Category: Economic Security

Trump is threatening to block the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor and Detroit

Trump said Monday, February 9, 2026, he will not allow the opening of a new bridge and trade route connecting Ontario and Michigan until the US is “compensated for everything we have given” Canada. In a lengthy anti-social post on his platform, Trump called for immediate negotiations over the bridge between Windsor and Detroit, saying he would seek US ownership of “at least one half of this asset.”

The Gordie Howe International Bridge is publicly owned by both Canada and the state of Michigan, with Canada funding the entire project.

Sources:

Trump’s anti-social post Monday February 9, 2026: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116043090074364624

MSC Report asserts Europe needs to be more assertive and militarily independent from the US administration

The Munich Security Report 2026 warns the greatest challenge to the liberal international order is “coming from within” through the dramatic shift in the current US administration that no longer shares a commitment to liberal democratic norms, values, and its alliances.

The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. Sweeping destruction – rather than careful reforms and policy corrections – is the order of the day. The most prominent of those who promise to free their country from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild a stronger, more prosperous nation is the current US administration. As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction.

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Trump again threatens Canada with more tariffs, decertification Bombardier and all Canadian airplanes

Trump said on Thursday January 29, 2026, the US was “decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all aircraft made in Canada” and threatened a 50% import tariffs on all aircraft made in the country until such time as Canada certified a number of airplanes produced by Gulfstream, an American company.

Transport Canada is the agency responsible for Canadian certifications.

There are 150 Bombardier Global Express aircraft in service registered in the US operated by 115 operators and 5,425 total aircraft of various types made in Canada in service registered in the US.

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As the world inches back to a pre-WW2 order, the ‘middle powers’ face new challenges

In any age of economic stagnation and extremes of inequality, popular trust in democratic institutions corrodes. It has been corroding not just in the US but across the Western world for decades now. As such Trump may be a symptom, not a cause, of Carney’s “rupture” with the post-World War Two order.

Watching those old men making their way through the Normandy cemeteries was a graphic and poignant reminder that democracy, the rule of law, accountable government are not naturally occurring phenomena. They are not even, historically speaking, normal. They have to be fought for, built, sustained, defended.

And that is the challenge from here facing what Mark Carney called “the middle powers”.

Source:

Allan Little, BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99kkerr93ko

Prime Minister Mark Carney warned “compliance will not buy safety” in a world where the rules-based order has collapsed

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Mark Carney urged middle powers to unite against coercion from aggressive superpowers, warning “compliance will not buy safety” in a world where the rules-based international order has collapsed.

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Trump escalates tensions, posts AI generated image of US flag over Greenland, Canada, Cuba, and Venezuela

Trump posted a doctored image on social media early Tuesday morning showing the president surrounded by European leaders in the Oval Office with a map displaying Canada, Greenland and Venezuela covered in the US flag. The photo was one in a string of posts from the president overnight.

Screenshot-2026-01-20-Trump-posts-doctored-image-of-U.S.-flag-over-Canada.png
Screenshot-2026-01-20-Trump-posts-doctored-image-of-U.S.-flag-over-Canada.png
Donald Trump says ‘no going back’ on Greenland takeover plan | BBC News

Source:

Mark Colley, Toronto Star: Trump posts doctored image of U.S. flag over Canada, Greenland https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/trump-posts-doctored-image-of-u-s-flag-over-canada-greenland/article_61baa2ca-210a-4526-941c-fa2f54026a10.html

2025 was the third hottest year on record

2025 was the third hottest on record and stood on the cusp of surpassing a major climate threshold globally, according to new data from Copernicus, the European climate agency.

The data indicates 2025 was about 1.47 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels, following 2024’s record-setting 1.6 degrees. When 2023 is added to the mix, it’s the first three-year period on record to exceed 1.5 degrees, the data suggests.

2025 was a hot year. What did it mean for Canada?

Chatham House Director warns ‘This does mark the end of the Western alliance’

Bronwen Maddox, Director and Chief Executive of the Chatham House international affairs think-tank, gave her annual lecture at the institution’s London headquarters on January 13, 2026, said, ‘We have had from President Trump what amounts to a revolution. He has given the US a radically new role in the world and – at the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – a role that rejects the principles on which the US was founded: that government should be accountable to the people.’

Maddox added, ‘Most profound, we have had the rejection of principles of international law that the US helped forge – even if it often declined to apply those to itself. Venezuela brandished that rejection to the world, followed by the President’s intention to acquire Greenland.

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Canadian Coast Guard to build a new maintenance facility in Sydney to service icebreakers

Mike Kelloway, the Liberal MP for Sydney-Glace Bay, made the announcement on behalf of Defence Minister David McGuinty on Tuesday at the Canadian Coast Guard Academy.

The new facility will be “a next step towards continued strategic investments in Canada’s security and sovereignty in the Arctic,” Kelloway said before a crowd of about 200 coast guard officials, politicians and business and industry leaders.

“By strengthening our Arctic presence, we are protecting vital national interests and reinforcing Canada’s ability to respond to challenges in one of the most important regions for our future.”

Source:

Tom Ayers, CBC: Coast guard selects Sydney harbour for icebreaker maintenance facility https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/coast-guard-selects-sydney-for-icebreaker-maintenance-9.7043609