Turns out, cheap talk has a price;
On Monday morning, the Pentagon’s senior defense strategist suspended the oldest bilateral defense institution in North American history and pointed the announcement at Mark Carney’s Davos speech — a four-month-old address the Canadian prime minister’s admirers had called Churchillian, and that Washington now treats as a case study in the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Elbridge Colby, Under Secretary of War for Policy and the principal architect of American defense strategy under the Trump administration, announced that the Department of War is pausing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense to “reassess how this forum benefits shared North American defense.” The board was established by Franklin Roosevelt and Mackenzie King at Ogdensburg, New York in 1940 and has operated continuously for 86 years.
“A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all,” Colby wrote. “Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments.” In a subsequent post, Colby attached a map of North America and wrote that “delivering on shared continental defense begins by recognizing our shared geography.” A third post revealed that Colby had recently hosted US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra at the Pentagon, and that the two are “working closely” to ensure Canada reaches the Hague Summit’s 3.5% of gross domestic product defense spending target.
The implications for Canada are potentially generational.
Seeing the names “Mark Carney” and “Churchillian” in the same sentence? I wasn’t expecting that, completely caught off guard.
86 years isn’t so important to me, nations rise, nations fall, the idea of an idea being so entrenched as to be non negotiable doesn’t make sense to me, think about how Canada’s going to react when the free trade deal gets canned next month.
Carney, like Trudeau, prefers Communist China to America.
Not sure where it will all end up.
Simple solution. 51st State.
You know that was a joke, right?
Not unless we can get rid of a truly significant number of Canadians (although, they seem very good at getting rid of themselves). Nope, nope not the way it stands as of today. I’m not sure we’d even want them as a territory at this point. Too much trouble and too expensive.
Perhaps as a protectorate some years down the road after their government makes them more communist than the CCP and the desperation really kicks in.
“You know that was a joke, right?”
Kenji does. KM doesn’t, but that’s the TDS talking.
The US is cutting Canada loose to let the CCP make its move to officially take over. This will be the opportunity for the US to take whatever action necessary against the CCP and its Canadian acolytes.
Is that why Trump is negotiating trade deals with China?
China needs the US ten times as much as the US needs China. Trump likely would appreciate some help with Iran but can reciprocate against China and to some extent Russia as well.
China is circling the drain. As is Canada.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/shockingly-bad-chinese-econ-data-stuns-wall-street-sparks-hard-landing-concerns
KM actually believes what he hears on MSNBC … who are claiming Trump bowed deeply at the feet of Xi … got owned by Xi.
KM is deeply impressed with Trump’s hypocrisy, where Canada should not seek increased trade with China but America should.
I think the real problem is that Trump thinks Canada should have gotten his approval first, like any good vassal state.
Well … we aren’t taking any of their spy cars … so there’s that.
Trump makes deals for the benefit of the U.S. Carney makes deals for the benefit of China. Imagine the incredible stupidity of a country allowing China to dump deliberately overproduced EV’s into the country while its own auto industry collapses.
You mean that deal where Canada allows in 49,000 Chinese EVs per year (about 3% of Canada’s vehicle market) in exchange for China dropping tariffs on a host of Canadian agriculture products, most notably canola.
It seems like a reasonable deal, particularly considering that the Chinese vehicles might not even sell.
It’s called “dumping”. Canadians are basically stupid and they will buy the crap….especially the closet Maoists in the Liberal Party. You are probably one of them.
“In China, you can buy a heavily discounted “used” electric car that has never, in fact, been used. Chinese automakers, desperate to meet their sales targets in a bitterly competitive market, sell cars to dealerships, which register them as “sold,” even though no actual customer has bought them. Dealers, stuck with officially sold cars, then offload them as “used,” often at low prices. The practice has become so prevalent that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to stop it. Its main newspaper, The People’s Daily, complained earlier this year that this sales-inflating tactic “disrupts normal market order,” and criticized companies for their “data worship.”
This sign of serious problems in China’s electric-vehicle industry may come as a surprise to many Americans. The Chinese electric car has become a symbol of the country’s seemingly unstoppable rise on the world stage. Many observers point to their growing popularity as evidence that China is winning the race to dominate new technologies. But in China, these electric cars represent something entirely different: the profound threats that Beijing’s meddling in markets poses to both China and the world.”
