In adversity lies opportunity.
John Manley, former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minster, recently proposed (Tonge in cheek) that Canada consider Trump’s proposal to become the 51st state, although he did suggest a few improvements, including that we enter as 10, not 1 state.
I’d like to take that a bit further; we should include the territories as well so that there are 13 new states. This would be a nice symbolic gesture; homage to the original 13 states and a gentle poke at Jefferson and his failed attempt to walk through the “Canadian Park”. Second, the Canadian dollar should be converted at par, which in fact is a discount of about 10% from past highs.
Under this proposal, Canada would add 26 Senate seats and after re-alignment of the capped 435 House seats 44 to 48 of them would be from the new states. Given that both chambers in the Congress are nearly balanced between both parties, and the assumption that most, if not all of the new seats would be aligned with the Democratic Party, we can assume a majority in the Senate, control of the House and the Presidency.
We will then be in a position to: integrate the vast American healthcare system and practice into the single-payer Canadian system making healthcare available to all Americans; reduce drug costs for all Americans, implement meaningful controls on political donations, reversing Citizens United, rationalize the system of Primaries, implement gun control, fix redistricting by making it an apolitical process, control lobbying, put term limits on Senators and Supreme Court Justices. These steps should elevate the democratic performance of the United State’s from their current 46th rank to Canada’s 17th1, possibly further.
This would make America great, not again, just great for once and finally. Maybe Trudeau can become President.
- Country Rankings, Global State of Democracy Initiative ↩︎
Leave a Reply