You want to know why Canada still exists despite having a fraction of the manpower or military of the United States?
It’s because the United States likes Canada. We think they’re fun to have around.
That’s an abstract question to try to answer; it’s not like we sit around and ponder about y’all for hours on end but someone says “This is my friend Bill from Canada” and you just think “Oh cool.”
On a societal level, we share the world’s longest international border, we’re massive trade partners, like, most of the Northwestern hemisphere’s best comedians come from Canada…we like Canada, we think they’re fun to have around.
Yeah, that’s my impression too. It’s more like you never sat down and thought about annexing us to start with; at least this side of WWII. We’re pleasantly familiar feeling and stay out of the way, so there’s no reason to.
Hopefully you know that “your country only exists at my pleasure” is not a compliment. I read this as a deliberate jab at first, but now I’m not so sure.