The Atlantic, Nov 11, 2025
The only time NATO took joint defence action was for the benefit of the United States after 9-11. The only time this agreement had active use was when Canada declared war on Japan before the US did so after Pearl Harbor. Apparently the US doesn’t like friends. Except new found friends that possess videos of their president romping with Russian prostitutes.
Boy, you really are behind the information curve, aren’t you?
L – The first jihadi massacre of infidels in North America was the Dec. 6, 1989 Montreal Massacre by Gamil Gharbi. The Cult. Marxist Mainstream Media did the first in a long line of cover-ups and has never stopped since. Anti-Western Civilization propaganda is their raison d’être.
New York Psychologist Dr. Phylis Chesler(auto-biography An America Bride in Kabul) recognized it right away. So did a Toronto Star columnist, but she was Jewish and got sidelined fast.
P.M. Mark Carney’s “Muslim values are Canadian values” is another strategic partnership statement.
“The only time NATO took joint defence action was for the benefit of the United States after 9-11..”
If you completely dismiss the Bosnian and Libyan campaigns out of hand, then yeah.. sure..
Regardless.. this tired old trope gets marched out by the bots and NPCs far too often as some instrument to humble and chide the U.S.. There are more than a few things wrong with using that as a cudgel.
First off, if you want to get down and dirty with it, that was the entire point of the alliance. If it failed to respond (which it largely did, save a few nations who really stepped up to the plate) then it was and is of little utility to all involved.. If they failed to help defend their #1 benefactor, they would fail each other miserably.
It was also a study in operational readiness and resolve for an organization that should have been put out to pasture after the collapse of the USSR. A cash-devouring bureaucracy masquerading as a military alliance, searching for purpose.. found purpose.. and failed that purpose miserably. Outside the Five-Eyes, and a handful of hearty ex-Warsaw pact nations who pulled their weight (the Eastern Europeans were willing, but poorly equipped), most western European ‘allies’ turtled up in their bases for a decade, bribed and payed off local warlords to not attack them, and sucked down U.S. cash while doing little to nothing. This is why Trump is so hard on them.. they are fat, swollen ticks, gorged on U.S. taxpayer cash.
And, lets not get it twisted.. With almost 500,000 U.S. dead and wounded over two ‘not our wars’, Asking our ‘allies’ to search some caves for a bunch of rag-tag mujaheddin in the asshole of central Asia, while the U.S. bankrolled them and managed their logistics, was not a big ask… or, apparently it was.. so spare me the preening and pontificating..
This tired, weak, clapped out trope needs to die, I grow tired of hearing it.
I’m assuming your scar is a head injury if you’re so confident with your misinformation
Tsk, tsk…too much salt ruins the flavor!
You should be happy then that we’re doing away with this WWII era relic then; you’ll do quite fine on your own.
S-e-r-b-i-a
Trump is extraordinarily vindicative. If a national (or even regional) leader says something that Trump considers critical of his policies — even if his name is not explicilty mentioned — he’s goes after them. He seems to view neighbouring countries as vassal states that must never step out of line.
Whine some more.
When you want to join the discussion like a big boy — with facts and reason and such — do get back to us.
Canada is a Tramp Stamp that says: Invade Here
I remember the previous Liberal Prime Minister called Canada post-national.
The Palestinians the Canadian government supports are pre-national.
What kind of an idjit wants to be post-national when all cool kids are getting nations?
(ok, the Roman Republic is post national)
I am with President Trump, Canada has been a “less than special” ally/neighbour. Our defense spending is abysmal and even the new promised increase seems to be mostly going to Liberal Party grifters.
I have a very funny feeling (meaning not good) that life in Canada is going to become very bad. Our national debt is horrible and when things can no longer continue (ie. we stop paying the interest on our debt), then horrible economic realities set in. Yes, I am retired, yes, I have good investments but that can all go “cope carley” (an old Irish expression) in a hurry.
If you think Canada’s national debt is bad — which it is — you should look at America’s.
The alarm bells should be ringing off the hook, but few US politicians seem concerned about it.
