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President Donald Trump's recent comments about Canada becoming the 51st state have ruffled some Dominion feathers. But all the Canuck clucking and flapping cannot avoid the harsh realities of a looming tomorrow—the cock has crowed, and the security chickens are coming home to roost for a long winter's night. If Canada does not want to be the drumstick on a White House dinner plate, it should consider spending more parliamentary time laying mutually beneficial policy eggs and less time running around the political yard squawking about the "sky falling."
The mutual defense and security of northern borders (sea, land, and air) make it likely that Canada's next chapter in history will be more aligned to the U.S. than it has ever been before. Although the constitutional path forward contains some nuances and difficulties, for our own survival and collective good, and if history is to teach us anything, it can be argued that it is time to turn the page on Canada's future.
Recent polls reported in Canadian media suggest that Americans leave the merger decision to Canada. The majority of Canadians do not wish to join the U.S. Polling aside, Canadian national defense has never been tested on our home soil in modern times.
While I appreciate the commentary from pollsters and pundits, a trite and simple fact remains—Canada does not possess the population or security apparatus to defend itself in the event of modern war. I can hear the hue and cry already, "Oh, but NATO and the Article 5 mutual defense clause!" What a joke. Canada is a mere shadow of its former self, and quickly approaching the status of "The Russian Buffer State" for a U.S. defense strategy. Embarrassingly, Canadians are no longer being taken seriously.
The scant security lingerie of NATO is no substitute for what used to be Canada's ability to hide under the imperial power skirts of the U.K. But the British Empire has been stripped naked before the world's eyes and is disintegrating. Canada is now standing behind an emperor who has no clothes and a distracted NATO that is not fully dressed. Canada is left with nothing but a foul smell emitted from the rear end of crumbling Euro-imperialism—an odor filled with gassy European politics that waft in the face of Canadian desire for change and peace. Is the U.S. the clean air of change Canadians seek? It's complicated.
While some scholars point to projected political science outcomes and past left-leaning voting practices as justification why Canada would not merge with the U.S., as time progresses forward it is more probable that Canada could fracture and merge with the Union as multiple states.
For example, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have more in common with U.S. economic energy policies than they do with Ottawa. The Inuit in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have more in common with Greenland than they do with Justin Trudeau. The Inuit in the Yukon arguably have more in common with Iñupiat and Yup'ik peoples in Alaska than they do with Ottawa.
The Eastern seaboard provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia have more ties with Main and Louisiana through historic French and Acadian ancestry than they do with the king as Canada's head of state. British Columbia has more modern connections to the Pacific Northwest (Washington, California, and Oregon) than it does Ontario. Even today, the recognized Metis homeland contains large portions of Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota as well as the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Lower Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
Further, with over 90 percent of the Canadian population living within 150 miles of the U.S. border, there is a very real and modern Canadian connection to the U.S. media, entertainment, politics, trade, family kinship, culture, and defense needs.
Canada is already fractured politically, geographically, and economically. To ignore this is to walk into the future blindfolded with a false sense of the national self. When the Canadian Constitution is examined, one quickly discovers that Canada is not a true republic, nor is it a true democracy. It is, in essence, leftovers of a former Imperial federation which now looks more like political Swiss cheese than it does a cohesive nation with a common purpose and collective direction.
I ask the question, quite fairly I think, what would Canadians rather? A constitutional tie to a failing European Empire and outdated royalist ambitions? Or true freedom and democracy in a modern republic? As the conversation of national identity burgeons, Canadians have the opportunity to choose how their country will function in the future and how the Canadian constitution is best structured to meet modern democratic expectations of the people. Align closer to Europe and all its problems? Or cozy up to our nearest U.S. allies who have always stood by us?
The question of the North Problem is not mere pedantry; it is a very real dialog that requires deep national reflection and critical thought about Canada's collective North American future and security.
Bryce J. Casavant is a Canadian Forces veteran who served during joint military operations with the U.S. in Afghanistan. He is a university lecturer and columnist living in Canada near the Washington state border.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
