I say this as someone who has lived and worked in both countries, with family on both sides of the border. This isn’t an indictment of America. My hope — sincerely — is for a return to a saner, steadier, more respectful relationship between our two nations.
But hope is not a strategy.
By the mid-1980s, Canada had oriented the vast majority of its oil and gas production toward the United States — dismantling energy independence in favor of export dependence. Today, nearly all of our oil exports flow south. That reality leaves us structurally exposed. A country this exposed cannot afford wishful thinking.
Canada has spent a century defining itself as “not America.” That was a luxury strategy — a branding strategy — and it worked as long as the U.S. behaved like a predictable superpower with a rules-based reflex.
That reflex is wobbling.
When the President of the United States talks about “needing” Greenland — and doesn’t rule out coercion — that isn’t idle cable-news theatre. Nordic leaders are already condemning the rhetoric as an attack on the rules-based order.
Once “taking territory” re-enters Western politics, every smaller country that has been coasting under American stability has to do the math again.
If Greenland were ever seized by force, NATO as a moral concept is finished. You can’t be a defensive alliance built on sovereignty while your largest member treats sovereignty like a suggestion. Europe would scramble inward. Others would form regional blocs. Canada would be left staring at a reality we’ve avoided saying out loud for decades:
We are deeply dependent — economically, militarily, and psychologically — on a single neighbor that is increasingly unpredictable.
Now zoom in.
Canada isn’t just under the thumb of the U.S.; provinces are under the thumb of Ottawa. Municipalities are under the thumb of provinces. Rural Canada, in particular, is expected to carry an enormous load with a fraction of the leverage.
Here’s what’s missing from the federal ad campaign about “grand projects” and “big builds”: Canada runs on small business and small communities — and we treat both like afterthoughts.
Small businesses employ 5.8 million Canadians, about 46.5% of the private labour force. Firms with fewer than 100 employees account for roughly 44.5% of all employment. Small business generates over a third of private-sector GDP.
So, when Ottawa says, “we’ll build,” the question should be simple:
Will you finally build a Canada where small businesses can breathe?
Or will you keep governing as if the economy only happens in boardrooms in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver?
Because the spine of the country isn’t just our cities. It’s our supply chains. Our trades. Our ports. Our farms. Our fisheries. Our tourism towns. Our repair shops. Our independent restaurants. Our seasonal economies — the places that don’t trend online but keep the machine running.
On infrastructure, the numbers are blunt. Most roads — 57% by length — are owned by rural municipalities. When it comes to renewal costs, rural communities shoulder a heavier share than urban ones, despite having far fewer fiscal tools.
That’s the trap: responsibility without authority. Expectation without funding.
“You’re essential” — without the tools to survive.
Meanwhile, as Canada wakes up to global risk, we’re still governing with a pyramid of power — waiting for permission to act, waiting for programs to open, waiting for Ottawa to decide what kind of growth is acceptable.
This is why the Greenland talk matters even if it never happens. It’s a stress test. It forces one question:
When the music stops, do we have a seat — or do we just have slogans?
To the Carney government’s credit, some early moves signal a shift toward pragmatism. Ending the consumer carbon levy. Promising new pipelines. And the departure of Steven Guilbeault, replaced governing trade-offs.
Those are beginnings.
But beginnings don’t buy much time if the outside world is hardening.
What would it look like to act like an independent country — not a dependent region?
Drop interprovincial trade barriers like it’s a national emergency. Because it is.
Treat small businesses as strategic infrastructure. Simplify compliance. Speed up permits. Lower friction. Stop punishing hiring.
Devolve real authority and durable funding to rural municipalities so they can maintain roads, water, and growth capacity without begging annually.
Scrap policies that prioritize signalling over measurable outcomes — not because compassion is bad, but because compassion without delivery is self-congratulation.
If the world is shifting toward blocs, Canada’s only chance is to become a functioning federation with a real coast-to-coast economy — not a collection of regions waiting for Ottawa to grant permission to prosper.
Because if the next decade is defined by hard power again, the countries that survive won’t be the ones with the best slogans.
They’ll be the ones who can produce results, not statements.
For the moment at hand, a viable Canadian future requires durability, sustainability, and the hard work of becoming an actually independent country.
by Ben Brooks