First of all Canada is in a shaky position to be able to service its debt. The U.S. economy is much stronger and Canada’s will continue to sputter.
Then to top it off, you should take a look at the consumer debt per capita and you will see that it is much, MUCH higher than that of the U.S. In fact, almost double. What does that mean? Why it means the Canadian economy is in trouble because the consumer is tapped out and that is because the federal government has essentially shifted its debt onto the consumer.
I’m not the one that brought up national debt. JMM did. Take it up with him.
” JMM did. Take it up with him.”
Her.
Whine some more. I didn’t see a lot of facts and reason with your inane babbling…..as usual. And who is this “us” you talk about? Do you have crabs?
Trump is the biggest whiner on the planet. He can’t even take an election loss with grace,
“Election loss”? Well at least according to you.
“When you want to join the discussion like a big boy — with facts and reason and such — do get back to us.”
Facts and reason? With the poster boy for Trump Derangement Syndrome?
(…and who is “us”, exactly? You, Scar and CanuckguyNB? Please…)
You don’t like your hero being criticized. I get that. It hurts.
Killer Marmot dreams of sex with Justin and Mark and maybe Obama.
When he isn’t worshiping the COVID vaccine.
“Killer Marmot dreams of sex with Justin and Mark and maybe Obama.”
What a piece of crap this site has turned into.
Okay. It has been fashionable among assholes for some time now to insult Trump, gratuitously and as offensively as possible, just for the shits and giggles. When Trump then has to deal with someone like this, he treats him as the asshole he has proven himself to be.
You falsely present this sensible behaviour as “vindictiveness”, then use that misrepresentat scion to suggest that you are placing yourself at personal risk, and thus heroic, for belching out the same old shit. People recognize this as both vain and dishonest, and they respond, indeed viscerally.
Not me, obviously, I am resigned to dishonest politics and rather enjoy a vain buffoon. But if it’s facts and reasons you’re looking for, well, chew on those.
You seem a bit butt hurt there, ebt.
But my insulting of Trump is not gratuitous. He has full earned it. He’s a nasty, vindictive man who does not brook criticism of his policies, even by outsiders.
Your insults are meaningless. They might make you feel better, but nobody really cares.
“What a piece of crap this site has turned into.”
…says the guy who tries to turn every thread into a flame war over President Trump.
I don’t turn it into flame war. It’s you guys responding to me with your insults and vacuous comments. No one said you had to respond.
Well, when one wrangles with goats, one gets butthurt. Nothing intensive pub therapy can’t put right.
Frankly, I think Trump brooks criticism pretty well. Hell, he’s been known to brook babbling! And it’s all too clear that you are subscribing to a view of Trump that’s wildly distorted, and I wish you would reconsider that subscription, but it’s not up to me. I just want you to understand why you get the reaction you get.
Ok, here’s the facts: I said quite a while ago that we are playing by the old rules now; that means we get to be vindictive if we want to. Revenge is often a great teacher and not as much of a moral failing as many have been programmed to believe.
And we get to make deals with other great powers, like China (which is a power, like it or not) because that may benefit us.
And we get to say FU to piddly little countries that don’t behave themselves…like Canada.
Because, that is the way the game was always played since time immemorial; because “international rules based order” and “special relationships” was always so much BS. You know…Thucydides.
You’re power tripping, just like the Trump administration. Lets keep the testosterone down to managable levels.
And that piddly little country is America’s second biggest trading partner. It’s what America relies on for electricity, nickel, zinc, tellurium, vanadium, aluminum, copper, uranium, potash, and framing timber. And that piddly little country has one of the world’s greatest reserves of oil.
A smart president would be thankful Canada is a stable and friendly ally. Not every country has that luxury. Trump is trying to piss it away.
That’s why so many Democrats are rotting in jail after they impeached him, stole elections, tried several times to assassinate him and fondled his wife’s underwear.
“and fondled his wife’s underwear”
The vision that incident conjures fills me with fury. The righteous indignation of it.
Most of the FBI were actually fondling Barron’s undies.
“That’s why so many Democrats are rotting in jail after they impeached him, stole elections, tried several times to assassinate him and fondled his wife’s underwear.”
