23 March 2026
Politicians have come to often rely on presenting or even manufacturing a crisis and offering themselves as the solution. Crisis moves votes. The result is witnessed in the recent Walrus article Canada Is Already at War with the US—We Just Don’t Know It Yet: Conflicts don’t always start with an invasion, by Dr. Patrick Lennox.
The author is presented as a non-partisan former Intelligence manager yet omits that he is the Federal Liberal Party Candidate for Edmonton-Griesbach, something both the author and The Walrus should have disclosed. It should be noted that the delay in posting this reply is due to the decision to offer The Walrus right of first refusal in the hopes they would choose to publish this as a counter argument to Dr. Lennox. Disappointingly, they declined the offer.
I am at a loss to explain the views presented by Dr. Lennox, his framing, and outright untruths, outside of a political motive. It warrants responding to what looks very much like the ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ the Liberal party claims to be combating.
No, Canada is not “already at war with the US.” Even by the most stretched definition, that claim isn’t even remotely true. Canada and the US share a level of military and intelligence integration unmatched anywhere in the world. We are not engaged in any form of combat with one another, not conventional conflict, nor information warfare, nor subversive campaigns. While disagreements exist, it would be difficult to make the case that our two countries are even actually hostile towards each other.
The US is not engaged in a “psy-op” against Canada. President Trump’s rhetoric is best understood as political bluster. We should generally assume leaders mean what they say, but President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated a tendency to test ideas publicly and abandon them when they lose traction. That has been the case with the 51st state rhetoric and we also see Greenland fading into the background. There is no grand strategy, as countless insiders have repeatedly said.
Indeed, Dr. Lennox acknowledges that Canada’s national security apparatus, along with both bureaucratic and political leaders on both sides of the aisle, including the director of CSIS, have repeatedly stated publicly that cooperation between Canadian and the US remains in ‘lockstep.’ Yet he dismisses this consensus, arguing that such assessments fundamentally misread the United States today.
I would submit the one fundamentally misreading the United States and the situation is Dr. Lennox.
The assertion that the US and its institutions can no longer be trusted, or that it is no longer fundamentally a democracy, is objectively untrue. The US holds elections, is governed by the rule of law, courts can and do overrule the President and his executive orders. Congress remains capable of empowering or curtailing the President. That they haven’t chosen not to do so is not evidence to the contrary.
Dr. Lennox also dismisses the possibility that the November midterms will be both free and fair resulting in a curtailment of President Trump’s executive power. This is an absurd assertion. The US system, like our own, is made up of a massive number of people of varying political leanings. There is no evidence that American elections are anything other than free and fair, even if you don’t like how they are conducted or their outcome.
He further suggests it is naïve to believe President Trump could be replaced by leaders seeking to restore elements of the pre-Trump rules-based international order. Instead, he speculates about a third Trump term and the end of a peaceful transfer of power in 2029.
These claims rely on a chain of assumptive leaps, logical follicles, and unnecessary alarmism.
Recent events in Minnesota are pointed to by Dr. Lennox as evidence of his assertion. Here he claims President Trump “turned a private militia on his own people in a multi-month occupation of a city” with “broad-daylight executions.” That description is wildly misleading. ICE is a federal law‑enforcement agency, not a militia. Highlighting its funding relative to Canadian defence spending says nothing meaningful about Canada–US relations; it simply reflects the much larger size of U.S. institutions and Canada’s chronic underfunding of defence, to which the US has long taken issue.
City and State representatives have adopted “sanctuary” that conflict with federal immigration law. The resulting ICE operations have been ham-fisted, and the conduct of agents is before the courts and rightly faces legal scrutiny (because the US remains a free democracy). There was, however no multi‑month occupation by “storm troopers” carrying out broad‑daylight executions, that is hyperbole. This inflammatory language serves only to provoke an emotional reaction and does not accurately describe events. Characterizing legitimate concerns about enforcement as evidence of war between Canada and the United States stretches the claim beyond all reason.
Following this narrative, Dr. Lennox claims that, in the eyes of the Trump administration, Canada is just another Minnesota, “a target.” Apparently, President Trump is motivated by Canada’s liberal, democratic, multicultural values, including minority rights, public health care, reproductive rights, a free press, fair voting, and adherence to science and objective reality. Yet all these qualities largely apply to the United States as well, except for Canada’s public health care system. In fact, the U.S. enjoys stronger press freedom, while Canada faces serious foreign interference challenges in its elections. Moreover, Canada often disregards scientific evidence when it suits political agendas, particularly on gender issues.
Dr. Lennox points to President Trump’s objections to Canada’s dealings with China, whom Prime Minister Carney has called a “new strategic partner. This does not advance the ‘US is at war with Canada’ argument in any way. China’s global subversive activities, including CCP-linked police stations and election interference in Canada, pose a genuine security and economic risk. Given the deep integration of US and Canadian security apparatuses, it is reasonable for the United States to be concerned about Canada’s engagement with China. President Trump’s anger on this point, incoherent as it may be, reflects legitimate concern.
Russia is also cited, with Dr. Lennox claiming the US has been “bandwagoning with Russia rather than balancing against it.” This is not wholly accurate. While President Trump’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is repulsive, it does not represent US policy as a whole. The United States has provided aid and equipment, and continues to engage with European efforts on behalf of Ukraine through arms sales. While some of the more loathsome elements of the MAGA movement are Kremlin useful idiots, the broader US government and public remain supportive of Ukraine and distrust Putin’s Russia. Undercutting this situation is American efforts to pressure Europe to increase its contributions materially, militarily, and financially. There is no justifying the claim that the United States is wholly aligned with Russia and ignores the structural limits of the US executive branch’s reach on Ukraine.
