Defence minister downplays PM’s comments on prospect of U.S. military action

OTTAWA – A day after Prime Minister Mark Carney told a U.S. media outlet his government has studied the possibility of U.S.-led military action in Canada, Defence Minister David McGuinty said all militaries consider such risks.

“It is normal. All militaries in the world spend time analyzing risk scenarios,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

McGuinty downplayed the significance of comments Carney made to the New York Times on Wednesday indicating Ottawa has examined the possibility of American military action.

Carney told the New York Times he would not discuss in detail what that examination involved, but suggested it would be irresponsible not to prepare for what he called “extreme tail risk.”

McGuinty said the government would not be going into any detail about what such an analysis entails. 

He also declined to comment on how Canadians should interpret Carney’s comments. 

“They should take it as described by the prime minister, a tail risk,” he said.

McGuinty said Canada and the United States have one of the most important military relationships in the world, having co-operated for decades to keep North America safe.

U.S. President Donald Trump has spent the better part of the last two years repeatedly asserting he wants to make Canada the 51st state, though he has insisted he would do it through what he called economic coercion, rather than military force.

In January, the Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Armed Forces had modelled a hypothetical U.S. military invasion of Canada, which they described as a “conceptual and theoretical framework” rather than an actual plan.

That news came as Trump had repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland. In more recent weeks Trump has posted AI-generated images of all of North America covered by the U.S. flag, including Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Central America and much of the Caribbean.

In September, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, was asked by a reporter at a news conference in Victoria whether he would ever follow an order from Trump to invade Canada, and he quickly dismissed the idea.

“I find that scenario to be absolutely and utterly preposterous. I follow the orders of the commander-in-chief but that is a needlessly emotional question,” he replied.

Conservative MP Ellis Ross told reporters Thursday that Carney’s comments were irresponsible.

“That’s stoking fear and division, and that’s uncalled for, given what we’re going through right now,” he said. “Canadians are faced with affordability, crime, drugs, and so what do we do? Let’s get Canadians fearing an American invasion.”

He said it was “very irresponsible for a leader of a first world country to come out and say that about another first world country.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2026.