Canadian military planners recently conducted a rare conceptual war game simulating a US invasion of Canada, reportedly the first of its kind in about a century, according to a report by The Globe and Mail.
The scenario, described as highly improbable by officials and experts, was explored amid heightened rhetoric from US political figures. In the exercise, planners reportedly assessed that US forces could seize key Canadian strategic locations within a week, potentially in as little as two days.
A key precondition for the simulated invasion was an American declaration to end airspace-sharing cooperation through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which would give Canada up to three months' warning of a potential ground and naval assault.
Faced with superior conventional forces, the Canadian strategy envisioned employing irregular warfare tactics, such as ambushes and sabotage by small cells of non-regular forces or armed civilians, inspired by tactics used by militant groups in Afghanistan, to inflict mass casualties.
Retired Lieutenant-General Michael Day called the idea of a real US invasion "a fantasy." He noted that while Canada's military could not match US forces in a head-on conflict, occupying a country as vast as Canada would pose a significant challenge for the United States.
