PJ The Belt - September 28, 2026


Canada Just Made a HUGE MISTAKE!!

Mentioned
Canada IS NOT READY For What Trump Just Did..

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

169.96

Word count

1,540

Sentence count

50

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I mean, you know, his idea that somehow we're going to have this guerrilla warfare in Canada at the, you know, highly unlikely event of the Americans invading us militarily was just nuts.
00:00:11.340 I'm just being honest with you.
00:00:12.380 From my perspective, and I'm not in this situation room, but I know a lot of people in Washington and I know a lot of people across the country.
00:00:20.660 Your chances, Pennsylvania has a better chance of being invaded by West Virginia.
00:00:24.880 I just want to make sure you guys understand that.
00:00:26.720 We, zero chance.
00:00:28.300 So I think it's really, it was just part of his stoking fears, I think, in Canada. He obviously does super well whenever he can contrast himself to that of Donald Trump and really wrap himself around the flag. And I think this was just one of the many attempts to do that.
00:00:46.200 so let me get this straight canada is in the middle of a trade fight with the united states
00:00:51.020 right businesses are worried canadians are having a hard time paying their bills the economy is in
00:00:57.220 rough shape right and somehow the conversation in this country has drifted all the way to what
00:01:03.580 if america invaded canada tomorrow and it's like what are we even doing here in this country anymore
00:01:09.940 mark carney of course brought up that possibility to the public sphere in a conversation he had
00:01:15.060 with the Wall Street Journal as an extreme scenario, he said, not the expected outcome
00:01:20.360 or the base case, whatever that means. But here we are talking about it. And the political benefit
00:01:26.360 is obvious. Every time Carney uses Donald Trump as the boogeyman, and I've talked about this before,
00:01:32.240 his polling numbers shoot right up. And Trump knows that Carney benefits when Canadians are 0.80
00:01:38.700 encouraged to see him as an existential threat. Talk to me a little bit about this. Speaking
00:01:44.980 directly to American audiences, American readers, and putting it out there that he had to consider
00:01:52.840 what he called the tail-end scenario of preparing Canada for a possible military attack by the United
00:01:59.840 States. What do you think about the strategy behind this, and did it work, in your opinion?
00:02:05.200 Honestly, I think it was just bonkers. You know, it makes no sense what he said to the American
00:02:10.900 media. And I think it's quite actually insulting to the Canadian media that he continually does
00:02:16.240 this. He drops these huge statements to the American press where he quite rightly knows
00:02:22.700 they're not going to challenge him on it. I mean, you know, his idea that somehow we're going to
00:02:26.720 have this guerrilla warfare in Canada at the highly unlikely event of the Americans invading
00:02:33.620 us militarily was just nuts. And I think that it was really just trying to play up on fears in
00:02:39.420 Canada, and also to get some credibility with the Americans. But at the end of the day, you know,
00:02:44.520 his core supporters are people in my demographic. I don't see people that I know that, you know,
00:02:50.760 are very comfortably situated, have their houses paid for, you know, are able to get groceries on
00:02:56.680 the table to be taking up arms against the Americans. And quite frankly, I don't think
00:03:01.520 it would play well with young people who were actually the ones that would have to fight. So
00:03:05.440 think it's really it was it was just part of his stoking fears i think in canada uh he he obviously
00:03:12.080 does super well whenever he can contrast himself to that of donald trump and really uh wrap himself
00:03:18.800 around the flag and i think this is just one of the the many attempts to do that that's why this
00:03:23.520 isn't just a ridiculous conversation it's a political strategy then you hear the reaction
00:03:29.840 from american politicians and they sound like they've been dropped into an alternative universe
00:03:35.040 the governor of alaska basically says zero chance that reaction tells you something important south
00:03:41.760 of the border or in this case northwest of the border people are probably listening and thinking
00:03:46.880 canada are you are you guys okay the idea that america would attack canada right is shocking to
00:03:54.880 the average american on the ground you have to understand that shocking like i was stunned that
00:04:00.560 that was even contemplated last time that was ever contemplated was benedict arnold taking
00:04:04.960 in Montreal and storming the walls of Quebec and then the last time was was
00:04:10.060 actually a Canadian that tried to invade Canada that was John Candy and Canadian
