--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., bjbutler@b... wrote:
> Yeah, I wish Canada would just wise up, maybe even become the 51st
> state, and then we could stop all this nonsense.
I can't see it as coming in as a single state, its just too large
geographically.
As far as I can tell the following country mergers have occured since
WWII. FRG+GDR, two yemens -> one yemen, formation of Tanzania,
formation of the United Arab Republic, and formation of Senegambia.
Of these, the first isn't really appropriate unless one national
collapses and the last two have largely failed. Tanzania might be the
best model, but each nation had been independent less than 10 years
before the merger.
A union at this point could be under one of three possibilities, one,
start from scratch, two, Canadian provinces come in as states or
three US states come in as provinces.
I don't forsee changes in the next ten years that would make any of
them possible, least of all the third (We USAians have gone through a
bit of shooting over the issue.) During my lifetime, I think the most
likely time for the first two would have been a pro-independence
referendum of Quebec.
I also don't see all that much that would cause them to start from
scratch (put the new capital in Windsor?)
Since I am a USAian, I tend to think the second possibility is most
likely, and will go from there. The first question is whether or not
Quebec joins. I can only see it joining if Canada as a unit decides
to join as a certain number of states with a thumbs up or thumbs down
on the entire package from the US government.
Some of the provinces would be more likely than others to be accepted
by the US congress, BC would be among the most welcome, Quebec would
only be taken if it had to be. :)
The lowest population of the US states is Wyoming with a hair under
500K people which is less than all of the provinces except PEI
(though if the Newfies don't start staying put more, they could go
below that as well). However at 130K, PEI is larger than the
traditionl minimum number of people before applying for statehood
which is 60K. (I believe that at least one of the states brought in a
group in the 1880s in the NW may have been below that number).
The problem is YT , NWT & Nunavut. For all they are territories, they
do have voting members in both Canadian houses, but I don't know if
the USA would be willing to make them states, in 1996, YT had 30K and
NWT (before the split) had 60K. The only way I could see it working
would be to recombine everything north of 60degress and change
Nunavut to a reservation. (I think they'd do that before going it
alone as a country, but really not that willing.)
Of course things would vary based on the current political situation.
The Democrats would be more likely to admit Canadian Provinces than
the Republicans because most of the Canadian Provinces are left of
center in the USA political balance. (Alberta is the exception, but I
can't see the Albertans leaving unless the entire country is coming
apart as opposed to say New Brunswick.)
Most of the provinces are viewed by the USAian population as being
similar to the states they are north of (Maritimes = North Maine,
Ontario = North Pennsylvania/Michigan, Saskatchewan/Manitoba = Really
North Dakota, Alberta = North Montana/Idaho, BC = North Washington),
the exception of course being Quebec. :)
I know that the USA & Canada added together are larger than Russia,
but are USA & Canada minus quebec also larger than russia?
Randy