In a stark assessment of the nation's standing, commentator Conrad Black has issued a warning that Canada's near-total omission from the United States' core strategic document is a symptom of a deeper national crisis. Black's analysis, published on December 20, 2025, follows his review of the Trump administration's statement of strategic purpose, a document he notes is routinely published by new U.S. administrations.
A Glaring Omission in Washington's Blueprint
Black reveals that while the strategic statement drew criticism from both 'Fortress America' isolationists and wary Western European allies, his primary concern lay elsewhere. The document, which outlines American global priorities and identifies friends and foes, mentions Canada only once. This solitary reference stands in jarring contrast to the profound geographic, commercial, and cultural ties binding the two nations.
"A number of other countries are also overlooked," Black concedes, "but none of them has as intimate a geographic, commercial, and cultural association with the United States as Canada does." This oversight, he argues, is not a cause for celebration but a troubling indicator of Canada's diminished relevance on the world stage.
The 'Hedge Fund' Nation: A Scathing Internal Critique
To illustrate the domestic roots of this international invisibility, Black cites a pointed email from a Jewish Canadian friend. This correspondent offered a bleak diagnosis: Canada is less a cohesive nation and more a Liberal Party-managed entity, resembling "a hedge fund supported by an image consulting firm."
The friend's central thesis, as relayed by Black, is that the unifying force allowing this structure to persist is persistent anti-Americanism. This sentiment, he suggests, masks a national inferiority complex and prevents the country from maturing into a confident, self-defined partner. The friend's grim century-ahead prediction was stark: "In 100 years, I believe there will be an Israel. I cannot say that there will be a Canada in its current form."
158 Years of History, Zero Strategic Weight
Black frames this moment as a historic paradox. Canada, after 158 years of confederation, boasts uniquely durable political institutions and is the world's only transcontinental, bicultural, parliamentary federation. Yet, it remains overwhelmingly preoccupied with a powerful neighbour that now finds no reason to acknowledge it in a foundational strategic plan.
"We are certainly happy enough not to be present" as an obstacle or point of concern, Black notes. However, he finds this absence deeply unsatisfactory. He criticizes Canadian leaders for engaging in "somewhat juvenile histrionics and pyrotechnics" about defending national sovereignty, while failing to command enough respect or attention to merit a single substantive comment in America's principal strategic blueprint.
The ultimate peril, as framed by Black, is not American hostility, but American indifference. Canada's struggle to define a vocation beyond critiquing its neighbour has, in this analysis, rendered it strategically invisible—a fate he implies is far more dangerous than being a noted rival.