00:04:14.200 bacon in a garbage truck okay so I mean you have I'm just being honest with you
00:04:21.280 from my perspective and I'm not in this situation room but I know a lot of
00:04:25.360 people in Washington and I know a lot of people across the country your chances
00:04:30.160 what Pennsylvania has a better chance of being invaded by West Virginia I just
00:04:34.100 make sure you guys understand that we zero chance i i'd have a better chance of sprouting wings and
00:04:39.700 flying around the uh audience here uh it's just that was way out there now yes the rhetoric but
00:04:46.260 take the rhetoric take the rhetoric away and i know what you're saying that's easy for dunleavy
00:04:50.420 to say and to an extent it is but i have to tell you um the this is very important the average
00:04:57.380 American would be shocked would be I would even say hurt in the sense that we have nothing but
00:05:09.300 an amazing view of Canada this is a compliment to Canada and some may see it as some may see
00:05:15.780 it as an insult but it's not it's a compliment we we don't we never think of Canada in terms of
00:05:22.580 of a foreign nation that could be a problem. 1.00
00:05:28.580 I can't even find my words to describe this. 1.00
00:05:32.580 You guys are literally, we are the same family,
00:05:37.580 truly the same family is how we view you.
00:05:40.580 The disputes at the top, we see it.
00:05:42.580 The average American is just saying to themselves,
00:05:45.580 whatever that is, they'll get that figured out.
00:05:47.580 We understand, many of us, that it's more real to Canadians
00:05:51.580 have to have i think a little better understanding of that a better understanding of why there's
00:05:55.500 concerns about uh even discussions about potential invasion but i gotta i'm just letting you know
00:06:00.460 canadians from the perspective of americans and there's no state that has a longer border with
00:06:05.340 canada than we do and there's no state that is more intertwined and that's where this stops being
00:06:10.220 funny the issue isn't whether american tanks are about to cross the 49th parallel it's what happens
00:06:16.380 when the political language between two allied countries becomes this absurd.
00:06:21.680 Canada and the United States argue all the time about trade, dairy, energy, defense spending,
00:06:29.240 border policy, and that's all normal.
00:06:31.780 What isn't normal is turning every little disagreement into an existential drama
00:06:37.300 in which Canada must prepare for the worst possible version of the United States.
00:06:42.900 What does that accomplish?
00:06:43.840 Does it get exporters a better deal? Does it lower grocery prices? Does it make factories
00:06:51.940 more competitive? Does it fix productivity, get more Canadian energy to market? No, it changes
00:06:58.560 the subject. It is much easier to have a massive national argument about Donald Trump than having
00:07:05.480 to confront the uncomfortable questions about why is it that Canada's economy isn't performing as
00:07:11.400 it should? Look, there is no likelihood of a U.S. invasion of Canada. I think this is just
00:07:18.360 rhetoric from Carney's part and not really much substance here. I mean, we know Carney is not
00:07:25.180 very fond of President Trump, so this is not entirely surprising that he would make these
00:07:30.820 comments. And he said it's irresponsible, as you pointed out, to not consider this risk,
00:07:36.900 even though it's a tailwind risk, as he mentioned.
00:07:42.000 But I wouldn't even call it unlikely.
00:07:44.200 I would characterize it as a 0% chance
00:07:47.680 that the U.S. would take military action against Canada
00:07:51.240 because I want to remind our viewers
00:07:53.100 that Canada and the United States are part of NATO and NORAD,
00:07:57.420 so we are not normal neighboring countries to each other.
00:08:02.660 And another thing I want to point out is
00:08:04.540 um why why why is he publicly saying this right because if this is uh potentially a secret
00:08:12.220 military plan i find it odd that he would disclose it to the public mark carney benefits from that
00:08:18.140 distraction and he knows it he gets to present himself as the leader protecting canada from
00:08:24.140 trump while the country avoids talking about productivity and the things that actually matter
00:08:29.500 Another thing Canadians need to keep in mind is how this all sounds like to Americans.
00:08:34.080 Not politicians, regular people.
00:08:37.400 The person in Maine who crosses the border every so often,
00:08:40.720 the family in Michigan with relatives in Ontario,
00:08:43.720 or the business owner in Alaska who deals with Canadians every week.
00:08:48.940 Eventually, two countries that used to argue like family
00:08:51.940 start talking about each other like complete strangers or worse.
00:08:56.200 Because that's exactly what Mark Carney wants you to do.
00:08:58.200 He wants you to blame Trump for everything that's gone wrong in the past 11 years of liberal governments.