By threatening Canada on trade, Trump risks the greatest defence partnership in US history

by Heather Timmons (feat. Dave Perry)

Quartz
June 8, 2018

As Donald Trump joins a hostile G7 meeting in Quebec City today, an old friendship is on the line.

Relations between the US and other G7 nations have waxed and waned, but since WWII, Americans and Canadians have slept soundly under the protection of a friendly US-Canadian bond that spans 5,500 miles of border, massive trade ties, and deeply intertwined militaries. When Trump insisted on taxing Canadian steel and aluminum last month, officials in Canada were taken aback. Even more astounding was Trump’s justification of the tariffs as a matter of national security, which Canada’s defense minister Harjit Sajjan described as “literally absurd.”

Canada stands between the US and any military threats approaching from the north—as in airborne attacks from Russia (during the Cold War), or North Korea. The US and Canada face risks together, intermingling military defenses, collaborating on intelligence, and even sharing a secret mountain lair in NORAD—the only major military operation in the world that reports to two countries.

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