I just spent eight days in Canada attending the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) in Whitehorse. After seeing how their country is run, I now understand why President Trump is threatening to make Canada the 51st state.

First, the disclaimer. Every Canadian I met was polite and friendly, even the protestors. The venues were world-class, new and well-maintained. The people there were wonderful hosts, and I appreciated the hospitality they showed us. They put on a fantastic event, and for that I am grateful.

However, Canada isn’t acting like a responsible independent country. I say this based on what I saw. Canada is the country-sized equivalent of the 30-year-old kid with no job, living in his parents’ basement. We all know someone with a kid like this who says he can’t afford to chip in for rent or groceries but somehow finds the money to buy a brand-new Xbox, while complaining about how badly his parents treat him. That’s Canada.

Canada is a socialist country, which its citizens voted for and like. They believe their system of government is superior to that of the United States. I even met two Canadian retirees who were employed in the U.S. for most of their working life, then emigrated back to Canada when they retired. They said they did this to access the free Canadian medical system. They never paid a penny into it during their careers but were more than happy to take advantage of the system that Canada taxes its workers to pay for. That is Canada in a nutshell.

Another example of the fiscal profligacy of the Canadian government was the lavish Canada Games Center in Whitehorse, where many of the AWG events were held. It is the largest venue of its kind in northern Canada, with facilities for basketball, hockey, figure skating, an indoor running track, racquet sports, a must-see-to-be-believed indoor water park, and meeting rooms. For recreation, this place has everything you could ask for, and yet Whitehorse is smaller than Fairbanks, with little tax base to support it.

There is only one way Canadians can enjoy free healthcare or extravagant sports facilities. They acquire them the way our NATO allies do; Canada spends little money on its military and uses the savings to fund its lavish social programs. It knows that the United States will defend it in times of trouble. One example is the complicated radar system the U.S. built around Canada to warn of an attack by Russia or China. They are literally surrounded by expensive American-built radar systems on all their coastlines, enjoying the protection of America’s military, with the majority of the costs paid by the U.S.

Ironically, the danger to Canada isn’t from attacks from outside its country; it is the sympathy it shows for people who hate the USA. I talked with Canadian protestors at the Arctic Winter Games who were opposed to the U.S. war against Iran and were waving Palestinian flags to show sympathy for the Iranian government. Palestinian flags? Iran? That evidently makes sense to a Canadian protestor.

Many Canadians support Iran. Last week, Canada allowed Iranian Cleric Hojatoleslam Morteza Tayebi to enter the country after fleeing the Iranian war. This individual has dual citizenship in both Iran and Canada. He is not alone in this respect. Reports are that Canada has allowed over 700 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to enter their country. The government has admitted that it knows of at least 28 IRGC terrorists in the country who should be deported, but its own ineffective legal system makes it difficult to do so. In the last three years, they have only been able to deport one of these individuals.

The result of this policy is about what you might expect: an increase in terrorism in their country. Just a few days ago, on March 14, one day after the Iranian mullah entered the country, two Iranian regime loyalists murdered an Iranian dissident in Vancouver. Masood Masjoody was an Iranian freedom advocate who used his position as a professor at Simon Fraser University to speak out against the Islamic regime running his former country and to urge support the U.S. intervention against it. Masjoody was killed by two Iranians loyal to the IRGC. You have to wonder how long it will be until similar acts of terrorism leak across the border into this country.

The United States could probably tolerate a neighbor that mooches off of us, as long as they were a reliable ally. However, with their demonstrated tolerance for terrorists, Canada is starting to act like the deadbeat kid in the basement, who invites criminal friends over for a party. At some point, the parents need to lay down the law, get the kid to put down the game controller, and act like a responsible adult. That is what President Trump is trying to do when he threatens to make Canada the 51st state. We should pray that he is successful.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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