~1920 is the peak of the British Empire in term of territory, anyways, the details are meaningless, what matters is that things move fast and just because you're at the top of your game right now doesn't mean you'll be in the same position in 100 years

I could also take the example of world wars, in France ww1 was deemed "la der des ders", which meant "the very last war" or "the war to end all wars", well 20 years later we were at it again

Or simply look at China, you don't even have to go back 100 years in the past to see drastic changes.

Surely based on history the odds of a conflict between neighbouring countries increases with time passed.

It sounds like you’re making the assumption that things will remain static because the alternative is unfathomable to even consider.

This is the wildest interpretation I've ever heard about what's going on right now. Maybe look up the term "soft power" and why it works.

The US admin is very clearly pushing us in the opposite direction. You believe that Trump's actions make war with Canada less likely? What's the mechanistic explanation?

If the US didn't enter WW2, we would have new neighbors. The technology has made the world a small neighborhood.

So the argument is that the neighbors will never ally and be involved in a war that puts US on the opposite side? What is the argument for the sovereign neighbors to always be neutral or on US side come what may?

You understand that for basically every violent entity in the world (except China and Russia), avoiding the US Mil is their best path to success and continued survival?

"War" as a concept does not have to include two militaries fighting each other.

The Nintendo Wii SoC was actually fabbed in Canada and exported, but that facility has changed into something slightly different because the whole east coast/hudson river valley fab world went sideways a while ago.

> We import tons of food and energy from them and have no alternative on time scales or 10 years

More importantly for Canadians that food or energy has no alternative competing market to sell into. Consequently the Canadians are totally dependent on the US market to even set the price of it. This applies to many other sectors as well.

Canada is currently having a huge desperate push to export to non US markets because of the levels of uncertainty that have been created. And I say this as someone not totally dismissive of the US position, but they need to do a far better job of bringing their allies into the tent with them.

Historically there have been plenty of incentives to stop exporting. Its called an embargo. Usually in an attempt to get the host country to change foreign policy, though I can't think of any situation where it actually worked. Examples: Napoleon's "Continental System" against Great Brtain, US oil embargo against Japan prior to WWII, Confederate States of America cotton embargo against the UK during the early years of the American Civil War

At any time, Canada could decide to stop subsidizing its uncompetitive chip makers for the same reason so many people in this thread want the US to do, and the US would then become dependent on someone else who might be their enemy (eg. Chinese occupied Taiwan or China itself).