The U.S. raid on Venezuela has raised the threat level in Canada. The immediate concern has been whether it would dent Canadian oil exports, though the bigger worry is if the apparent success of the military operation in Venezuela makes this country next. Donald Trump has never backed away from his suggestion that Canada should become the 51st state, and the White House has laid hungry eyes on our mineral resources.
Just hours after the United States announced it had attacked oil-rich Venezuela and captured its president Nicolás Maduro, the wife of a top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Canada on social media.
“The U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada,” wrote Katie Miller, whose husband Stephen Miller is Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. “Free trade is over.”
It’s a familiar refrain from those within Trump’s orbit, and from the president himself. But the argument has taken on new meaning now that the United States could have access to Venezuela’s staggeringly large reserves of heavy crude oil — similar to what’s produced in Western Canada.
A federal Conservative member of Parliament from Manitoba says Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t have “all the facts in front of him” when he doubled down on threats to pull Crown Royal off shelves.
MP James Bezan, who represents the Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman riding north of Winnipeg, where the whisky is distilled, said Thursday he spoke with Ford on the matter after the premier once again said he would remove Crown Royal from Liquor Control Board of Ontario listings.
“I had to present some of those facts that Crown Royal is proudly made-in-Manitoba whisky. It’s Canada’s number 1 export spirit,” Bezan said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province is home to much of Canada’s auto industry, is warning the Prime Minister against reducing the 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles during Mark Carney’s trip to Beijing next week.
He said China should instead set up EV factories in Ontario. A Chinese EV-maker opened an electric-bus assembly plant in Newmarket, Ont., in 2019, for instance.
The monster of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, is gone. Good. Most can agree on that, despite the trashing of international law employed by the Donald Trump administration to get him.
But as the predator President of the United States warns of toppling other nations – which, for one thing, distracts from afflictions in his own broken country – the task will be much more difficult.
Those hoping for an “elbows up” response from Prime Minister Mark Carney to U.S. President Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela — and his threat to conquer Greenland (and possibly Colombia, Cuba and Mexico) — have been sorely disappointed by the PM’s carefully worded comments.
“Thucydides warned that “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” Carney’s tragedy is that he quotes the rules‑based order while presiding over a country whose economic structure is colonial and whose security ultimately depends on the very power he is theatrically chastising. Posturing without power is not prudence. It is provocation without a plan. And yes it’s dangerous.”
Mark Carney’s and Canada’s Dangerous Refusal to Face Reality.
Mark Carney and most Canadians are behaving as if Canada is an independent pole in a multipolar order, when the world he actually inhabits is a hierarchy being brutally clarified by Washington. Trump’s revamped… pic.twitter.com/2WahDg5rCf
— James E. Thorne (@DrJStrategy) January 7, 2026
The China Class sent Chretien in advance of Carney’s arrival. The Liberal Party should have to register as foreign agents.
Canada's Mark Carney will travel to China next week. It's the first visit by a Canadian PM since 2017, and the next step in a multi-year attempt to recalibrate relations between Canada and China that requires trying to heal some deep rifts, I told @CBCNews. The reality is that… pic.twitter.com/5yqCihDLTY
— Michael Kovrig (@MichaelKovrig) January 7, 2026
Carney may not be working with Trump but he certainly isn’t working for us.
Ottawa, Washington, and the world are eagerly awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Tariffs have been among the key measures Trump has used to reshape U.S. international relations since his second election, often wielding them, or the threat of them, for trade leverage or broader geopolitical aims.
A consumer advocacy group is accusing the Ford government of “weaponizing” the LCBO as the premier promises to follow through on a threat to remove Crown Royal from the provincial liquor retailer in February.
Doug Ford confirmed he would pull the Canadian whiskey from the shelves of the province’s alcohol stores next month to punish international drinks conglomerate Diageo for its plan to close an Ontario facility.
Do we need to beef up security for Doug Ford in 2026?
I ask after the surreal capture of Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro this weekend. It was like a Michael Bay blockbuster with a similar running time. One second, Maduro is planning another defiant dance video. The next, American wizards knock out the lights in Caracas as the skies rumble with F-22 Raptors and heavily armed extraction teams.
h/t Mauser
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is not worried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s previous threats about annexing Canada in light of U.S. military action in Venezuela that led to the capture of that country’s ousted president over the weekend.
“It’s not going to frighten me. It shouldn’t frighten anyone in Canada,” Ford told reporters Monday.
Trump announced on Saturday that the U.S. military had infiltrated Venezuela and apprehended ousted president Nicolás Maduro to stand trial in the U.S. Maduro entered a plea of not guilty to all charges during a court appearance in New York City on Monday on drug-trafficking charges.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he plans to make good on his threat to pull Crown Royal whisky from LCBO shelves following the company’s decision to move some production from Ontario to the U.S.
“Oh, 100 per cent. I can’t wait,” Ford said Monday when asked by a reporter whether he still planned to follow through with the plan.
Prime Minister Carney says we are at a “hinge moment.” He is right. The question is: will we seize it?
Canada is in a period of geopolitical realignment, trade conflict and AI-driven economic upheaval. These forces operate through digital infrastructure, data, platforms and algorithms — most of which are owned and governed by a small number of gargantuan US technology firms.
This is the missing link in our national debate. Big Tech is not just an economic actor; it is now a central vector of American power.
WASHINGTON – A surprise pre-dawn raid on a sovereign country was the opening salvo by an American strongman hellbent on bringing the world’s most resource-rich nations under U.S. control.
In 2025, Donald Trump tested the reach of his authority, faced down the system of checks and balances and dared the world to push back. Meeting no resistance, the twice-impeached commander-in-chief orchestrated his fait accompli, stealing the world’s largest oil reserves with nary an outcry from the international community.
I think Canada will split apart frankly and given the way we’ve been abused by the Liberal Government this past decade that’s not really such a bad thing.
So long as Trump deports the migrants I’m good.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In 2020, then U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer described the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement (CUSMA) as the “new gold standard against which all future trade agreements will be judged,” after the deal he helped put together was passed in the Senate. Six years later, in 2026, CUSMA will be facing scrutiny on its real-world results as the three countries begin renegotiating its terms.
