The United States of Canada
Think of the hockey — and the electoral advantage for Democrats

I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut — tremendous tax cut because they are very highly taxed — and you wouldn’t have to worry about military, you wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things. You’d have better health coverage. You’d have much better health coverage.
— President Donald Trump, Jan. 24.
Before you say “there he goes again,” maybe we should take some time to consider what a combination of the United States and Canada would mean.
First, it would improve our hockey teams (men’s and women’s) in the Winter Olympics, and it would almost certainly boost our prospects for medaling in curling, where Canada has generally outperformed the United States.
Second, Canada is a bilingual country, so combining the two countries would add to our diversity and multiculturalism. Canada, like the United States, is a country of immigrants, and Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are great cities.
Third … um, there is no third. There is no reason for Canada and the U.S. to merge. Canada is its own country with its own history, and talk about the U.S. taking over Canada or Greenland or the Panama Canal is just plain stupid.
During one summer when I was in graduate school at the University of Connecticut, I had a job as a customs agent. I was stationed in Lubec, Maine, and I worked on the bridge connecting Lubec to Campobello Island, Canada.
The island was famous for being Franklin D. Roosevelt’s summer retreat, but a handful of Canadians lived on the island year-round. My job was to monitor people coming into the U.S. from the island. We never worried about illegal immigrants or drug smugglers. Mostly, I was concerned about the Lubec softball league I was in.
Anyway, a few years later I found myself doing research and writing about Canada. My doctoral dissertation focused on Canadian-American integration/interdependence — from trade and foreign investment to television viewing and immigration, paying particular attention to Canadian restrictions intended to protect Canadian culture and the nation’s economy.
I published one article from my dissertation, “The Impact of Affluence: Restrictions on Foreign Investment in Canada,” in the American Review of Canadian Studies (Volume 9, Issue 2, 1979), but only a year or two later I found myself in Washington, D.C., writing about congressional elections rather than international relations.
Since then, I did many interviews on American elections and politics for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and I made a friend of one of the great Canadian journalists, David Halton, who is the son of one of the greatest foreign/war correspondents in Canada’s history (Matthew Halton).
None of this makes me an expert on Canada or Canada-U.S. relations, but at least I know something about our neighbor to the north. Donald Trump seems to know nothing.
If there is no reason why Canada would want to become part of the United States, why not have the U.S. become part of Canada?
Canada has a terrific flag. I really like the Maple Leaf. Sure, the U.S. flag has lots of stars and three colors, but I’m pretty sure we would need to combine the two flags.
“O Canada!” is a great national anthem, but Canada actually has two national anthems — “O Canada” and “God Save the King (or Queen).” Not only that, but Canada has both an English and French version of the songs.
Some of the biggest “American” celebrities were born and/or grew up in Canada.
Singers/performers include Paul Anka, Michael Bublé, Shania Twain, Celine Dion, Diana Krall, Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young.
Comedians include Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Mike Myers and Eugene Levy, while performers include William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, Alex Trebek, and Let’s Make a Deal’s Monty Hall.
If Trump continues to talk about adding Canada to the United States, why treat Canada as a potential single state?
I’d like to see Canada as the 51st, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th and 60th states. After all, Canada has a population of about 40 million people living in 10 provinces and three territories — making it more populous than any single state in the United States. The obvious thing to do is to create 10 states (or more) out of current Canada – with representation to the various Atlantic provinces, er, states, as well as Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the three territories.
Of course, the new math might be favorable to the Democrats, which would have a chance to add Senate and House seats.
Finally, as to Trump’s comment that Canadians would have “much better health coverage” if Canada were to become part of the United States, Canadians aren’t so sure. Plenty like their health care system, which is universal and funded through those taxes Trump is promising to cut.
What do you think of that, eh?