But if you stop looking at the surface-level noise and look at the actual chess pieces moving across the board over the last decade—and specifically the last few years—all roads lead to Beijing. The Americans are deeply, fundamentally uncomfortable with the Chinese Communist Party’s creeping influence in North America. And frankly, they are sick of Canada playing footsie with our continent’s primary geopolitical adversary.

To cut through the Ottawa bubble, I sat down with an absolute heavyweight in global security diagnostics: Michael Lucci, the CEO and founder of State Armor and a governor-appointee to the Texas Advisory Committee on Geopolitics. As the CUSMA (USMCA) review talks pick up steam here this month, Michael laid out a chilling reality check that every Canadian—left, right, and centre—needs to hear.

The Art of the Divorce: Why Tariffs are Actually Security Weapons

The biggest mistake Canadian politicians make is assuming tariffs are just about economics. Michael shared a story from his time in Germany last year that perfectly illustrates the shift in American foreign policy.

Back in 2018, Donald Trump stood before the United Nations and explicitly warned Germany to stop buying Russian natural gas, telling them they were directly funding a future military invasion of Europe. The German delegation famously laughed at him on camera. Fast forward to today: the Germans aren’t laughing anymore. They admitted to Michael they got it wrong.

But here is the lesson the Americans learned from that embarrassment: If you want a Western ally to take national security seriously, you don’t ask nicely. You bring a tariff with you.

“What if Donald Trump had told Germany in 2018, ‘I’m hitting you with a 30% tariff, and if you want it to go away, stop buying Russian gas’? The Germans told me, ‘We would have stopped buying it immediately.’ That is the calculation driving America First foreign policy today.”

Under the America First Investment Policy memo, the rules are explicitly written: the U.S. will grant better trade terms and access to American technology based entirely on how a country aligns with them regarding China. For years, Canada has coasted along, spending barely 1% of its GDP on defense while Washington begged us to secure our perimeter. Now, the U.S. is done begging.

The Bipartisan Wall: The Midterm Myth Debunked

I want to speak directly to the left-leaning folks here, because you are being fed a dangerous coping mechanism via the CBC. The prevailing narrative in Ottawa is that Canada just needs to hunker down and survive until the U.S. midterms, hoping a Democratic wave will sweep away Trump’s aggressive trade policies.

Let me make this loud and clear: The Democrats are not coming to save us.

Michael reminded us that it was actually President Joe Biden’s Department of Commerce that drafted the sweeping rules banning Chinese auto software and hardware. Trump didn’t reverse those rules; he implemented them. There is a total, ironclad bipartisan consensus in Washington regarding the CCP threat.

Consider what’s happening right now behind the scenes:

• The Section 301 Investigation: The U.S. currently has an active federal investigation into Canada where they’ve recently concluded that there is forced labour in our supply chain

• The Democratic Auto Block: Democratic Senators, including the Senator from Michigan, are actively introducing legislation to block cars coming out of Canada. Why? Because Canadian auto supply chains are becoming so integrated with Chinese components that the U.S. views Canadian-made vehicles as rolling Chinese surveillance risks.

If you think a change in Congress changes this trajectory, you are dreaming. You aren’t negotiating a trade deal with Congress; you are negotiating with the White House. And if the absolute wildest conspiracy theories of the anti-Trump crowd came true and JD Vance took the reins, Canada would find itself dealing with someone even more hawkish on these security loopholes as Michael Lucci shared.

Mark Carney’s Dangerous Double Game

This brings us to the man of the hour, Mark Carney. It is highly ironic that a global leader so utterly obsessed with lecturing the world about “values” talks out of both sides of his mouth depending on his audience.

Last week in New York, Carney gave a speech tailored for American ears, claiming “Canada Strong can make America Great Again.” But just months earlier, Carney was openly talking about partnering with China in a “new world order.” When asked about the U.S.-condemned genocide in communist China, Carney completely ducked the question. Instead, he oversaw the creation of a new “strategic partnership” with Beijing.

The Americans see right through it. While the U.S. officially lists China as its number one adversary, Carney is bringing them into our shared backyard.