Continuing the Russian narrative Dr. Lennox cites meetings in Washington with Alberta separatists as evidence of US intent to destabilize Canada. While such meetings are totally inappropriate, the Canadian government has the means to address them. Admittedly this is indulging in a little whataboutisim here, but three former premiers attempting to recruit Canadians as canvassers for Kamala Harris was equally inappropriate. To suggest the Trump administration is actively trying to break up Canada gives both the administration as well as Alberta separatism generally far more credit than is justified. In reality, this appears to be President Trump playing to his base with little practical effect.
In a deeply offensive moment Dr. Lennox compares these meetings to Russian efforts concerning a largely Kremlin manufactured separatist movement in the Donbas, later leveraged for an invasion of Ukraine. This demonstrates a shocking ignorance of the situation, region, and history. This is evidenced by the comment that “Ukrainians were completely taken aback by how quickly and aggressively their neighbour turned on them.” This implies previously good relations where none existed. Ukraine has feared Russian aggression since the fall of the Soviet Union and that is why the attempts to pivot west. That is what led to the Revolution of Dignity (Maidan). At no point and in no world were they “taken aback.”
On the point of hemispheric dominance Dr. Lennox points to the so-called “Donroe Doctrine” which is not a real thing. This is an attempt to interpret the underlying principles of President Trump’s foreign policy in the Americas. It is rooted in the US National Security Strategy which Dr. Lennox describes as a roadmap for “resource imperialism” suggesting it “entitles the Trump administration to seize assets across the hemisphere at will” which is objectively untrue. The Security Strategy simply seeks to ensure the security of strategic resources, a reasonable goal Canada shares.
The issue is President Trump’s questionable methodology to achieving this end, which is widely criticised not just abroad but at home as well. This has painfully demonstrated President Trump’s limitations as in the case of the quickly vanishing Greenland ambition. Claims of a “stunning US takeover of Venezuela” by Dr. Lennox are equally untrue; Venezuela remains governed by the same party. Furthermore, President Trump cannot decertify Canadian airplanes or block the Gordie Howe International Bridge depite claims to the contrary.
He further argues the 2026 US Defence Strategy presents the American view of rules-based international order as nothing but an abstraction. This is a selective cherry picking that misrepresents what the document actually says and what is the intent behind it. What it is arguing is that the US has placed itself second to pursuing grandiose idealism projects like nation building and upholding the idea of a rules based international order unsupported or disregarded by everyone else. The leader of Dr. Lennox’s own party, Prime Minister Carney claimed at Davos the rules based international order was always a farse. Perhaps this helps explain why the US has shifted its approach to the rules based international order.
Dr. Lennox misreads what is happening, the rules are just now being aggressively enforced. The US worked at it almost single handedly while lesser nations, unwilling to commit the necessary resources (particularly military), enjoyed the benefits of those efforts The US has awoken to this abuse and reasserting itself and its self-interest. Canada and Europe are now doing the same in response to US pressure. Canada has been dragging its heels in getting on board, but it should be working towards that end in lockstep with the US. Make no mistake, these forces are larger than President Trump and will remain a tenet of American political discourse after he leaves the stage.
Dr Lennox is manufacturing a crisis in claiming Canada must accept it is at war with the US and act quickly. He tells you his end goal “much will have to change in Canada if the country is to stay the same”, which is a contradiction.
The first assertion is that Canada needs to build a world-class foreign intelligence service. Canada should already have one and that it doesn’t is part of why the US is annoyed. This is not a new realization and in the ten years the Liberals were led by Prime Minster Trudeau considerable pressure was placed on Canada by both Republican and Democratic presidents to get our house in order. Dr. Lennox calls for rapidly developing a defence industrial base to support the Canadian Armed Forces. In many sectors this is virtually impossible without massive indefinite government subsidies. He then claims Canada needs to consider a hardened land border against the US, which would be objectively impossible for Canada to achieve.
From here he argues Canada must consider options for mandatory military service, and that “we need to figure out how we can come together to do all of this. Our national unity is paramount to our survival.” This is tough to swallow from a member of the post-nationalist political party that has spent the last decade dismantling Canada as irredeemably racist. Canadians, particularly young men who are actively discriminated against by this government are unwilling to fight, as poll after poll has demonstrated.
Every society needs a national mythos, a foundational story and belief structure, and core set of values and identity to rally around. Dr. Lennox’s Liberal Party has offered no such center of gravity for national unity and in lieu of this they now attempt to offer a manufactured threat, while ignoring real ones that are politically inconvenient. Often for no better reason then the demographic make-up of their riding, I might add.
All of the above suggestions by Dr. Lennox can be easily translated into the following, “give us [the Liberal Party] increased control and authority over Canadians, as well as lots of spending to preferred friends.” This, instead of just working with Canada’s allies, despite whatever differences or conflicting interest may exist.
Dr. Lennox asks, “Can anyone argue now that we are at peace with the US?” Yes, objectively, Canada is at peace. We also maintain peace with nations far more hostile to us, including Iran and Russia, with whom we do not share the integrated intelligence relationship we have with the US, which Dr. Lennox has worked in himself.
Relations with the US are strained and shifting. The latter part of the 20th century was anomalous for the US. The Americans are again attempting to retreat into their preferred, and misguided, ‘splendid isolationism.’ It may be alarming, but it’s not a war. Courts have repeatedly curtailed President Trump. Invading Canada is several orders of magnitude bigger. The US military is professional, non-partisan, and composed of Democrats, moderates, and Republicans who reject President Trump’s rhetoric concerning Canada. No US president could not invade Canada; attempting to do so would end that presidency, not our country. Lennox absolutely knows this, and his claims are, quite simply, untrue.
Feature Photo: Canada-US border, ChatGPT, 2026.
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