who endlessly complain about Canada–China trade, let me know when you stop shopping at big-box stores like Walmart and Giant Tiger (Tiger is owned by a Conservative MP?), which specialize in low-cost goods made in China.
Or let us know when Alberta’s rabid libertarians suddenly oppose Pacific Coast pipelines because those exports might go to China. Or when right-wing canola farmers in Saskatchewan demand that we permanently stop selling to one of their most important markets.
Until then, the outrage rings hollow.
Canada should also choose the Saab Gripen E over the F-35. Saab has told Ottawa that building the aircraft in Canada would create 12,000 high-skilled Canadian jobs.
Why enrich the US that uses tariffs to coerce us in Canada? If Canada buys the F-35 and the U.S. later decides to “get difficult,” will they still provide the software updates, systems access, and maintenance approvals those aircraft depend on to remain operational? Who, exactly, benefits from the current arrangement? Besides, Canada can be directly involved in engineering and planning the 6th-generation Gripen being planned – that’s good for our aerospace industry.
Take Palantir Technologies Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Palantir Technologies Inc., established to manage operations, sales, and partnerships in Canada. When Canadian governments rely on firms like this for sensitive data and security work, a basic question must be asked: do they ultimately work for Canada, or for Washington?
Proponents of a so-called “Canada First” approach often overlook a hard geopolitical truth: nations with credible nuclear deterrence are rarely, if ever, annexed. Ukraine learned this lesson the hard way. Taiwan lives it every day. Canada, by contrast, stands exposed in this landscape - and we would be foolish not to study those examples closely.
One clear path forward is to seriously examine the development of a Canadian nuclear program. Canada possesses world-class uranium reserves in Saskatchewan, a foundational input for nuclear technology. Leveraging that advantage would strengthen deterrence, restore strategic credibility, and provide a realistic pathway to meeting - or exceeding - a 5% of GDP defence-spending target.
Building genuine military and scientific strength is not optional if sovereignty is to mean anything in the decades ahead. In an era of shifting alliances and intensifying competition for resources, Canada must prioritize defence capability alongside technological innovation. Beyond security, such an initiative would supercharge domestic research and academia, attract top global talent, and anchor cutting-edge programs firmly on Canadian soil.
A robust military posture paired with advanced scientific capacity would allow Canada to safeguard its water, critical minerals, and energy assets - hydroelectric and fossil alike. It would allow us to secure our borders, protect national interests, and assert independence on the global stage. That is how borders remain intact and how nations elevate their standing.
Every barrel of oil and every cargo of LNG leaving the country should be priced and settled exclusively in Canadian dollars - and deliberately discounted a few bucks below WTI and Brent. When a G7 country controlling ten per cent of the world’s proven reserves suddenly says “loonies only, please” (a move the Canadian author Gordon Korman once titled No Coins, Please), a meaningful slice of daily forex volume simply exits the USD circuit. Midwest refineries, Japanese utilities, and Chinese traders would scramble for Canadian dollars. Basic supply and demand would send the loonie sharply higher.
For ordinary Canadians, the payoff would be instant and delicious: cheaper iPhones, cheaper winter tires, cheaper everything on the shelves. After a decade of a weak currency inflating the grocery bill, households would pocket a windfall. Inflation would cool, interest rates could stay lower for longer, and the Bank of Canada would get breathing room it hasn’t seen in years.
As Albert Camus once wrote, “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Strategic autonomy is not anti-American. It is pro-Canadian. It is time for Canada to become the master of its own home and assert itself as a sovereign power
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