Even worse is the situation regarding domestic policing. It is now a matter of public record that the CCP operates illegal secret police stations—known as Operation Fox Hunt—to hunt down, harass, and repatriate Chinese dissidents living on Canadian soil. The RCMP and Canadian police explicitly objected to renewing agreements with Beijing’s security forces 3 years ago. Yet, Carney and the Liberals are shoving a renewed partnership down the throats of law enforcement anyway.

If Canada continues to signal that we are a safe haven for CCP espionage, the U.S. will cut us off. Period.

Industrial Decoupling and the “Dual-Use” Threat

Let’s look at the raw mathematical leverage the Americans hold over us.

• China accounts for a pathetic 3.8% of Canadian exports. They are a rounding error.

• The United States accounts for 65% to 80% of Canadian exports.

To make matters worse, look at how fast the U.S. is successfully divorcing China. In Biden’s last year, the U.S. imported $440 billion from China. In Trump’s first year back, that plummeted to $310 billion. Right now in 2026, the U.S. is on pace to drop that to $245 billion. Relative to economic size, America’s trade with China is a fraction of Canada’s, which sits at a massive $66 billion USD.

Michael’s warning to Canada was blunt: If we do not align on security, the U.S. should—and will—completely sever our shared industrial supply chains, particularly in the automotive sector.

Why? Because of a concept called dual-use. In times of peace, an auto plant builds commuter cars. In times of global conflict, those exact same factories are converted overnight to build bombers, tanks, and light tactical vehicles. If Washington cannot verify whose side Canada is on structurally, they cannot risk keeping their military-industrial apparatus intertwined with ours. They will keep buying Alberta oil and potash because it makes geopolitical sense, but the manufacturing partnership will die.

The Endangered Species List

If you want to know how serious the U.S. is about protecting its continental perimeter, look at how Trump is systematically targeting what Lucci calls China’s “axis of troublemakers” in our hemisphere.

Look at the timeline: Late last year, China conducted provocative practice invasions surrounding Taiwan. Exactly three days later, a Chinese delegation landed in Caracas, Venezuela, to meet with Maduro. They woke up the next morning to the sound of America’s Delta Force removing Maduro from power.

From dismantling Chinese intelligence installations in Cuba to forcing the removal of Chinese port cranes in the Panama Canal, the message from Washington is unmistakable:

“If you want to get yourself on the endangered species list, declare yourself to be an ally of Xi Jinping anywhere near the United States military.”

The Subnational Infiltration

Michael’s organization, State Armor, doesn’t wait for Washington to act. They work state-by-state, getting Chinese spies out of state houses and securing local water utilities from CCP hackers.

This is the exact blueprint Canada’s provinces need to adopt. Beijing has a specific, documented strategy of subnational infiltration. If Ottawa is too compromised or too slow to protect the country, leaders like Premier Doug Ford or the leadership in British Columbia need to stand up at the provincial level to harden our local infrastructure and supply chains.

The baseline reality is simple: the Americans want a trade deal with Canada. They want a “Fortress North America” that can stand independently against the rest of the world. But you cannot bring the Chinese Communist Party into our shared backyard and expect the neighbours not to lock the gate.

It’s time for Canada to grow up, pick a side, and if they don’t; expect the Summer of Love to pick up in intensity.

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Ammon isn’t your stereotypical “loud American.” He’s humble, reserved, and incredibly dangerous to the status quo because he has the data to back up the dread we’ve all been feeling. We moved past the basics and got into the grit of how the CCP, Mexican cartels, and organized crime in Canada have created a seamless web of criminality that our politicians are completely failing to acknowledge.

Here is the breakdown of the most groundbreaking revelations from our sit-down.

1. The ‘Tactical Alliance’: Texas Law Enforcement Meets First Nations

The most shocking part of our discussion wasn’t a statistic; it was a story of a “ground-up” alliance that bypasses the federal “mom and dad” who can’t stop fighting long enough to secure the house.

While the Trump/Carney administrations have been busy with high-level hand-wringing, Ammon and his task force in Texas did something radical: they invited the North to the South. In December, two First Nation chiefs—Chief Swamp from Akwesasne and Chief Zacharie from Kahnawake—travelled down to the Texas border. Why? Because they realized that if they didn’t secure their own territories, nobody would.

Breaking the Silos

Ammon’s team took these chiefs on a week-long operational immersion. We’re talking:

• On-the-ground surveillance training to identify smuggling routes.

• Tactical gunboat operations with the Texas DPS.