And more to come, according to the DOJ. They apparently have lots of evidence of election fraud in 2020 and are about to start handing out indictments.
So f**king what? Trump is the big man on the block. You can either defy him and get your face kicked in or cooperate and not get your face kicked in. Carney, the 90 pound weakling, has decided to get Canada’s face kicked in, cheered on by the elbows up morons. That’s reality. Sure, Trump is vindictive. But so what? You have to deal with him as he is, not as you would wish he might be.
“Carney, the 90 pound weakling, has decided to get Canada’s face kicked in, cheered on by the elbows up morons.”
Worse than just crossing America.
He is bending us over to the tender mercies of the communist Chinese.
“That’s reality. Sure, Trump is vindictive. But so what? You have to deal with him as he is, not as you would wish he might be.”
Well said, Thucydides. Reality doesn’t care about our feelings *and never will*.
If Carney still thinks that the Chinese will save Canada, he’s as delusional as KM. China knows which economy they would rather have access to to sell their products.
I wonder if you’ve been offered up as a plaything to Xi? Now that would be hilarious!
I would say that ‘vindictive’ is par for the course in modern geopolitics.. or rather, it always has been going all the back to the Greco-Roman empires. Castrudeau had no problems with it, and inviting the CCP to train at The U.S. border certainly turned some heads.. though not as much as watching him crush a citizen protest under RCMP horses.. Carney rushing to hide under Xi’s skirt because Trump wounded his ego seems rather vindictive to the casual observer. Doug Ford wanted to cut off power the the north-east U.S. over wounded pride.. remember that? I do.. In Europe, Von der Leyen, Costa, and Kallas went out of their way to be ‘vindictive’ towards the U.S. because Trump questioned the rudderless war in Ukraine’s, and opted to stop blindly funding it to Europe’s benefit.. Macron and Sanchez have gone out of their ways to be vindictive pricks towards Trump, especially over the Iranian conflict. If you are going to look for grievance, find something worthy to whine about. ‘Dog bites man’ isn’t a worthy argument tbqh..
You rely upon us economically, militarily, and yes even politically (nobody would have the time of day for you if you weren’t located where you are).
Yet you constantly lecture us and then play the victimhood card…poor, sweet, little Canada, treated like a vassal state by big bad America!
Do grow up.
You ARE a vassal state; you’ve always been a vassal state, a resource colony; and at this rate you will always be a vassal state. Because delusions are far more cozy than facts; navel gazing is the most enjoyable of hobbies; and far be it for your national psyche to EVER put forth some effort towards being something rather than grafting off my country whilst maintaining your so-called superiority.
You will either wake up as a nation, come to your senses, and actually become something worthwhile, OR you will further slide into irrelevance, poverty, and authoritarianism.
Either way I win and am entertained. Thank you Canada!
“You will either wake up as a nation, come to your senses, and actually become something worthwhile, OR you will further slide into irrelevance, poverty, and authoritarianism. Either way I win and am entertained. Thank you Canada!”
I wish I could argue with that Jane, but I can’t…I’ve always been terrible at fooling myself. We deserve *every bit* of what is coming.
Trump and many of his supporters seem to be suffering from testosterone poisoning.
Heh, sad fact of the matter is “Killer” that I do appear to have more testicular fortitude than you, and that’s your problem.
I’ve got the strength to state an opinion when I know it’s not going to be popular. You and most other people on this site, however, seem to be in lockstep on every issue. You haven’t the balls to say something that’ll upset the others.
” You haven’t the balls to say something that’ll upset the others.”
No, we just don’t feel irresistibly compelled to make fools of ourselves because we crave attention.
Fred from BC, I have yet to ever see you respond to the actual point being made. Nope, you’ve got one response to opinions you don’t want to hear: heap abuse.
Well, I’ve got the courage to step in cowshit! Yes! And smear it on me face, too! How’s that for balls, folks?
First, why does Error Oh Tool think that what his grandpappy did 80+ years ago give him some kind of weight?
We did this, we did that…a long fcking time ago, numbnuts.
For decades, Americans have been polite about Canada’s inability to protect its borders and shores, particularly the Arctic.
NORAD is about 100,000 times more important than NATO.
