Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump wait for the FIFA World Cup draw to begin at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, on Dec. 5, 2025.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

It should have been clear in November, 2024, when Donald Trump won re-election that Canada needed to act with urgency to end the drift of (especially) the last decade, during which the federal government dangerously neglected the basics of safeguarding national sovereignty.

The alarm bells were seemingly heeded last spring, when Mr. Trump launched his trade war and started greedily eyeing Canada as the 51st state. Against the odds, the Liberals won re-election under Mark Carney on the promise of an elbows-up response to Mr. Trump’s provocations.

But that promised response has not materialized, despite other worrying developments. In November, the U.S. administration published a National Security Strategy that would dramatically curtail the sovereignty of any Western Hemisphere country,........

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