• Shared Intelligence: The chiefs sat before a task force of 64 law enforcement agencies and laid out their problems.

As Ammon put it, “While mom and pop are fighting, the kids have to figure things out.” This isn’t just a feel-good story; it’s a tactical necessity. The cartels see the Akwesasne territory as a wide-open gap. By training these chiefs in the same counter-insurgency tactics used in Texas, they are building a “bridge at the tactical level” that bypasses the bureaucratic rot in our federal capitals.

2. The ‘High-Tech Cartel’: We’re Bringing Knives to a Drone Fight

We need to stop thinking of cartels as primitive groups of “drug runners” in the woods. According to Ammon, we are facing hybrid threats—organizations that function more like foreign intelligence services or parallel governments than street gangs.

The tech gap Ammon described is terrifying. While Canadian and American agents are still “following sign”—literally tracking broken brush and footprints like it’s 1850—the cartels are operating in the future.

“In one sector alone in Texas, we’ve had over 60,000 drone incursions from Mexico since October. They have access to Pegasus spyware. They are making as much money on cyber operations now as they are on narcotics.”

The cartels are out maneuvering law enforcement at every turn. They aren’t just smuggling; they are conducting counter-intelligence. They use coercion and corruption to control socioeconomics on both sides of the border. When we treat them as mere “traffickers,” we lose. We need to start treating them as the foreign terrorist organizations they are—groups that control 80% of the populated areas of Mexico and are now effectively “taxing” legitimate businesses and land owners in our own backyards.

3. The ‘Mutual Failure’ Critique: Flipping the Blame Game

Usually, the border conversation is a finger-pointing exercise: Americans blame Canada for being a “sieve” for extremists, and Canadians blame America for the flow of guns. Ammon flipped the script.

He was incredibly candid: Neither side is secure. The Missing Denominator Ammon pointed out that the metrics used by politicians to claim the border is “secure” are fundamentally flawed. They point to “apprehensions” or “seizures.” But as any math student knows, you can’t have a percentage of success if you don’t know the denominator.

• We don’t know how many people/drugs are crossing.

• We don’t have “Domain Awareness” of the air, electromagnetic, or cyber space.

• We are using Vietnam-era sensors to fight 21st-century insurgencies.

It is a mutual failure of sovereignty. Both nations have allowed their borders to become seamless for criminals while becoming more restrictive for the average law-abiding citizen.

4. The Trucking Routes: From Sinaloa to Ontario

We touched on a topic I’ve been vocal about: the Khalistani trucking routes. Ammon confirmed that his task force is seeing a massive overlap between legitimate trade and illicit smuggling.

Because of USMCA guidelines, there are “non-domicile” CDLs (commercial driver’s licenses) being sold in Mexico to foreign nationals from all over the world—including people who can’t pass a driving test in the US or Canada. These drivers then move “narco-subsidized crops” (like avocados and citrus) across our borders.

Ammon’s team used dual authority—combining Sheriff power with Department of Agriculture checkpoints—to open up these trucks. What they found were Canadian plates on trailers coming straight from South Texas, driven by individuals with ties to these extremist smuggling networks. They are using our own supply chains against us.

5. The Solution: Sovereignty or Dependency?

The interview ended on a heavy note: Sovereignty.

Ammon argued that the cartels thrive on the “globalist system.” They want us to be dependent on foreign nations for our food, our auto parts, and our clothes. When we can’t feed or water our own populations, we lose our agency.

• Mexico is the #1 criminal marketplace in the world.

• The cartels are in 100 different countries.

The only way to win is to move toward a “Canada First” and “America First” mentality—not as a slogan, but as a survival strategy. We need to domesticate our supply chains to eliminate the “leverage” these criminal organizations have over our daily lives. If we don’t need their narco-subsidized crops, we take away their primary cover for moving poison into our communities.

Final Thoughts

This conversation with Ammon Blair was a wake-up call. It’s easy to get lost in the “Summer of Love” political drama in Ottawa, but while the politicians are arguing over terminology, guys like Ammon are on the river, watching the drones fly over.

The “Tactical Alliance” with the First Nations chiefs gives me hope. It shows that when the top is rotten, the bottom can still hold strong. We need to secure our own communities, listen to our neighbours, and acknowledge that the enemy isn’t just at the gates, they are driving the trucks.

