Fox News host doubles down on bizarre idea to invade and liberate Canada

Controversial Fox News host Tucker Carlson raised eyebrows north of the border earlier this year, when the far-right on-air personality suggested that the United States should invade its closest ally, friend, and trading partner in Canada, and — in his words — “liberate that country.”

And now, Carlson is doubling down with his outlandish suggestion, releasing a trailer for a short film that advocates for the overthrowing of the Canadian government via military intervention.

Back in January, the brash, bow-tied pundit asked a guest on his program, “So I have to ask you about Canada, and what we saw happen there last winter, the trucker protests, and then the crackdown by the authoritarian government of Canada.”

Carlson went on to advocate for “a Bay of Pigs operation to liberate that country,” in reference to a failed 1961 US-backed invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro by Cuban exiles.

“Why should we stand back and let our biggest trading partner, the country with which we share the longest border — and actually, I should just say, I love Canada, I’ve always loved Canada, it’s a great country for its natural beauty — why should we let it become Cuba? Why don’t we liberate it.”

Fox News host says U.S. should invade and ‘liberate’ Canada in bizarre rant https://t.co/UoUjXqnkrI #Canada

— blogTO (@blogTO) January 27, 2023

Carlson’s comments in January drew intense criticism, but the news host appears undeterred, and has released a trailer for a new documentary titled “O, Canada!”

Tucker Carlson is about to release a new short film called ‘O, Canada!’

The trailer implies that the U.S. needs to liberate Canada from tyranny, like Iraq or Libya. https://t.co/j9O7lIQJZH

— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) April 17, 2023

“For more than a hundred years, the United States has, as a matter of policy, opposed dictatorships around the world. But what if tyranny arrived right next door?” asks Carlson, about a democratically-elected government that just so happens to believe in different things than him.

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“Would we liberate the people living under authoritarian rule?” asks Carlson, of a country which arguably offers more democratic freedoms than the United States.

If you have the urge to forcibly “liberate” people that score higher on democracy and are happier than you, I think we need to have an intervention and explain to him that the word he really means is “conquer”

— The Grand Odditor (@TheGrandOdditor) April 17, 2023

A trailer for the film begins with quotes from three former US presidents, including two from the Democrat party that Carlson frequently attacks, before showing a rapid succession of clips from US-led military interventions interspersed with clips of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Unsurprisingly, comments posted on the YouTube clip uploaded by Fox News are overwhelmingly in favour of Carlson’s stance, though commenters on other social media platforms like Twitter are much less forgiving.

Like Carlson’s previous suggestion that Canada needs to be liberated from tyranny, a few are being reminded of the 1995 comedy film, Canadian Bacon, which satirized US-Canadian relations in a similar light.

I love John Candy… and as hilarious a film as it was, do we REALLY need a real world imitation of Canadian Bacon?

— Bleeding Blue (@notyourdox) April 17, 2023

Carlson’s trailer was released on Saturday, and has since garnered almost 150,000 views on YouTube.