Trump Is The Best Thing That Has Ever Happened To Canada

SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2026 | RYAN TYLER

Donald Trump is the best thing that has ever happened to Canada. I know Conservatives are mad at him for endorsing Carney in the last election, and that everyone else hates him because the media told them to, but if we're going to take Canada seriously as a country, we will need to acknowledge how Trump has helped Canada align itself with a better future. 

Among all the doom and gloom about our economy, there is a silver lining. Yes, our economy is right fucked. However, pain is a part of the long-term solution. Donald Trump has helped Canadians wake up to a reality I have been complaining about my whole life. I have talked about it, written about it, and been sneered at for it. Fast forward almost 20 years and Canadians are finally seeing it. Not because of anything people like me have ever said, but because of Donald Trump.

Canada has never really been a country. It has been a wholly dependent vassal state. This 150 years of "nationhood" has been a collective delusion. A vast majority of our economic output depends on the United States. Our borders and national defence depend almost entirely on them. Even culturally, we consume everything American. Now, finally, Canadians are waking up to that reality—but without admitting any of it.

A decade ago, you could ask anyone in Quebec or Ontario if Alberta should be allowed to drill more oil and get more oil to market. In Ontario, you would have gotten a 50/50 split of yes and no, but in Quebec you would have gotten a resounding majority of people opposing further expansion. In 2026, under Trump, those numbers are radically different. 

Today, a majority of Canadians across all provinces support pipelines and resource extraction. In Quebec, support for pipelines has risen to near 50% and opposition is at the lowest levels ever seen in the province. 

People across the country are now boycotting American goods and liquor—which, in and of itself, has become a fascinating learning experience for most Canadians. 

Trump's tariff threats have also exposed the dependencies within Canada's labour and manufacturing markets. Where does all that stuff that Ontario and Quebec manufacture go? What happens if the country that buys 75% of it slaps a tariff on it, or just stops needing it? Where would the money to pay the employees come from when that happens? The unions can strike all they want, people will get laid off when the demand vanishes. 

The longer this trade war escalates, the higher the chances that Trump threatens to revoke certain military and defence protections. It's obviously not in America's best interest to leave the Arctic and borders undefended, so it wouldn't happen, but the mere threat of it would push Canada even further toward publicly acknowledging weaknesses in its national defence strategy—which doesn't appear to exist at all. 

Canada is one of the richest countries in the world. We are sitting on an estimated $2 Trillion worth of natural resources—most of which we have refused to extract and sell. It's no wonder that American interests have been funding organizations like the Tides Foundation to keep our resources in the ground through astroturf environmental movements. If Canada touched even a fraction of its expanded resources and precious minerals, we would become a massive economic and military power. That would include everything from lumber, cobalt, lithium, food, fresh water and tech to anything else we could produce here, which would put our economic potential closer to $30 Trillion.

If Canada exploited its resources, it would become a direct military and economic competitor with the United States, China, Russia, and Europe.

Under Donald Trump, Canadians have been pushed toward realizing these things. The friendly Americans next door don't seem so friendly anymore. The dependencies, the weaknesses, and 150 years of pretending have been exposed by the MAGA movement, much to the detriment of Democrats and old-school Republicans—who have known about Canada's potential all along and actively worked to supress it. 

Mark my words. The first thing Democrats will do when they take power is restore the old order. The one where Canada remains a weak, compliant, reliant, and regressively environmental vassal state. We can expect President Newsom to work out a new free-trade deal and potentially remove all tariffs, including ones that existed before Trump. Democrats will go full steam ahead with a plan to undo any progress Canada has made toward independence.

If Canadians don't want to become the 51st state, they need to start acting like they want a real country of their own. We don't need more pipelines, we need ALL the pipelines. We need all the mines, all the lumber mills, all the data centres, all the tech, all the extraction operations, and all the wealth and power. We can do all of this while protecting our beautiful forests and prairies. Re-planting forests could become a lucrative industry alongside many others. We can use some of the capital to kickstart other green industries and manufacturing initiatives. We can become a superpower while maintaining our enviornmental stewardship. Those things don't have to be mutually exclusive like the fake environmental groups want us to believe. They can, and should, go hand-in-hand.  

If Canadians want a real country, now is their chance. Stop saying no, start saying yes.