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This Is What American Fascism Looks Like

From assassinating its own citizens to egging on Alberta separatists, the US has changed in ways Ottawa still refuses to confront

For nearly a year, Canadians have been discussing the danger posed by the United States. The anxiety shows up everywhere—online forums, polling questions, and in the unusually blunt asides from officials. This is good. We need to get in the habit of having hard conversations about who threatens us, the extent of that threat, and what we can and must do if we are to survive as an independent country.

To his credit, Prime Minister Mark Carney has talked openly about some aspects of the changing face of global politics. As the world now knows, he articulately described a “rupture” in world affairs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. In that same speech, he laid out a vision of flexible co-operation among middle powers in the world who are still interested in a rule-governed global order.

It is a good start, but more frank language is needed. Prime Minister Carney did not name the source of the rupture directly. For all the talk of “elbows up,” the federal government continues to avoid openly labelling US administration overreach as imperialist or authoritarian, even when it threatens Canadian sovereignty and democracy. On many issues, Canada has implicitly or explicitly agreed with the US, often in the face of all evidence. The country continues to spend billions policing a largely non-existent cross-border fentanyl problem. Increases to military spending have been in response to American NATO demands, even as the US president threatens a NATO ally and questions Canadian sovereignty.

Even the lawlessness of action in the Caribbean failed to draw any federal government official in Canada into openly criticizing the American administration. Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland eventually produced an endorsement of the principle of Greenlandian self-government under Danish sovereignty, but concrete acts remain a work in progress, with Canada often a day late and a dollar short compared to other democracies standing in solidarity with one another.

Most recently, the US secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, inserted himself directly into the debate over Alberta’s place in Canada by speaking positively about a move to create an independent pro-American Alberta. This is an egregious violation of sovereignty by a senior US official—worthy of ambassadorial expulsion if a retraction is not forthcoming—and yet, the Canadian government did not publicly respond.

The truth of the threat is simple to say but hard to accept. Under Trump’s leadership, the US administration has become a fascist, imperialist regime opposed to democracy and the rule of law, at home and abroad. And Canada sits squarely in its sights.

For Canada, the diagnosis of the US administration is not academic. It is the difference between managing a relationship with a flawed but crucial ally and planning a campaign of resistance against a powerful neighbour no longer reliably constrained by its domestic institutions.

Unfortunately, we see signs of deference everywhere.

Congress has........

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