A Proposal for the 51st State

President Trump’s threat to annex Canada as America’s 51st state has provoked a sudden and unprecedented upsurge of patriotic fervor among Canadian politicians, media hoplites, and public figures from sea to shining sea. Yet, as The Epoch Times reminds us, “the backlash against the idea of becoming the 51st U.S. state exposes a deep contradiction in a country where in recent years there’s been a systematic effort to erase the Canadian identity and founding history.” The issue is, of course, exacerbated by the blanket tariff Trump is planning to impose on Canadian exports to the U.S.

This newfound sentiment of love of country doesn’t pass the smell test, although it is being intensely ginned up by a floundering Liberal Party desperate to stave off a crushing defeat at the approaching polls by playing the anti-American card. It appears the strategy may be working, as the last ten years under Justin Trudeau’s disastrous reign seem to have been wiped clean from Canada’s collective memory.

What we are observing is not an access of genuine pride but an imbecilic revival of chest-thumping self-regard, giving the Liberals a route to a potential win. A friend writes about all “the silly old ladies” with whom his wife goes for a walk sometimes — the Faculty Women's Club — "who urge each other to ‘buy Canadian’ and blah blah blah Trump Bad blah blah Climate Change blah blah.” This truly is Canada, with the emphasis on the nada part.

What is it the good people of this country have forgotten regarding the Liberal government they elected on three consecutive occasions? For starters:

• The devastating consequences of a rising and unnecessary carbon tax.
• Virtually unrestricted mass immigration.
• The sabotage of the Canadian energy sector.
• The housing crisis.
• The health care crisis.
• The inflation crisis.
• The drug and crime crisis.
• The alarming spike in antisemitism and pro-Islamic fever.
• Stratospheric taxation.
• Insurmountable debt and deficit.
• Capital flight.
• Dwindling foreign investment.
• A defunct military.
• Fantasy-world stupidity, for example, former Deputy Prime Minister and leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland in her fight against Trump proposing to recruit nuclear allies.
• Betrayal by our leaders — witness Chinese interference in the electoral process on Trudeau’s watch or popular Liberal leadership candidate, special advisor to Trudeau, and former bank manager Mark Carney moving his investments to the U.S. despite his expressed commitment to growing the Canadian economy.

Nor are many citizens aware that Trump’s putative campaign to absorb Canada as the 51st state may be little more than a negotiating strategy or a typical Trumpian barb to troll his target audience. As I’ve argued before, the idea of annexing a “state” consisting of ten provinces and three Territories larger than the country that is doing the annexing is utterly preposterous. There is also the fact that Canada is a socialist nation whose electorate votes approximately 65% Leftist, in other words, equivalent to California plus New York, that would give the U.S. another dozen or two Democrat-like congressmen, the last thing Trump would want. 

The only feasible provinces that would benefit the U.S. are staunchly conservative jurisdictions like Alberta and possibly Saskatchewan, which are rich in energy and agriculture. The problem is that the winds of secession are not yet strong enough to sweep these provinces from the orbit of the Canadian confederation. What, then, is to be done?

In a blockbuster essay Trump’s War on Global Socialism, Julius Ruechel asserts that “Life inside Fortress America looks pretty good considering what Canada has become, and doubly so in light of the more protectionist and isolationist nation that America is becoming under Trump… to shield itself economically and militarily from a hostile globalist world.”

In line with Ruechel’s eminently sane reading of the political context, I propose that the United States under the administration of Donald Trump consider me and my wife as the 51st state by awarding us honorary citizenship. We are, after all, productive individuals, virulent critics of the Canadian train wreck, have written copiously and favorably about the U.S. and its stellar representatives such as Trump and Ron DeSantis, are financially solvent, have lectured at American universities, have posted and published in the U.S., and been interviewed by American radio, print and internet sources. Our track record, unlike Canada’s, is pretty respectable, and we are more than ready to secede. 

I venture to say that we would be a net positive gain as 51st state material.