Watch the full interview here:

Now, the legacy media is already out in force, doing the heavy lifting for the PMO. You’re going to hear the word “technical” a lot. “It’s a technical recession,” they’ll say, as if the word “technical” acts as a magical cushion to soften the blow of a shrinking economy. But let’s be clear: you can fluff the pillows all you want, the bed is still made of nails. The reality is what the reality is. We are in a recession.

The Numbers Don’t Lie (Even if the Liberals Try)

StatsCan reported this morning that economic growth stalled in the first quarter, leading to the second consecutive decline in real GDP. Let’s look at the gory details: we saw a 0.1% decline in the first quarter of this year, following a revised 1% drop in the final quarter of 2025.

That is the definition of a recession. But it’s worse than that. Three of the last four quarters in Canada have posted negative growth. While the government’s defenders will point to the 0.1% and claim it’s “marginal” or “nominal,” they’re ignoring the trend. Under Mark Carney’s leadership over the last year, the economy has shrunk in three out of four quarters.

While the rest of the G7 managed to find a way to grow—despite global headwinds and tariffs—Canada is the outlier lagging behind. You have to ask yourself: Why us? Is it some mysterious global force that only hits the 49th parallel, or is it the strangling policies of a government that prefers buzzwords over building things?

The Carney Distraction

It all makes sense now. Yesterday, Mark Carney stood up and uttered the words “Make America Great Again” in relation to Canada’s strength. It was inflammatory. It was calculated. At the time, we wondered why a man of his supposed intellect would throw such a blatant piece of red meat into the gears of the Canadian political machine.

One potential reason could have been this. He knew these numbers were coming. He needed a “big bang” communications distraction to take the edge off the recession news. He pulled the biggest lever he had—invoking the MAGA brand—to ensure that today’s headlines would be split between his rhetoric and the economic ruin he’s presiding over. He’s trying to redefine the narrative before the narrative defines him.

It’s a tactic straight out of the Joe Biden 2022 playbook. Remember when the U.S. hit a recession and the Democrats spent weeks trying to redefine what a recession actually is? Carney is doing the same thing. The problem for Mark? His numbers are actually worse than Biden’s were.

The Great Divide: A Tale of Two North Americas

To understand how badly we’re being outpaced, you have to look at GDP per capita. This is where the “marginal” 0.1% talk falls apart.

In 2024, the U.S. GDP per capita was around $86,000. Today, it’s over $94,000—roughly a 9.5% growth rate. In that same window, Canada went from $59,598 to $60,298. That’s a whopping $700 increase, or about 1.2%.

When the Liberals tell you “it’s not that bad,” they are asking you to ignore the fact that our neighbours are sprinting while we are barely crawling through the mud. You feel this every time you walk into a grocery store. You feel it when the power bill hits your inbox. You feel it when you realize a mortgage is no longer a rite of passage, but a pipe dream. Canadians have felt like they’ve been in a recession for two years; the official numbers are just finally catching up to the reality of the kitchen table.

Pierre Poilievre Speaks from the Heart

On a Friday when Parliament Hill is usually a ghost town, Pierre Poilievre held a press conference that landed well. He’s been saying the right things for a long time, but sometimes the “policy speech” framing can feel a bit detached. Today was different. He dropped the script and spoke to the emotion of the moment.

Poilievre correctly pointed out that Carney is the only G7 leader who can claim a recession on his watch. France, Italy, Germany, the UK, the US—they all face the same global factors. They all face the same tariffs. Yet, only Canada is underwater.

The highlight for me was when Pierre addressed Carney directly, echoing Carney’s own patronizing “look inside yourself” comment to a Rosemary Barton. Poilievre said:

“Mark Carney will claim that this is just technical. There’s nothing technical about having an empty stomach because you can’t afford the worst food inflation in the G7. There’s nothing technical about coming home from work and telling your kids that you no longer have a job. This is a full-blown Liberal recession.”

That is the winning formula. It’s about marrying the data to the lived experience of the 2.2 million people relying on food banks. It’s about the 120,000 people who lost their jobs this year. Excuses don’t fill stomachs.

The “Summer of Love” is Heating Up

We’ve joked about the “Summer of Love” for the Liberals, and boy, is it delivering. We have Steven Guilbeault quitting, internal caucus revolts with 14 MPs reportedly feeling uncomfortable, and now the “Banker Brand” of Mark Carney is being exposed.

