Should the US and Canada merge? Expansionist party says yes

LDS Jock

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Fri Aug-27-04 10:46 PM
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Should the US and Canada merge? Expansionist party says yes

What We Propose. The Expansionist Party ("XP") advocates admission of Canada into the United States as up to seven states of the Union. The four Atlantic Provinces, too small to be admitted as separate states, would merge into one. (Merger of these four even within the context of an independent Canada has long been advocated, for the administrative economies it would entail.) The remaining six provinces, from Quebec west, could be admitted as states to themselves. Or the three Prairie Provinces could be merged into a single Prairie state � again, for reasons of economy. Besides, big states get more attention to their needs than do small states.

The Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut would either merge with Alaska to form a united Arctic state to champion northern interests, or be divided among the new Canadian states bordering on them by extending present provincial boundaries northward, as the people of Canada might in their sole discretion decide prior to union. If neither of these alternatives seems the best thing to do at once, the federal territories of Canada could simply become Federal territories of the United States, leaving the question of their future to be decided later.

The United States, as its name suggests, is an organization more than a nation-state. Its unity revolves not around race, language, or even shared history, but around the principles of its express social contract, the Constitution of the United States. Originally just 13 states along the eastern seaboard of North America but now 50 states spread across the entire width of the continent and extending to its northwest corner and across 2,400 miles of the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. has grown by accepting new members into the club. Unlike some areas that have asked for statehood but been rejected (the Dominican Republic, various countries of Central America, and even Hawaii, when it first applied in 1854), if Canada were to ask, it would surely be accepted, since public opinion polls show strong support among Americans for admitting Canada to the Union.

A Grand Vision. Canada and the U.S. joined together would, by many measures of wealth, dynamism, and culture, be the greatest nation in the history of the world.

A combined U.S. and Canada would eclipse Russia as the largest country on Earth geographically. The expanded U.S. would not change in rank as to population, remaining the world's third most populous nation (after only China and India). But the entire feel of the future would change, not just for us on this continent but for humanity all around the Earth.

Never before have the peoples of two such enormous countries put their trust in each other and merged. Their voluntary joining would make a huge impact upon the world's sense of the possible, and open people's minds to ideas and opportunities of many kinds.

Canadians would finally put to rest the endless anxieties periodically splashed across popular magazines in alarmist headlines � "Can Canada Survive?", "Will Quebec Separate?" and so on. They will have decided, yes, Canada can "survive" � as part of the U.S. And no, Quebec will not separate, because the United States is an indissoluble Union (the Civil War proved that), and any area that assumes statehood does so in the knowledge that it's for keeps.

The time for Quebec to decide for independence is before accepting statehood, not after. Interestingly, pro-statehood sentiment is stronger in Quebec than in English Canada, for Quebeckers know that their culture would thrive in a large, tolerant Union. So tolerant is the United States that if Quebec wanted economic but not political union with the U.S., that special relationship ("sovereignty-association", the Parti Quebecois calls it, as proposed for Quebec vis-a-vis Canada) would be granted quickly and without resentment. Puerto Rico has essentially that relationship with the United States now: "Commonwealth" in English, "Estado Libre Asociado" (Free Associated State) in Spanish.

more here

http://members.aol.com/XPUS/Canada.html ... OK, its an AOL address, but what do you think of the idea?