​Donald Trump threatens to wreck Canada’s economy and end this country’s independence. Yesterday’s Globe & Mail headlined: U.S. president-elect Donald Trump talks of using ‘economic force’ to annex Canada. Trump was asked if he would use military force to acquire Canada.“No,” he said. “Economic force.”

NBC News reported the President-Elect believes military force might be required for the USA to take control of Greenland and Panama.

​We’ve tended to ignore the ramblings of America’s lunatic-in-chief, but his threats should not be overlooked. Trump’s way is not a new style for the USA; it is a turn toward practices that have long been a part of American behaviour.

Columbia Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs was asked if the U.S. under Trump was challenging the global order. Dr. Sachs’ response:

​The “global order” from the point of view of the US is US hegemony.  There is nothing new about this with Trump.  Trump just plays these cards with “allies” as well as with “adversaries.” It’s US hegemony all the same. 

US hegemony through threats and through force of course goes back to the end of World War II, for example, including the US overthrow of Mossadegh (1953) and Arbenz (1954) and the US assassination of Lumumba (1961).  The US manages its imperial system through CIA-led subversion (such as Iran, Guatemala, Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine), Israeli wars backed by the US (most recently in Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria), NATO-led wars (Serbia, Libya and many others), assassinations, coercive economic sanctions, and other forceful means. 

ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America is an online magazine. Its parent institution is Harvard’s Center for Latin American Studies. In 2005, the journal reported:

In the slightly less than a hundred years from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government has intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America a total of at least 41 times. That amounts to once every 28 months for an entire century (see table).

During the Presidential campaign, Trump remarked that Canada was “aimlessly” pouring water into the Pacific Ocean when it should be diverted into the USA. Fresh, clean water may be the main reason the American government wants to turn its northern neighbour into a more obedient puppet state.

Several members of the party expected to form the next government in Ottawa are enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump and his cohort. Canadian resistance to American hegemony may be negligible.