One man’s opinion: “Oh, Canada!”

It has been a sparse years since my last trip to the Florida panhandle where our family had a vacation home on St George Island which offered various incredible charms including houses with views of both the Gulf of Mexico as well as Apalachicola Bay And on the other end of the longtime North American Free Commerce Zone I love the views along the Canadian edge across the various Great Lakes or the incredible sights of Niagara Falls Toronto is one of my favorite places to visit and advance to on the planet It seems like just the previous 24 hours that our closest neighbors and allies were much like extended family At present those warm relations at least between the nations and governments are quite a bit frostier In their first face to face meeting at the White House last week new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reportedly revealed to President Donald Trump Having met with the owners of Canada it s not for sale and it won t be for sale ever President Trump tends to use a negotiating tactic called anchoring Enter into contract negotiations Declare you will only be satisfied by receiving the universe and at least one sun to fully meet your demands Repeat declaration at every opportunity Stun your negotiating partners and foreseen partners with the boldness of the ask Continue this posture for a period of time Negotiating partner eventually comes forward assuming there are mutual requirements for a deal to take place and says How about we give you a planet Limit communities and paired cities such as Detroit Michigan and Windsor Canada Vancounver British Columbia and Seattle Washington Niagara Falls Ontario and Niagara Falls New York or even the town of Beebe Plain Canada which straddles the U S Canadian perimeter know all too well how closely intertwined the two peoples regions and economies are Canada has a population nearing million ten provinces and three territories The bulk of Canada s population lives south of Seattle and clustered on the U S frontier along the Great Lakes and North American waterways and canals which form much of the physical divide Thanks in part to the North American Free Transaction Agreement NAFTA a contract treaty and act of Congress in Canada and Mexico by a healthy measure are our largest agreement partners Canada purchased billion of American goods and exports during accounting for percent of total U S exports Mexico was a close second at billion with China a very distant third at billion Only one European nation made the top five with the United Kingdom at billion and the U S has a exchange surplus with Great Britain meaning they are one of the minimal bargain partners who BUY more U S goods than we purchase from them Alaska and Hawaii were originally both territories of the United States The present day the U S has governing national defense and funding contract alliances in place with U S territories and nation-states including Puerto Rico where residents are also U S citizens American Samoa Guam the Northern Mariana Islands and the U S Virgin Islands Missouri entered the U S as a territory the Missouri Compromise and Texas entered our union as a commonwealth As a U S commonwealth Canada could maintain its complete independence and sovereignty deal borders and tariffs could be eliminated national defense and strength rare earth minerals agreements updated and finalized Having Canada become a state is fraught with logistical and legal challenges well beyond opposition in The Great White North Canada would overnight become second only to California in terms of state population That new state would enter the Electoral College as well as have two U S Senators and a Congressional delegation roughly equivalent in size to California U S House members And while the Canadian Maple leaf and flag are predominantly red and white the population and politics of the majority of Canadian provinces and particularly the three which have of Canada s population Ontario Quebec and British Columbia are majority decidedly Blue Adding the state of Canada would almost overnight shift control of the U S Congress to the Democratic Party likely within two electoral contest cycles and with California and Canada then controlling potentially Electoral College votes a path to achievement and the White House would also be easily within reach every four years with nearly to percent of the expanded nation s population within those two states As this president asserts expertise around the art of the deal perhaps he should also bone up on the law of unintended consequences Guh day eh The post One man s opinion Oh Canada appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta