The Annexation of Canada Isn’t a Joke. It’s Trump’s energy strategy—our entry into a slow-burning dystopia where climate, sovereignty, and consent are traded for minerals.

As always - thoughts expressed here are my own and it's unlikely they reflect those of my employers or Associations with which I am associated.

I grew up on dystopias. Orwell taught me the price of forgetting. Bradbury warned me what happens when we burn our memory to the ground. Shirley Jackson reminded me that violence often hides behind ritual. I read these stories when I was too young to fully understand them, but old enough to feel the chill.

That feeling is back.

It started as background noise—Trump’s talk of annexation, blustering through a rally. But to me, it was never a joke. This is a man who said, when he was back in power, he would rewrite the rules. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. Elon Musk and DOGE, threatening universities, ICE deportations, and environmental regulations out the door.

Elon Musk arrived in Washington as the most powerful political outsider ever. The chaos he unleashed inside the federal system will reverberate.

Trump, meanwhile, called Harvard University “a threat to Democracy.” His administration has frozen billions in university funding.

Simultaneously, he is preparing to escalate private ICE deportations, aiming to remove one million people annually—a mass deportation plan priced at over $45 billion.

The EPA, under Trump, recently undertook what Administrator Lee Zeldin called "the most momentous day in the history of the EPA" with 31 deregulation actions. “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said, while pledging to unleash American energy and bring auto jobs back to the U.S.

The first time Trump mentioned invading Canada, I remember trying to write about it. I said he was dangerous—to democracy and to us, next door. But a producer waved it off: "I don’t get it. Is it a joke? Is it serious?" I said, "Both. But it’s not funny."

He told Justin Trudeau he wanted Canada’s critical minerals. Like I said, he told us who he is. I believe him. This isn’t about deal-making bravado. This is strategy.

The 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office spells it out: 75% of the minerals used in American weapons systems come from China. These include titanium, tantalum, tungsten—materials that enable high-performance military technology. Yet, many of the sources are controlled by U.S. adversaries.

The U.S. does have reserves. But most recovery projects—from coal ash, geothermal brines, mining waste—are still in early stages. Almost none are commercially viable.

“Due to factors such as high fixed costs and unstable prices, potential recovery project operators may be uncertain that their investments will be financially viable,” the GAO states.

Meanwhile, China dominates the refining supply chain and offers cheap production, economies of scale, and vertical integration. Their dominance isn’t accidental. It’s structural.

And if the China tap is turned off? The GAO warns:

“If China or another country were to restrict access to a critical mineral, it could adversely affect U.S. national defense and the economy.”

That’s where Canada comes in.

The minerals exist. They’re just not in America.

They’re here. In Canada. Under boreal forest. Along riverbanks. Beneath hunting trails and traplines. On lands held under treaty and lands that were never ceded. Places where people still gather roots and raise their children, and still mourn what was taken the last time a government said, this is necessary.

Annexation doesn’t have to come with tanks. It comes with trade deals and moral cover stories about saving the planet.

Pierre Poilievre was always going to fast-track the extraction industry. He has promised to unleash Canada's natural resources, bulldoze red tape, and push pipelines and mines through environmental reviews.

But the surprise is Mark Carney. The banker. The moral economist. The former central banker who once gave speeches about ethics in markets. He now promises a streamlined "One Window" approval process for megaprojects. It’s meant to increase competitiveness. It’s also meant to reassure global investors.

Both men say Indigenous rights will be respected. That environmental standards will be upheld. That Indigenous communities will share in the revenue.

Sara Olsvig of the Inuit Circumpolar Council warned that more than half of the world’s mineral deposits lie on or near Indigenous lands. "We can only imagine how huge a pressure there will be," she said.

This is not a test of whether Indigenous people will say yes to resource revenue. It’s a test of whether anyone—leaders, institutions, voters—will say no to empire. How do we resist Oceania? Do we sing 'Under the Spreading Chestnut-Tree'?

At COP29, interveners said mineral demand could rise by as much as 30 times. We will need 300 new mines just to meet that need. But critical minerals and the growing demand are not about EVs or solar panels, or saving the planet by mining it - not really.

This isn’t a replacement of fossil fuels. It’s an addition. Galina Angarova said it plainly at the United Nations: “We believe that we're going to replace fossil fuels, and it's not happening. It's not true. Energy that is being generated by alternative sources—it’s just being added to the grid.”

The real driver of demand isn’t climate. It’s AI. And weapons. And weapons that use AI.

Meanwhile, we're missing our climate targets. According to the latest UN emissions report, global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, and the world remains on track for catastrophic warming levels well above the Paris Agreement targets. In response, major financial institutions that once boasted net-zero pledges have begun to retreat. A Reuters investigation revealed that banks are watering down their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) commitments, quietly dropping emissions targets and delaying timelines for compliance. Meanwhile, in the United States, Trump has gutted California’s landmark climate regulations. His new executive order strips the state of its authority to impose stricter emissions standards, undermining one of the few aggressive climate programs that remained after his first term.

Instead of progress, we’re watching retreat.

The dystopia I see isn’t a metaphor. It’s a map

It looks like the Capitol in The Hunger Games dragging wealth out of 13 impoverished districts—and maybe Canada is District 2, the mineral vault. It looks like The Matrix, where we are hooked into AI-driven systems, feeding the machine while the planet dies.

We are not transitioning. We are being extracted.