Lmao ...Going against China militarily for any reason is one "way out of bound " premise .
First of we would never initiate it for any reason and China would NEVER initiate it as someone has to pay attention to the geopolitical game at play which includes the world power to the south of us .
Can anyone imagine the USA allowing China any action in North America ? A Chinese fleet wouldn't make it to a 1000 miles to the Pacific Northwest.
Let's be serious ! It doesn't matter how under equipped we are at this point . That scenario is impossible.
Economically that would be a different story but again we have such a trade deficit with them that they have more to loose than we do at the end of the day.
While you are correct that China has more to worry about than little ol' Canada, they have been building up their military capabilities a great deal in the past decade or more. China used to prioritize economic development, and though they always had an enormous number of soldiers, they did not have the "power projection" capabilities of the USA, or Russia, or even the UK. That has changed - they are recently devoting a lot of resources and effort to higher tech warfare doctrines, a powerful blue water navy, and a generally more belligerent relationship with other nations. Xi Jinping is a very belligerent and rapacious leader, so relations with him will be bad because that's just how he is. However, even without him in charge, China has made a decisive turn towards being a superpower, and that means the one next door to us doesn't like it. The US wanted to dominate the world alone after the Cold War, but the world is now pushing back and of all the ones capable of matching them, China is it.
However, China's recent bad behaviour is also making enemies, and you can count Canada among them. Once we had wanted to partner with them in business and so on - both parties in government did try this idea - but now people are sick of China's "do what we tell you or else" attitude, so the business community lobbying for making deals with China is now being ignored. Basically, the bridges got burned, and not by Canada.
What that means for Canada is that now we have to boost up our counter-espionage at home, boost up our military presence in the Pacific (and Arctic - China has even been making claims up there, even though they have no history up there and no right to claim anything), and get ready to take on China diplomatically in places like Africa. I mean basically it is a new Cold War, and even if Russia is being the angry bear right now, it is the dragon that is growing, learning, and preparing for conflict.
Saying we can just rely on the US is a big mistake - they protect only their interests, not ours. Both Trump and Biden have made it clear that any deal we have with them can be discarded the moment they feel like swindling us to please their domestic audience.
If we needed their help with a Chinese military incursion, they might "help themselves" to Canada's territory instead, and that is just as bad as China doing it to us.
Superpowers are empires, and empires act this way. They measure things by what they can get away with, not what is right. Power for them means control by them; power for us means having the power to control ourselves.
Now if only our moronic political parties could speak honestly & plainly about this to the public, instead of constantly trying to use it as a wedge issue to fuck with each other politically.
