Lafleur: We live in a dangerous world. Canada needs to bulk up

Makes the standard “bulk up” arguments in favour of a larger population but reality is we will always be significantly smaller than the USA and that the vast majority of us will continue to “huddle along the border.” Other recommendations are more sound but, as always, the diagnostique is easy compared to implementation:

…Make immigration popular again: We should continue to press to attract the best and the brightest from around the world – much like post-war America did. If they’re no longer interested, that’s a major opportunity for Canada. Uncertainty over U.S. immigration policy combined with a general sense of American decline might push some Canadians who might have otherwise moved to Silicon Valley or New York to stay put. Anecdotally, a friend was recently offered a tenure-track job at a well-known American university. Had the offer came six weeks earlier, they might have accepted. It didn’t seem like a great time to move to America, and Canada, too, has excellent universities, so they accepted a Canadian offer instead.

Canadians are starting to think more seriously about geopolitics. We’re concerned about how our own lives will be impacted by tariffs, or civil unrest in the United States, or global conflicts. One of the best ways to adapt to a world where great powers might decide to push around middle powers is to get too big to push around. Not just in population, but in an economic and military sense.

Getting pushed around by mutually destructive tariffs could create some slack in our economy – or worse, a deep recession. We should use that slack to build the things that we need to survive, and the things that can help us thrive. Better that than huddling along the border and hoping that history continues to ignore us.

Building a larger, more muscular Canada can allow us to become a bulwark against tyranny. With America stepping back, it’s more important than ever that Canada bulks up. That means getting more shovels in the ground, much faster. It’s time to build everything, everywhere, all at once so that we can grow our economy and population and reach our full potential.

Source: We live in a dangerous world. Canada needs to bulk up