Are there U.S. military bases and American troops in Canada?

An honour guard marches in formation with U.S. and Canadian flags after the arrival of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. on July 8, 2024. (AP / Mark Schiefelbein)

The U.S. military has more than 165,000 troops deployed in over 170 countries and territories worldwide – including Canada. The American military also operates hundreds of overseas facilities and bases in places like South Korea, Germany and Greenland.

President-elect Donald Trump says he hasn’t ruled out using military force to seize Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. The remote and resource-rich island hosts a U.S. Space Force base and 139 American troops.

Trump has also mused about turning Canada into the 51st U.S. state.

While there are no American bases in Canada today, 156 active-duty members of the U.S. military are deployed in the country, according to the latest data from the Pentagon’s Defense Manpower Data Center.

Why are there U.S. troops in Canada?

Nearly 50 of them are members of the U.S. air force who serve alongside Canadians at bases in North Bay, Ont., and Winnipeg as part of Norad. Short for North American Aerospace Defense Command, Norad is a binational defence group responsible for protecting Canada and the U.S. from incoming attacks.

“The operation of Norad requires close cooperation between the U.S. and Canada,” Carleton University international affairs chair Stephen Saideman told CTVNews.ca. “There are Canadians based at Norad H.Q. in Colorado, and, yes, it is quite normal for American military personnel to be serving in Canada mostly to facilitate the Norad relationship.”

Other American military members in Canada occupy a wide range of roles, including serving as defence attachés at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, studying at our military colleges, and coordinating with Canadian troops and officers across the country.

American military personnel in Canada include 69 members of the U.S. air force, 36 from the navy, 29 from the army, 15 from the Marine Corps, four from the Coast Guard and three from Space Force. Canada previously hosted U.S. military installations during World War 2 and the Cold War.

“Canada and the U.S. have a long-standing and well-developed exchange programs where soldiers are deployed on the other country’s territory,” Carleton University political scientist Aaron Ettinger told CTVNews.ca. “This is an essential part of the mature, North American defence relationship.”

Should Canadians be concerned about U.S. troops?

In the runup to his second inauguration, Trump has floated the idea of using “economic force” to make Canada a part of the U.S., much to the irritation of Canadian leaders. Experts widely dismiss Trump’s jibes about absorbing Canada and say Canadians should not be concerned about U.S. military personnel on our soil.

“Canadians should be no more worried than Europeans are about the tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in Germany,” Ettinger, a U.S. foreign policy expert, explained. “Trump’s comments are just trash talk.”

The 156 U.S. troops in Canada are just a tiny fraction of the American military’s global footprint, which numbers 165,830 active-duty members overseas, plus another 23,722 reservists and national guardsmen. The 13 states that border Canada, meanwhile, are home to 277,363 U.S. soldiers, reservists and national guard members combined, according to Pentagon data. The Canadian military’s total strength is less than a third of that, with approximately 63,000 regular members and 22,000 reservists.

The Pentagon and Canada’s Department of National Defence did not respond to requests for comment.

“U.S.-Canada defence is strong and represents one of the finer forms of bilateral integration there is,” Military College of Canada associate political science professor Frédéric Labarre told CTVNews.ca. “This partnership in defence is likely to endure in spite of Mr. Trump’s ambitions and imaginings.”

Rob Huebert, a political science professor and defence expert at the University of Calgary, says Trump’s comments and actions could disrupt what is one of the most integrated defence partnerships in the world.

“We serve in their military and they in ours in a host of roles,” Huebert told CTVNews.ca. “If Trump moves to cause political pressure, it would ironically disrupt the close coordination, but short of a major military invasion – which I could not see – any move to increase American control would disrupt where we are already integrated.”

As an example of that integration, a Canadian rear admiral currently serves as vice-commander of the U.S. navy’s east coast and north Atlantic fleet.

“As often stated, the two countries share the longest peaceful border in the world, and the two countries have fought alongside each other in the major wars of the past 100 years,” Saideman, who is also the director of the Canadian Defence and Security Network, said. " This partnership requires much peacetime interaction so that things can operate well in wartime… So, it is not unusual but quite normal for American military people to be based in Canada."