Sauvé: I served alongside Americans. Now I feel utterly betrayed by them

I served three years as a Canadian liaison officer with the U.S. military. My American colleagues often joked about Canada being the 51st state. I never found it particularly funny, but I understood the sentiment: You’re one of us. It was lighthearted, albeit a little clumsy, but never mean-spirited. When one of them got too insistent, I’d counter with ”How would you like to become the 11th province?” That usually earned me an awkward chuckle, the kind people give when they suddenly realize a joke can cut both ways.

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Then Donald Trump came along, calling Canada the 51st state for the first time and referring to our head of state as a governor. Not for a minute did I think he was simply joking. Soon after, he threatened us with heavy tariffs, branding us as a horrible neighbour who lets in illegal migrants and floods the streets of America with fentanyl. But the very numbers provided by the U.S. administration do not match the claim. The northern border makes up for only a tiny fraction of America’s problem with drugs and illegal immigration.

There is a saying in French: “If you want to drown your dog, accuse it of having rabies.” Trump’s false accusations serve one purpose: paving the way for annexation. If that sounds alarmist, listen to his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon; he speaks openly about it. Why would Trump want Canada? Because that’s how he thinks, plain and simple. Just as he covets Gaza, Greenland and Panama, he sees Canada a piece of land ripe for taking. The Arctic is rich in resources. Controlling Canada’s Arctic, Greenland and the straits around Iceland would give the U.S. a formidable grip on the North Atlantic.

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But even that might be giving Trump too much credit. More likely, he sees Canada as open land for U.S. expansion — much like the Midwest and West Coast were in the 19th century. In his mind, absorbing Canada is just another step in America’s Manifest Destiny.

Our closest ally is threatening to bring our economy to its knees as a step toward forcing us into its fold. As someone who served alongside Americans, I feel a deep sense of betrayal. Friends don’t threaten friends. They don’t scheme to undermine their economy or devise strategies to take their land.

Friends don’t threaten friends. They don’t scheme to undermine their economy or devise strategies to take their land.

Just as I thought of my U.S. military counterpart as my friends, as a nation we think of Americans as our natural friends — and for the most part, they are. But the hard truth is the average American thinks about Canada as much as the average Canadian thinks about … Iceland. I had been living and working in Washington, D.C., for a year before I even heard Canada mentioned on the radio. The host said, ”You know this cold front we’re experiencing? It’s coming from Canada.” That was it.

Make no mistake: we know it is the Trump administration that is threatening us, not the American people. But where are our U.S. friends? Where are the political leaders, veterans, or corporate executives willing to stand up and say: Not in my name. We don’t betray our allies. We don’t do this to our Canadian friends. Their silence is deafening.

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Those who oppose Trump seem too busy chasing the chaos, scrambling to decide which of his policies offends them the most. They seem incapable of mounting a focused response in the flurry of Executive Orders. And let’s be honest, the proposed annexation of Canada is not that high on the opposition’s agenda. Their lack of outrage tells me one painful thing: it doesn’t really offend them.

I feel betrayed. I served alongside Americans, in their homeland and abroad. We took in their planes and passengers on 9/11. We share sports teams. We have an integrated economy. We maintain the longest unprotected border in the world — because we are friends. Yet when the White House threatens us, the American people remain conspicuously silent.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, ”Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Today, that silence speaks louder than words. The indifference of the American elite tells me that Canada’s sovereignty doesn’t really matter to them. The feeling of betrayal is all too real.

Eric Sauvé is a former infantry and intelligence officer. He served from 1992 to 2014.

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