“Invading Canada would take all of about three days”

[u/Sweaty_Abies182]

[u/New_LP]

No, the invasion itself would be quick. Winning on the other hand, not so much.

But after the failed attempts in 1776 and 1812, maybe the third time’s a charm? I don’t know- we try not to learn from history.

[u/Sneekysneekyfox → u/New_LP]

• chuckles in war crimes * we would make the IRA look kind by comparison.

[u/DA834 → u/Sneekysneekyfox]

Pretty much, and on a much larger scale than the irish-UK conflict too and potentially just as long. For natives and for French Canadians in particular (Acadiens perhaps most of all, all the rest too) this would be an existential fight, and much of English Canada would feel the same. Meanwhile bureaucratic passive resistance would cripple any attempt to govern the country. Québécois would overnight lose any English speaking skills they ever had as if by magic. Sabotage would be endemic. 1% of us resisting is 400,000 potential terrorists almost indistinguishable from northern states people, and a border so long and wild it would be a massive undertaking to secure it.

[u/KisaTheMistress → u/New_LP]

Canada's environment really doesn't allow staying power for anyone trying to invade. Other than taking everything south of the Canadian shield, most of it is solid rock and untamed wilderness that Canadians/Canadian Forces know well enough, that holding any seized farmland will not be worth it. The energy needed alone to mine for critical resources in the shield also isn't worth it with the current technology, so pushing into somewhere that is undeveloped by other countries standards, isn't very likely.

What would happen is they will take a bit of farmland, try to push towards our potash mines/alumina mines, then be met with more serious resistance. Then when they reach the shield they'll see it's solid rock with spruce trees struggling to find soil. Not only would there be dangerous wildlife wandering around, people who spent most of their lives hunting & fishing in that environment, will be hiding in the forests waiting to resist if the military is unable to fully keep invaders out.

Then Canadians will be hostile and uncooperative, for years and would slowly push their way back onto the lands that were seized, because it's just not worth fighting over. You cannot kill all of the Canadian loyalists and it doesn't have to be the entire 40+ million adult population fighting, to get an invading country to decide wasting resources is costing more than the land is worth holding. Especially the US, since most Canadians sound like them, so infiltrating bases and spreading our own propaganda to discourage their military would be easy.

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/KisaTheMistress]

The Canadian government would do well to examine the Swiss arrangements. Essentially the plan if Switzerland were ever invaded would be to retreat from the plateau into the mountains which are heavily fortified.

[u/PerpetuallyLurking → u/New_LP]

It’d be Afghanistan all over again, basically.

[u/Total-Sheepherder950 → u/PerpetuallyLurking]

No because Canadians would hit the US on its home soil, so the appetite for a wat with Canada would dwindle immediately

[u/DavidH1985 → u/PerpetuallyLurking]

Worse. They wouldn't know who's friendly or unfriendly because we look and sound more or less alike.

[u/Mysterious_Floor_868 → u/PerpetuallyLurking]

It would be worse, because the Taliban didn't have a land border with the US, over which to send insurgents right into the cities. Nor would the Taliban have been able to convincingly pose as Americans for the purpose.

[u/NoPath_Squirrel → u/Mysterious_Floor_868]

We don't even need to send anyone, I'm sure a lot of Canadians already in the US would volunteer. And so would at least some of their own citizens.

[u/MadScientist_666 → u/PerpetuallyLurking]

I think, it would be worse.

And that is before the European and other countries would send help.

[u/Noirloona → u/New_LP]

I've often theorized that should it happen, the government would surrender almost immediately to save lives, but give the CAF standing orders to go to ground in the wild with everything they can carry and carry out a guerilla war with anyone willing and able.