Derek Burney, Canada's ambassador to the U.S. from 1989-1993, says Donald Trump will likely be America's next president.

In a Globe and Mail column titled, "Brace yourselves: Trump is going to win," Burney and Fen Osler Hampson, director of Global Security at the Center for International Governance Innovation, write:

"Canadians and our media have watched U.S. primary season with a mixture of incredulity, disbelief, horror and smugness. The conventional wisdom here … is that Donald Trump doesn't stand a chance …

"The problem is that the conventional wisdom has been consistently wrong since last June. Many thought Mr. Trump would implode during the Republican primary. He didn't. Many thought his reality-TV-show persona and foul-mouthed campaign style would eventually wear thin with voters. It hasn't."

Burney and Osler say "Trump understands the angry mood of America better than his Washington-based Republicans, which is why he is the last man standing."

But he adds that Canadians should be "deeply worried" about Trump's threat to blow up the NAFTA trade agreement and "disabuse ourselves of the notion that [he] would treat Canada differently from Mexico …

"Canadians … have to start thinking the unthinkable – a Trump presidency that shatters the most foundational element of our foreign policy, the way we have managed relations with the United States over the past 60-odd years."

Related Stories:

• Canada Introduces Bill to Protect Transgender People
• Prince Harry, Canada's Trudeau Mark Wounded Soldiers Event