BBC News headlined it "Mark Carney says he has considered possibility of US military action against Canada". New York Post headlined it "Canada PM Mark Carney confirms he’s prepped for US invasion: ‘Would be irresponsible not to’". Fox News headlined it "Canadian PM Carney says he was prepared for Trump ordering invasion".
Mark Carney has said that he considered the remote possibility of the United States taking military action against Canada. "I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk. That’s just risk management. That’s not a base case,"1, Fox News said.
He described this as a matter of prudent preparation rather than an expectation that such a scenario would actually occur. "I think you have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk. That’s just risk management. That’s not a base case,"1, Fox News added.
Carney also connected the moment to a broader shift in how closely Canada should rely on its longstanding economic partner. "The past 40 years has been a period of deeper economic integration with the United States. Truth is, it was easy business, but it meant we relied too much on one economic partner. It’s clear that time is over,"1, Fox News said.
He suggested that decades of close economic integration had made things easier but had also left Canada overly dependent on a single partner, and that this period had come to an end.
Separately, historical context has been raised recalling an early twentieth century Canadian military plan devised in case of conflict with the United States. New York Post noted: "Following World War I, the head of Canadian military intelligence, Lt. Col. James Sutherland Brown, conceived “2Defence Scheme No. 1,” laying out a pre-emptive strike on the US in the event of a conflict between America and the British Empire."2
