How Trump Is Breaking the World's Most Peaceful Border

Days after reports of a $500 million suspicious deal with the UAE, another shocking story emerged: the Trump administration is actively encouraging Alberta's separatist movement as a step toward annexing parts of Canada.

Jason Kenney, former Premier of Alberta, recently revealed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Prime Minister Mark Carney that if he doesn't "mind his p's and q's," perhaps the US would "invite Alberta to be part of the United States."

This isn't just diplomatic bluster. It's a calculated threat against America's closest ally—and it's working.

Why Alberta Matters

Alberta holds the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world. Its 180 billion barrels of accessible crude represents a prize that dwarfs most OPEC nations. The province supplies 60-65% of US oil imports—10 times what America gets from Saudi Arabia and five times more than all of OPEC combined.

"Compare your investment options," Kenney told me. "Guerrilla warfare, kidnappings, and power outages in the jungle, or staying at a Westin hotel overnight and driving safely to the oil fields?"

The problem? Alberta actually has a separatist movement, with a referendum scheduled for later this year. Some separatist leaders have confirmed meetings with Trump administration officials in Washington, according to the Financial Times.

The End of the World's Longest Peaceful Border?

What makes this extraordinary is the context. Until Trump, getting Americans to pay attention to US-Canada relations was nearly impossible. It was the geopolitical equivalent of the quiet kid in the corner reading a comic book—no drama, no problems.

Now Trump has declared Canada should become the "51st state," threatened military force, and imposed punitive tariffs treating Canada like a major source of drugs and illegal immigration—which is "patently absurd," as Kenney puts it.

Canada remains the most important trading partner for 24 US states and the only source of fertilizer for American farmers. The economies are completely integrated.

Yet Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced plans to relocate "the entire North American automobile industry" from Canada to the United States.

Pushing Allies Into China's Arms

The predictable happened. Prime Minister Carney flew to Beijing and signed a limited tariff deal with China—reducing Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for relief on agricultural exports.

The irony is staggering. Canada had originally imposed the same tariffs on Chinese EVs that the US did, at America's request. When China retaliated disproportionately against Canada, recognizing it as the weaker link, Canada absorbed the pain as part of its alliance with the United States.

"Trump's greatest achievement in his first term was resetting Western policy toward China," Kenney observed. "Now he's doing the opposite—forcing Europe, Canada, and others to turn back toward China and reverse that progress."

European leaders are also "beating a path to Beijing" as Trump threatens traditional allies with economic warfare.

Military Trust Erodes

The damage extends to defense cooperation. Canada committed to buying 88 F-35 fighters, but Trump's declaration that "foreign purchasers will get less-capable versions" than the US Air Force has triggered a strategic review.

Carney is now considering Swedish Gripen fighters alongside the F-35s. "If there's a kill switch on American equipment, that's a sovereignty problem," one defense analyst explained.

Norway faced the same dilemma with naval frigates. After Trump's kill-switch comments, they chose British ships over American ones. "We don't need the world's best frigate," a Norwegian official said. "We need one better than Russia's. And we need to trust our supplier."

The Bigger Picture

This represents the collapse of a 40-year consensus favoring closer US-Canadian integration. From the 1980s through the 2010s, both countries' major parties supported deeper ties on everything from trade to defense to energy.

That consensus is now shattered. As one Canadian observer put it during the 1980s free-trade debates, Canada faces a choice: "be a big small country or a small big country." Trump's hostility is pushing Canada toward the former—a kind of "greater Belgium" rather than a "lesser Britain."

"There are people in their 20s who will carry memories of the Trump administration to the end of this century," David Frum noted. The damage may be generational.

The world's longest peaceful border is becoming a case study in how quickly trust can collapse—and how hard it is to rebuild.