The fact that Trump isn’t polite about Canada’s limp dick after Carney basically declared geography silly and our relationship with the US over, is on Carney – and disgusting Liberals and their Forever Government – not on the current US president.
Yup…..Canada hasn’t carried its weight in terms of defense for many decades. The rot started under Comrade Pierre Trudeau.
Before Trudeau, Liberal Prime Minister Pearson invented “Peacekeeping”.
Canada’s military was configured to be a peacekeeping force, no longer a warfighting national armed service.
Pierre Trudeau used this new peacekeeping force on Canadian citizens when he declared the War Measures Act in October 1970.
“Liberal Prime Minister Pearson invented “Peacekeeping”.”
And the Liberals are seemingly so proud of it that they keep bringing it up as if it was still relevant. Peacekeeping during the Cold War was a joke, when the two sides (the USSR and the USA) would order their proxies to stop fighting and Canada would *only then* send troops in (sometimes without ammunition ) to stand around and look like they were doing something brave and important.
Try that now, and we would be massacred. Real peacekeeping requires the threat of force.
That was peacekeeping in Rwanda under a Canadian General. The peace of the grave.
I wonder how many Rwandans have migrated to Canada? Have any of them have joined the CAF?
Well yeah, it did start under Pearson but accelerated under Trudeau. My brother was in the RCAF when Trudeau took over and he was well aware of how quickly it deteriorated under Trudeau….especially when they promoted a bunch of useless Francophones to commissioned positions that they had absolutely no business being in.
“My brother was in the RCAF when Trudeau took over”
I was a kid living on a base with my father in the RCAF when Trudeau took over.
He had been in the service since 1940. He retired in 1972.
‘Nice’ Nations don’t need to spend on defense … because no one attacks ‘nice’ countries. Behold the Clinton/Benghazi strategy writ large.
May I remind you that your ‘conservative’ savior, one PM Stephen Harper, made deep budget cuts to your military operations (AND maintenance! that’s important), reductions in personnel at your DND, and cancelled (or delayed to the point you might as well have cancelled them) major procurements?
This is more of a bi-partisan issue than many want to countenance; to be fair, this isn’t unique to Canada — one of the things I would likely talk about if I ever wrote “To My Conservative Friends”.
Plenty of blame to go around; it’s almost like corruption and ineptitude are equal opportunity! There is equity and inclusion in the world after all!
Harper – no savior of mine – made major procurements – like Globemasters III and 130J Super Hercules, hundreds of patrol vehicles, Leopard II tanks, a national shipbuilding strategy, Chinook helicopters, LAVIII combat vehicles…
And yeah spending compared to GDP dropped significantly.
I know Liberals are mostly to blame and Canadian voters and that the Cons are not my cons…and you know jack shit about mostly everything except rhetoric and bullshit.
Care to explain these numbers then?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/military-spending-gmsd?time=2005..latest&country=~CAN
Granted, the only reason those numbers are what they are is due to some clever accounting by Trudeau, and likely some pressure by my President, and Harper did inherit weak defense spending. HOWEVER: the only accomplishment was those Globemasters, and what good are they if they don’t even really have a modern military to transport? Maybe the Brits and the French can borrow them.
The reason you guys bought those Leopards and Griffen helos? Because you didn’t have the logistics to supply your troops in Kandahar by anything but by road, no airlift supply. That got a lot of your boys and girls blown up. Rather sad to be honest; plus it wasn’t fun for us because we couldn’t rely on you…because you couldn’t even supply your own troops without getting others turned into pink goo by IEDs because having to truck stuff in.
And as for shifting to an Arctic Defense of the Homeland, one of his pet defense policies, his government backpedalled — like those icebreakers that never really came into being (well, not REAL icebreakers anyway). And what is one of the things that my country is more than a bit annoyed with you about.
And the F-35s…let’s not forget who put that one on ice. Couple with an astounding lack of procurement of modern equipment, cuts in Veteran’s Affairs and veteran’s disability (and after that soup sandwich mentioned above at Kandahar too, probably not very good for the old morale, recruitment and retention… along with wanting to sign you guys up for every adventure under the sun)…even talking up the War of 1812 (not forgotten by the likes of yours truly; be assured of that)…seemed to make your boys want to fight less rather than more.
