The threats against Canada have been on the table since day one of the Trump regime.
But now we are learning just how real the threat is.
According to Chrystia Freeland’s new book Unreliable Boyfriend (terrible title, I think), Howard Lutnick threatened to send troops across the border by “sundown” to force Premier Doug Ford to bend the knee to Donald Trump.
Lutnick was enraged that Canada was acting like “Ukraine” by refusing to give in to the gangster regime in Washington. He claimed that Canada “needed to say sorry” to the president for standing up for our sovereignty.
To make that happen, Trump set out to “break some guy in Ontario.”
The “guy” in question was Premier Doug Ford.
It was total gangster language.
Ontario’s steel, auto, manufacturing and softwood mills were being hammered. In response, Ford was all over the American media acting as Captain Canada. He vowed to impose a 25% surcharge on energy exports to the United States as a countermeasure.
In retaliation, Lutnick threatened to send American troops across the border to seize Canadian land “by sundown” unless Ford backed down.
Doug Ford waved the white flag and has basically gone to ground ever since.
Threatening to invade our country is a blockbuster allegation, but it appeared like a gossipy aside in a long excerpt in The Globe and Mail from Freeland’s book.
What to make of it?
Well, let’s start with the notion that Canada needs to say sorry after being threatened and having our industries attacked unilaterally.
Lutnick, Hoekstra, Navarro, Trump and gang have been infuriated that Canada didn’t immediately roll over when they targeted our industries. They don’t see us as a sovereign nation, but as a vassal people deserving punishment.
As little as two weeks ago, Trump reiterated the threat, saying Canada would come forward to say “sorry, sir.”
He said that we were in the process of “being taught a lesson.”
Lutnick’s statement that we were acting like Ukrainians is telling.
Trump has made no secret of his belief that Vladimir Putin’s murderous invasion of Ukraine was an act of “savvy” brilliance. Like Putin, he is furious that the Ukrainians have stood up to the Kremlin.
Trump sees Canada in the same way that Putin sees Ukraine — that we have no right to an independent future.
As for the threat to send troops across the border by sunset? Freeland points out that Lutnick didn’t have the authority to launch an invasion.
Of course, Lutnick didn’t have the authority to send troops. He was acting as Trump’s loudmouth enforcer. This is how Trump has done business since he was in charge of collecting rent at his dad’s buildings in Queens.
In the book Art of the Deal, Trump praised one of his tenant enforcers, Irving. The man was small and bald, with hands Trump says were “like jello,” but he was absolutely vicious. Trump bragged about the time Irving met a 10-year-old girl at the door and screamed at her,
“Tell your dad to pay his f-ing rent, or I’m going to knock his ass off.”
Trump wrote that this kind of malice left a strong impression on him.
If it was okay to threaten a 10-year-old, why not journalists? Or sitting judges? Or independent nations?
Howard Lutnick (who lied about bringing his children to Epstein Island) has won Trump’s favour because he is carrying on the tradition of Irving.
Perhaps Lutnick was just trying to act like a tough guy, but Ford took him seriously.
The question is not so much whether the United States would have sent troops across the border, but that an American trade negotiator put military threat on the table in the first place.
It must be taken with the utmost seriousness.
The White House antagonism towards Canada has never wavered, so we must assume they may follow through at some point. We know that if we back down or our leaders go to ground, then our nation is finished.
But over the last two years, the world has witnessed a remarkable transformation in Canada. Wherever I go in this immense, beautiful land, I meet people who have thought long and hard about the value of our national sovereignty.
We will meet the challenge.
We won’t ever bend to gangsters.
Lutnick and his crowd are enraged with us for a reason. They cannot abide a proud democratic nation on the border. Hence the threats and attempts at intimidation.
No matter what the threat, Canadians will hold the line.
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