Canadian podcast host Stephen Marche argued on Sunday that it may be time for Canada to end its relationship with the United States over the Trump administration's dismantling of democracy.
"The question is how to extricate ourselves from America, and how painful that will be," Marche wrote in a New York Times essay.
The "Next Civil War" author cited President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on Canada as well as his repeated desire to acquire the country as the "51st state" as evidence that the U.S. is "no longer a country that keeps its agreements" and has begun to "backslide out of democracy."
"As America dismantles its elite institutions one by one, that aspirational connection is dissolving. The question is no longer how to stop comparing ourselves with the United States, but how to escape its grasp and its fate," he wrote.
Journalist Stephen Marche once suggested war between America and Canada is not inconceivable under the Trump administration. (Left: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images; Right: Rich Graessle/NHLI via Getty Images)
Marche argued that Canada’s first shipment of liquefied natural gas to a South Korean port and ongoing importing deals with China last month prove the country is able to compete on the world stage without relying on the U.S. He suggested that Canada can also be a model for other countries.
"We can show that multiculturalism works, that it remains possible to have an open society that does not consume itself, in which divisions between liberals and conservatives are real and deep-seated but do not fester into violence and loathing," Marche wrote. "Canada will also have to serve as a connector between the world’s democracies, in a line that stretches from Taiwan and South Korea, across North America, to Poland and Ukraine."
Though most of his criticisms were against the Trump administration, Marche claimed that America itself is in the "middle of a grand abdication" as Democratic governors "try to get along" with the president. He quoted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s assertion earlier this year that Canada’s "old relationship" with the U.S. was "over."
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has spoken out against President Donald Trump's tariff deals and talks about becoming the "51st state." (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
He concluded, "Canada has experienced the second Trump administration like a teenager being kicked out of the house by an abusive father. We have to grow up fast and we can’t go back. And the choices we make now will matter forever. They will reveal our national character. Anger is a useful emotion, but only as a point of departure. We have to reckon with the fact that from now on, our power will come from only ourselves."
In May, Marche suggested that a war between the U.S. and Canada was no longer inconceivable.
"I think when countries are in constitutional crisis, and when their legal system starts to fall apart, as America’s legal system is falling apart, violence against neighboring countries is very common," Marche said on MSNBC. "To me, it’s very intimately tied with this talk about being a third term president, right? That’s exactly out of the playbook of authoritarian governments around the world."
"Canada really does need to think about protecting ourselves from the United States, and making sure that we’re not just a snack," he said.