Yeah, no, I don’t know a blessed thing about anything; not even good at rhetoric (which IS the art of bullshitting, just polished bullshit)…and what I do know…I probably lie about! Kisses!
By the way, just because I’m feeling shitty:
I can look at the Canadian troops with more caritas than even some Canadians — it was wrong what your government did to them in Afghanistan. You sent them out there with too small a force, underequipped, and no good way to supply, and it got them killed and injured. And it accomplished nothing (and was a strain on MY country’s troops, so there’s that). And then rather than take a hard look at your own damn government, your own blessed political side…you blame somebody else, or (more importantly to me) you blame my country.
I mean, it is what has been wrong in my country too — if you think I gave two figs for Bush you are very mistaken; he, his daddy, Clinton, and Obama are all the same to me — so see, you’re not alone. But time to put Red Team/Blue Team away kids. Trudeau was a shit bird, and so was Harper.
“You sent them out there with too small a force, underequipped, and no good way to supply, and it got them killed and injured. ”
And wearing forest camouflage in the desert, reportedly.
L – The allegiance P.M. Mark Carney, as with in-Just Trudeau, is first to themselves. Their relationship with China and what it can do for them, has made them both personally and politically wealthy. In that way for each of them, the relationship has been always strategic.
For China the de-industrialization of Western industrialized nation-states via “fighting” climate change. It has been most successful, especially in the W.E.F./Euro(weenie) Union. Canada’s deindustrialization by way of the Liberal/NDPGreen Gang, of which the C.P.C. acted as a puppet club member. It has been a pagan god send. From economic and political poverty to the largest manufacturing power in the world. China!
Once admitted to the World Trade Organization with a “developing 3rd world” status, thus exempt from serving in the war against Climate Change. The C.C.P. soon had enough money to bribe any and all, who were bribable. Covertly covered from scrutiny, due to its Cult. Marxist identity group status, as an oppressed, minority group. World hegemony was within the grasp of Pres. Xi and the C.C.P.
Then the unthinkable happened. The United States elected an alpha male President, who didn’t fall for the mind virus trap, that said becoming a vassal state to Communist China was a fait accompli. The Canadian political elite falling prey to “The love of money is the root of all evil.”, kowtowed to China and Canadians have just begun to suffer…
“Live Not By Lies” , Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn tried to warn us, but what wisdom does a survivor of the Soviet Gulag Archipelago know?
The Liberal Party has been full of Maoists since that prick Pierre Trudeau. Justin was deep into that ideology as well. Liberals are selling out Canada. Oh well, countries don’t last forever.
I went back and read the transcript of the Davos speech. It was an exercise in finger pointing, misrepresentation, and hypocrisy. The underlying theme was a bit of a tantrum that the the “new world order” courtesy of the WEF was being blown up in real time, and counties in support of that new world order didn’t have the power to reverse the trend. So name calling was the response (American Hemegony).
The hypocrisy portion featured Carney claiming that Canada held strength in its own natural resources and industry. While Carney is proclaiming this strength, he and the Liberal government are doing all they can to neutralize that positive. Canada chose many years ago to go down a particular road that leads nowhere. Instead of acknowledging that mistake and taking positive steps to correct that error, Carney chose to blame those who took a better path, and whine about the advantages acquired. Carney’s attitude and position seems to be that Canada (and the EU) are owed the advantages acquired by other countries while simultaneously touting sovereignty. Those two concepts are diametrically opposed unless you have a warped sense of entitlement.
Sadly, Canada has failed to make credible progress on a lot of things.
So many resources, so much potential. Yes, sad.
Tall poppies. Crabs in a bucket. You can’t polish a turd.
I’m pretty sure Katie Forehead Asstronaut polishes her Juthin turd – prolly doesn’t take much.
I’m taking the suspension of joint defence meetings as a gentle tap on the shoulder. I think there is a lot more going on, not 4D chess, but a bigger picture most people can’t see. We are witnessing a huge geo-political realignment driven by debt and demographics. Everyone is trying to position themselves so that they lose as little as possible and maybe even gain a little. From the outside it looks like Trump is trying to “catch flies with vinegar.” He’s not that stupid, so what’s really going on?