Canada Mobilizes
Author: Greg Valliere
February 25, 2026
There wasn’t much news coming out of the State of the Union address last night — the heckling of Donald Trump was quite docile.
So we’ll take a look at a story that we never would have seen a few years ago: Canada is ramping up on defense. Yes, Canada, which was vilified earlier this decade for not contributing enough to NATO.
This morning’s Politico quotes Canadian defense Minister David McGuinty as stating recently that global uncertainty is driving a surge of Canadians to enlist in the military.
“Applications are up because Canadians want to serve,” McGuinty said earlier this week. He wants to increase military housing; in the past eight months there’s been a 13 percent increase in new recruits to the Canadian Armed Forces.
The recruits are very engaged in the project called ‘Canada’ right now, he said. “I think they want to make sure Canada remains a secure and sovereign country.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to spend billions on defense; he has pledged that by 2035 Canada will meet the 5 percent benchmark that Trump demands.
This is quite a transformation for Ottawa. Quite clearly, Trump’s thuggery has backfired spectacularly as Carney steers Canada in a different direction.
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