Could Canada be a National Security Threat to the United States

Sure. All we'd have to do is sign a mutual defense treaty with Russia and China, and Donald J. Trump seems to be driving us in that direction. Then the USA would have Cuba and Canada to worry about.

I want to look at the situation from a purely military standpoint. Could Canada equip and field armed forces capable of beating the United States? Let's look at the numbers.

Gross Domestic Product vs Population

I love numbers. I really do. Look at this.

Canada is the tenth largest economy in the world. Note that I'm using US Dollars throughout, since that's what my sources have. Let's look at population.

What, no Canada?

Wow. We are all the way down at 38th! Let's look at country size.

Second largest country on the planet. Which isn't important. I just wanted to include it.

So what do the numbers show? I loaded the top 35 countries by GDP, added the population numbers, and got this.

So the United States has the world's biggest GDP, and has a GDP per person score of $62,370.51. Canada has the tenth highest GDP, and a GDP per person score of $48,437.33. Not quite as good. Makes the USA look hot, right?

Now that's interesting. The Socialist countries of Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, and Denmark all out produce the United States. Canada too. Maybe we are doing something wrong...

Let's look now at the military budgets of the larger countries.

The USA is the big spender. Where's Canada?

Ah, there we are, in fifteenth spot. Effectively to become a serious threat to the United States we'd have to spend a lot more on defense than we are right now.

Yes, we could do it. Spending $568 billion on defense to equal the USA is possible with our economy. In fact it would probably be a big boost to the economy. There are a lot of countries looking at the USA right now and asking if the USA can be trusted when it comes to arms sales. Can we say export opportunity?

In fact I have no doubt that folks in Ottawa are considering banning any American participation in our fighter purchase program. If they aren't, they damned well should.

Which is pretty sad. We've been good neighbors for a long time, and now wacky Uncle Donald seems to want to throw all that away.

Regards

Wayne Borean
Monday June 11, 2018