John Thomson: What will you sacrifice for Canada?

If the Americans invade, there will be no "Elbows Up" militia.

(Canadian Army Reservists in 2018, photo credit to the Oregon National Guard.)

John Thomson is a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Ever since the United States carried out its military operation to detain former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, many Canadian media outlets and pundits have circulated a steady stream of articles aimed at stoking fear over what they see as the menace of President Trump and U.S. foreign policy.

On 9 January, the Toronto Star published an opinion column by Jason Stanley, a professor of American studies at the University of Toronto, who wrote, “Many Canadians have simply not adjusted to the fact that they live next to a fascist state whose president has imperial designs on Canada. This is not alarmist or hyperbolic.”

The same day, The Globe and Mail published a similar column titled “Wake up, Canada. The Trump Doctrine is aimed at us”. The author, Tony Keller, wrote:

“Within hours of the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a pumped-up Mr. Trump was waxing on about attacking Colombia and Mexico, overthrowing the government of Cuba and taking over Greenland.

“If it makes you sleep better, you can imagine that it’s all just talk, just bluster, just a negotiating strategy, just lines from a reality TV star.

“Or you can accept that this is reality.

“And in this reality, no country is more at risk than Canada.”

It is worth pointing out that the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail are not inconsequential media outlets on the fringe of respectability, although the cogency of their opinion columns may leave room for doubt on that score.

No, these are central organisations in Canada’s media landscape, and if they are publishing these opinions, it is fair to assume a significant number of Canadians agree with their editorial slant. That position appears to be that President Trump poses a risk to Canada’s sovereignty, both economically and militarily.

That makes it a worthwhile thought exercise to consider the “what if?” scenario in which the United States actually invades Canada. How would Canadians respond, and what would they be willing to sacrifice for the country?

Based on the number of comments from users on social media who profess their willingness to take up arms against a U.S. invasion, that response would be overwhelming, and the level of sacrifice would be high, including giving up their lives.

Laura Babcock, host of The OShow Canada’s Pro-Democracy Podcast and owner of Power Group Communications, shared a post on X stating that in response to a U.S. invasion of Canada, “a million of us would sign up to a citizens’ army if given the chance.”

Babcock made the comment while sharing a reply to another of her posts by Linda Fletcher, who relayed sentiments her husband purportedly overheard at their local curling club:

“My husband told me the seniors at the curling club were talking about the U.S. threat to Canada, saying that if war comes, they’ll be the suicide squad taking their weapons to the border to shoot as many Americans as they can. People are anxious but resolute, they will defend Canada.”

A person does not have to search long to find similar sentiments on Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit. While these comments likely come from a sense of patriotism some would call laudable, they are so detached from reality that the better word is probably lamentable.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to defend Canada. It is a noble and admirable cause. I know this first-hand. I was honoured to wear our country’s uniform for 20 years, and I proudly wore its flag on my shoulder when I deployed to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

But why do the most ardent online patriots only ever want to defend Canada when it comes to the hypothetical scenario of an invasion by the United States?

The answer is because it is easy.

The risk involved in saying you would fight to the death for Canada in an imaginary war against the United States is less than zero. There is absolutely no danger to you, your family, your career, your home, or your way of life.

Yet if the threat to Canada is so significant that it needs to be trumpeted vigorously in the pages of our national newspapers, why are these millions of die-hard keyboard patriots not queued up outside our Reserve Force units, volunteering to serve in our actual citizen army?

After all, the time to prepare for an invasion is before it happens, not after, when organising a response is infinitely more challenging.

The next step in that train of thought is to ask why Reserve Force strength is still below 30,000 for a nation with a population of more than 40 million. You would think that after a full year of credible “51st state” annexation rhetoric, that number ought to be five or ten times larger.

The reason it is not is largely because there is no credible threat. But let’s humour The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and the Trump derangement syndrome afflicted, and say there is. In light of our current response to that alleged threat, the answers to my earlier questions, “How would Canadians respond, and what would they be willing to sacrifice for Canada?” are apathetically, and nothing significant, respectively.

Joining Canada’s Reserve Force is a greater commitment than avoiding U.S.-made products at the grocery store, or vacationing somewhere other than Florida during the winter. It is an actual commitment to Canada, and there are real sacrifices to be made.

For starters, you have to attend weekly training nights, as well as one weekend per month. In addition, there is basic training and trades training, which usually takes place over the summer months.

If you stop, close your eyes, and listen closely, you can already hear the excuses.

I would totally join, but the kids are busy with hockey and swimming. We usually travel in the summer. I am swamped at work. I will definitely do it if we are invaded, but not right now.

But they will not, because if you are not willing to make the smallest commitment to sacrifice some of your personal time for your country while it is at peace, why should anyone believe you will find the courage to risk your life at the outbreak of war?

When faced with real danger and real risk, all the puerile patriotic fantasies of guerrilla warfare and glorious combat dissolve when splashed with a cold bucket of reality. That reality is that war is cruel, and insurgencies are even more so. It is a struggle to survive, not only against a vastly larger and better-equipped military, but in unforgiving environments, with the ever-present risk of injury, death, or capture.

And once you start fighting, you either have to keep going until you win, you are dead, or you give up. If you want a sense of what that entails, watch the footage coming out of Ukraine.

Canadians talk a good game about fighting for their country, its values, and its ideals, but they are not willing to walk the talk because they have not had to fight for it in several generations.

We outsourced that responsibility to our so-called invaders. We barely do the basics of a healthy, functioning democracy.

Fewer than 70 per cent of eligible Canadian voters can be bothered to cast ballots in our federal elections. But suddenly we are all willing to take a bullet for it? That is quite the leap in logic.

Likewise, Canadians will not raise a credible defence against foreign interference undermining their democracy, but will apparently stand to the last man against a U.S. military incursion.

Whether your government is toppled by force or usurped through foreign interference, the result is the same, so why not the response?

But let’s play out this imaginary military scenario. Here is how it might look.