While efforts to create a North American Union that would meld Canada, the United States, and Mexico into one national entity have and will continue to evoke strong opposition from Americans who value our national sovereignty, I suspect that many Americans have looked at the map and wondered why Canada is a separate nation?

Canada’s sovereignty is beyond question, but it often seems to me that the most natural North American union would occur if Canadians decided to become part of the United States. It may surprise you to know there is even a Canadian group called United North America that advocates unification.

Check out http://www.unitednorthamerica.org .

There is any number of good reasons for the Canadian Provinces to become States and they are not lost on some Canadians. I am confident they would be warmly welcomed if they elected to become part of our national system. For most Americans, Canada is that nation to the north with whom we share a long and historically safe border. Its history, culture, political system, and much else are mostly unknown.

I got to thinking about this while reading an interesting book, "Uneasy Neighbors: Canada, the USA and the Dynamics of State, Industry, and Culture", by David T. Jones and David Kilgour. Jones is a retired U.S. senior Foreign Service officer who served as a political minister counselor at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa from 1992 to 1996. Kilgour has had a distinguished career in Canadian federal politics as a Member of Parliament and served as the Deputy Speaker of the House. Over the course of twenty-six years, he also served as Secretary of State for Latin America, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

These two have an encyclopedic knowledge of their respective nations, laying out the facts regarding both in a way that permits for serious comparisons. They begin by saying, "On a geographic basis, there is no reason for the existence of two countries in the northern portion of North America." It is worth noting that approximately 85 to 90 percent of the Canadian population lies within 200 miles or less of the U.S. border. Canada is called the frozen north with good reason. Much of it is uninhabitable.

With most of the population living so close, it is inevitable that Canadians also share what passes for American culture. Indeed, many Canadians are among American’s favorite entertainers. Canada boosts a rich literary tradition as well and, of course, we share a common language.

Jones and Kilgour point out that, among other commonalities, Canada is very high tech, sharing a common technology from automobiles to plumbing to computers with the U.S. "Moreover, doing business—bureaucratic as well as economic—is easy in Canada." We also share a North American communications grid with the same electrical voltage.

So the question of merging with America—one that can only be made by Canadians—comes down to questions of their pride in their nation as a separate entity and their attitude toward the superpower to the south of them. In that regard, it must be said that Canadians have some stereotypes about Americans that are widely held throughout the world. "Canadians view Americans as insufferably arrogant and indifferent to the interests of any citizen except a U.S. one. Americans are insular, self-centered, and hyperpatriotic flag-wavers."

Fear not, polls inevitably demonstrate that Canadians generally like Americans. "They do not, however, want to be like Americans."

There are differences, but they are mostly matters of style dictated by the different governmental structures the two nations adopted. From the day the U.S. Constitution became the law of the land the nation has emphasized unity. We fought a Civil War to preserve the Union.

Canada, by contrast, "has tolerated an almost unprecedented level of discontent, separatism, and alienation between its national government and both provinces and regions…" The result is that "the Quebec problem" has long been the defining national issue in Canada with many Quebeckers still wanting their own sovereignty.

Further exacerbating Canada’s problems is the way, there is an "inner" and "outer" Canada because Ontario and Quebec are the two most populous provinces and control the political life of the nation. The tensions this generates are real and likely to get worse.

There’s not enough space to get into the differences between our governmental systems. Suffice it to say that the Prime Minister as a member of the three party leaders holds all the real political power. Party discipline is such that "outer" Canadian voters have little input regarding issues of importance to the "inner" population. Elected representatives must vote the party line and the upper body of Parliament, the Senate, is appointed by the PM. The checks and balances that require compromise and consensus in the U.S. governmental system have no counterpart in Canada.

Despite this, Canadians have great faith in government while Americans traditionally regard it as a necessary evil. I suspect that voters in Manitoba or Saskatchewan could get used to having their vote really count for something in the American Congress.

Getting past the machinery of Canadian government, its history, and understandable sense of national pride, the fact remains that there would be many benefits for Canadians to become part of an expanded United States of America and, conversely, many benefits for Americans as well.

It will always have to be their choice and I hope they join their future to ours someday. If fifty separate republics, the United States, can make it work, they can too.


Alan Caruba is the author of "Warning Signs"
Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com . His blog is at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com