51st State(s). You may have heard that there are many people in Puerto Rico (about half the population) who would like to make PR our 51st State. But did you know that there are also statehood movements in Taiwan, the Philippines, Ontario and British Columbia (Canada) right now; have been (and might again be) similar movements in other places, like Quebec; and are even people in Britain, Mexico, South Africa and elsewhere who think it would be a great idea if their areas also joined the Union?
+
We tend to assume that because we are content to be a country to ourselves, everyone else is content that their country (or territory or province) is separate from the United States. Not so.
+
The U.S. is an enormously attractive society in a number of ways, and has drawn over 60 million immigrants from all over this planet. But immigration isn't enuf for some people, who want the kinds of great things we have here to apply to their own area as well. In places like the Philippines and Mexico, they understand that domestic movements for change face an uphill struggle against an entrenched and immovable elite that has no intention of creating the kind of economically equitable and socially mobile society we have created. People concerned about social justice for their own area may see annexation to the United States as the only means by which they can shatter historic unfairness and institute the economic policies that will give the entire population the chance to prosper after centuries of desperate hardship.
+
Others are prosperous already but feel left out of something terrific and dynamic, so want in. This is the case in places like Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec (Canada). Canada is a very good country in a number of ways, but it's dull, imitative, and multiply fractured (linguistically, geographically). Many Canadians see no reason it shouldn't be part of the United States. They already have a democratic federal union, and that works, sort of, so they are comfortable with the idea of working within a larger federal union. They understand that many of the decisions that affect their daily life and overall future are made not in Canada's capital or their own provincial capital but in Washington, so if they are really to control their future they must have a say in what Washington does, and the only way they can do that is by becoming a state and sending Representatives and Senators to mix it up in Congress.
+
Canada is a "nice" country, but negative. There is nothing distinctive about it. English Canada is a pale imitation of the United States, whose nationalism is negative: Canadians are "not American", which just isn't good enuf for many people resident in Canada, who want to be proud of what they are, not defensive about what they're not. Quebec is a suburban outrigger of France that lives an American (or, in Canada, "North American") lifestyle and isn't really much like France anymore. The French language is neither more secure nor less secure whether there is a border between Quebec and the United States or not. With statehood, Quebec would gain substantial powers (over, for instance, criminal law and taxation) and lose little or nothing.
+
Ontario is the most-populous and richest province of Canada. Its capital, Toronto, is one of the great cities of the English-speaking world, the cultural and economic capital of English Canada. Ontario is shaped vaguely like a keystone, which is appropriate, because it is central and indispensable to Canadian Confederation. If Ontario leaves Canada, Confederation collapses. If Ontario joins the Union, the rest of Canada is likely to do so too.
+
Ontario is very much in tune with the U.S. states adjoining it, like New York and Minnesota — yes, Ontario really is so big that it spans from New York State to Minnesota, bordering all of the Great Lakes!
+
Ontario is headquarters to most of Canada’s largest and richest corporations, most involved in international trade. It is also the center of Canadian television production, news, and publishing. The capital of Canada is an Ontario municipality (there is no equivalent to the District of Columbia in Canada).
+
Ontario would make a splendid addition to the Union, all up-side, no down-side. There is an active Ontario-statehood website at www.OntarioUSA.org.
+
Quebec is the largest province of Canada in area (it’s even larger than Alaska), and second largest in population, most of whom speak a form of French distinct from that of France. Quebec gives Canada what little distinctiveness it has from the United States. Counterintuitively, more Quebecers than English Canadians are disposed to join the Union!
+
French Canadians, who are also found in large numbers in the Province of New Brunswick and in eastern Ontario, understand that French is just one of many languages in the United States, which is comfortable with linguistic difference. Millions of Americans (including me, in slight measure) have French or Quebec ancestry, and large areas of New England have substantial numbers of people whose forebears came from Quebec and blended in perfectly.
+
As a state, Quebec would bring to us not just its enormous natural resources, including the hydroelectric power that runs New York City’s air-conditioners, but also a large number of speakers of French who are tied into the trading community of La Francophonie, a group of French-speaking countries in both hemispheres, plus a certain panache, élan — and all those other words for style and flair that the French are known for.
+
A State of Quebec would understand that French could be given preference within Quebec, although there could be no discrimination against English, but would have no special status outside Quebec. Quebecers can live very comfortably with that. There has in the past been a Quebec statehood organization (see its proposal), altho I don't know of one right now.
+
BC (for “British” Columbia, which is now ‘Canadian Columbia’) is the giant province north of Washington State, Idaho, and Montana, and south of Alaska, whose capital is the pretty little city of Victoria and whose largest city if hip Vancouver. BC statehood would make the State of Alaska contiguous to the rest of the continental U.S., as would allow us to improve roads to Alaska and run oil and gas pipelines over land rather than risk another Exxon Valdez disaster at sea.
+
BC statehood would also give U.S. law enforcement control of the entire West Coast of North America from San Diego thru the Aleutian Islands, as would improve our security against illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and infiltration by terrorists. (The U.S. regards Canada's federal government as lax on refugees, and unknown numbers of illegal aliens have entered the U.S. thru Canada.)
+
A BC statehood organization has recently been founded. Its website is at www.annexationbc.com.
+
Ontario, BC, and Quebec are all large and rich in resources, so would add to our national wealth rather than be a drain of any kind, especially once American-style daring and entrepreneurial spirit replaced the tendency to rely too heavily on government that has characterized the Canadian mentality until recently. All these areas, and the rest of Canada as well, would all add powerfully but painlessly to the Union.
+
The Founding Fathers of our Republic hoped, and indeed expected, that Canada would join the Union. They even wrote a provision to that effect (Article XI) into the first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Britain had other ideas. But Britain no longer controls Canada, and many Canadians want in. Let's welcome them.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 1:16 PM