{"id":914052,"date":"2026-09-29T12:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914052\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:30:13","slug":"retired-general-on-risk-of-u-s-military-action-against-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914052\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired general on risk of U.S. military action against Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 A former commander of the Canadian Armed Forces says he considers the risk of U.S. military action against Canada to be remote, but he acknowledges the fact that risk exists at all as a sign of the rapidly changing global security environment. <\/p>\n

Retired general Wayne Eyre, who served as chief of the defence staff between 2021 and 2024, made the comments in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos while promoting his new memoir, \u201cInto the Breach: A Soldier\u2019s Journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the prime minister said, it was extreme tail risk: so very, very small probability,\u201d Eyre told Kapelos, when asked about Prime Minister Mark Carney telling The New York Times<\/a> he had considered the possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump could order military action against Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"Wayne Eyre Then-Chief of the Defence Staff Wayne Eyre responds to a question during a news conference on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023 in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld) <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the jobs of military planners is to imagine those possible scenarios, and you can only develop plans for so much in terms of putting the five Ws to something,\u201d Eyre said. \u201cAnd so you go from the imaginations (and) conceiving step to fleshing out a plan. Well, you have to decide: What is more probable? What is more likely? Where are you going to put your effort?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say this is a small probability. I\u2019m not inside the tent anymore, so I don\u2019t know what the current direction is,\u201d Eyre added.<\/p>\n

That said, the retired general said U.S. military action against Canada was never considered a probability when he was \u201cinside the tent.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the very fact that we are talking about it now shows how significantly the security environment has changed,\u201d Eyre said. <\/p>\n

Carney sat down for an hour-long interview with The New York Times<\/a> last week, and his response to a reporter\u2019s question asking if he was ever \u201cseriously concerned\u201d about a potential military threat to Canada made headlines around the world. <\/p>\n

\"\"Prime Minister Mark Carney rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld Prime Minister Mark Carney rises during question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Adrian Wyld <\/p>\n

A transcript of the interview published by The New York Times notes the prime minister paused before answering. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a responsibility in these roles to look at extreme tail risk,\u201d Carney told The New York Times. \u201cSo, and as the tail fattens when a leader of a country threatens your sovereignty, you adjust accordingly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just risk management,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s not a base case, but it would be irresponsible not to take certain things into consideration.\u201d <\/p>\n

When a reporter followed up and asked whether he had made certain preparations for potential military action, Carney responded: \u201cI\u2019ll leave my answer where it was.\u201d <\/p>\n

Carney has not spoken with Canadian media since sitting down for the interview with the U.S. news outlet.<\/p>\n

\"\"Trump Canada US trade deal U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin) <\/p>\n

Canada-U.S. relations have been strained since the very beginning of Trump\u2019s second term, with the two countries locked in a worsening tit-for-tat trade war punctuated by the U.S. president\u2019s consistent mocking approach to Canadian sovereignty.<\/p>\n

After bilateral trade talks collapsed in August, Carney told reporters in Ottawa that Canada was \u201cat war\u201d with the United States over trade and accused the Trump administration of making demands that would infringe upon Canadian sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday that Canada was treating the U.S. unfairly and said he believed Canada will fold on the trade dispute in the next \u201cthree to four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 A former commander of the Canadian Armed Forces says he considers the risk of U.S. military…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-914052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}