His entire political identity is built on two pillars: 1) He’s the smart numbers guy who can fix the economy, and 2) He’s the sophisticated diplomat who can handle Donald Trump. Currently, he’s presiding over a recession and his “MAGA” outreach has been a cringeworthy disaster. If those two pillars crumble, what’s left of the Carney brand?

Who’s Running the House?

To cap off a disastrous week, look at what’s happening with the Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit. We’re hearing reports from journalists like Mickey Djuric that the PMO is letting the Chinese delegation dictate media access on our turf, on Parliament Hill.

It’s a metaphor for the whole administration: a total lack of control, a total lack of transparency, and a total disregard for the people they are supposed to serve.

The bottom line is this: the Liberals can call it “technical” all they want. They can try to distract us with slogans about Canada Strong. But at the end of the day, you can’t eat a slogan, and you can’t pay your mortgage with a “technical” revision. This is an unraveling of the Carney experiment. Canadians are waking up to the fact that the “smartest guy in the room” may just be very ordinary.

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Watch Friday’s full episode here:

The Mutiny Within: 14 MPs and the Pipeline Problem

The big story that broke Friday morning is that the “honeymoon” for Mark Carney is officially over. We found out that 14 Liberal MPs have penned a formal letter to the Prime Minister, and they are not happy. They’re raising hell over the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Carney signed with the Alberta government regarding pipeline development.

They’re calling it an “environmental backslide,” but let’s call it what it really is: it’s the radical wing of the caucus realizing that Carney isn’t the “Net Zero” savior his books promised he’d be. What’s most fascinating to me is the timeline. It took Justin Trudeau nearly a decade to see this kind of coordinated, written dissent from his own people. Mark Carney has managed to lose his grip in just 13 months. This tells me the “Carney Miracle” was a fugazi from day one—a temporary coalition of people just trying to save their own jobs, not a group with a shared vision for the country.

CBC and the “Anonymous” Shield

There’s a piece of this story that I find peculiar, and it’s how the media is handling it. Radio-Canada got the letter, but they’ve chosen to keep the names of these 14 MPs anonymous.

I have to ask: Why is the CBC protecting them? These people signed their names to a document intended for the Prime Minister. If they’re bold enough to threaten the stability of the government over a pipeline, Canadians have a right to know who they are. As I discussed on the show, I agree with Ben Maloney’s take here: by shielding these names, the CBC is carrying the water for the Prime Minister. They’re keeping the public from seeing exactly where the fractures are. It’s not “constructive” to hide; it’s cowardly. If you want to take a stand, stand in the light.

Alberta: Democracy vs. “Madness”

We also took a long look at the situation in Alberta. Premier Danielle Smith is moving forward with a fall referendum to see if Albertans even want a vote on separation. Now, she was very clear: she’s a federalist. She wants the country to stay together. She’s just asking the people what they think.

But if you watch the CBC from Ottawa, you’d think she was starting a revolution. I played a clip of Robert Fife calling the move “total madness.” He dismissed 20% of the population as “MAGA separatists” and wondered why the Premier was “aiding and abetting” them.

This is exactly why Alberta is where it’s at! For decades, people like Fife and the Ottawa establishment have laughed in Albertans’ faces and squelched their voices. Now they’re shocked that people are angry? It’s not “madness” to ask for a vote; it’s democracy. If you’re so sure it’s only a small minority, then have the vote and put it to bed. But they won’t, because they’re terrified that the frustration is actually the majority.

Carney’s “Sophie’s Choice”

The bottom line of the week is that Mark Carney is trapped in a corner of his own making. He’s facing a binary choice that could end his majority:

1. Placate the 14 MPs: He can kill the pipeline MOU to keep the “Green” wing of his party from jumping ship. The Result? He might save his caucus for a few months, but he will effectively lose Alberta forever and push them toward the exit.

2. Stick with the Pipeline: He can do the right thing for the economy and Western unity. The Result? Those 14 MPs could cause some chaos for him over time.

Carney thought he could be all things to all people—the international banker, the environmentalist, and the pipeline pragmatist. But you can’t ride two horses with one backside, folks. The seams are fraying, the duct tape is peeling, and we have a front row seat to all of it.