That would also make it a lot harder for the Canadian government to track whether pro-American annexationists are amassing guns. We can’t assume everyone who wants a gun is a Canadian patriot, especially if the US ramps up hybrid warfare techniques to stir up unrest here.
I really wish stores simply marked products that were made in the US. It would be so much easier to avoid American-made products that way. I know brands are allergic to any form of messaging that’s perceived as negative, but the vast majority of us are currently allergic to anything that’s made in America.
Trump is already trying to extend anti-diversity mandates to French companies that supply the US government, and at some point soon it’s going to hit Canadian companies. There’s a very real chance that in certain cases, complying with his demands would violate Canadian human rights laws.
It’s time for companies to start picking sides - will you comply with the laws of the country you’re in, or will you voluntarily let Canada become the 51st state?
Which just means mass protests aren’t big enough. It’ll take a while, but eventually they’ll realize that with enough mass mobilization missing work and going into debt become irrelevant.
Unlike a lot of other countries where there’s been mass mobilization, there’s little recent memory of serious government oppression. Americans have generally had it pretty good when it comes to civil liberties over the last half century or so. They assume they can trust institutions like the courts to do the work of protecting democracy. So most people don’t realize how much worse things will get if they don’t actively resist now.
I don’t know why everyone assumes the use of military force to annex Canada would take the form of a massive conventional invasion. Hybrid warfare approaches like spreading misinformation, covert ops, stirring up local pro-American militias, etc. could do 95% of the work, without the sort of overt violence that generates insurgencies.
It’s very possible to defend against hybrid threats, but only if we recognize the threat exists instead of assuming a US invasion would necessarily be a catastrophic strategic blunder.