Should Washington, Oregon and California join Canada?

[BloodFetish]

Adding California would be too much. I can see nibbling away slowly by adding Washington then letting a decade pass to work out the inevitable issues. Once that experience is gained and the merger is proved successful then if Oregon and/or Alaska wished to join it would be much easier.

IMO, of all the western states Washington is the jewel in the crown IF the major employers there (Boeing, Microsoft for example) don't pick up stakes and move.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by driveway

The question of whether a State can secede from the Union or not was settled in the 1860's.

The Republicans did squash the rebellion. However, Jefferson Davis was released from prison after two years and not charged with treason. The federal government wasn't confident that it would get a conviction and that it would legitimize the legality of the secessionist movement.

So militarily it was settled, but legally it wasn't. However, I don't think anyone wants to go through what the Confederate states went through.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

He's right.

Once you open up the constitution to add new provinces, all bets are off. Things like Quebec's status within the nation, the grandfathering of rights and privileges to the Maritimes, equalization, bilingualism (or trilingualism as Spanish becomes #2 if California were to ever join), CPP, etc.... all of that comes up for discussion.

Does Quebec want to become 10% of a new nation, do AB, BC and SK find a better deal with the West Coast going solo, or a better deal as part of a greater whole, where do the FN slot in, does Ontario except no longer being #1?

There's a reason why when Turks and Caicos was being discussed, Nova Scotia was considering annexing it in order to avoid a new province scenario.

In my view, Canada stays as it is, or splinters... we're not bringing in new provinces or territories. Too many underlying fault lines in Confederation held together by the fact that change is difficult and unpredictable.

Agree with what you're saying, and I think in the next 50 years this might become a reality (with all the political stuff happening worldwide right now-Brexit, Trump, etc, how long until Quebec wants out here? If that happens, I can see BC/AB/SK saying "forget the rest of you guys").

But I also think in the USA this will happen. I doubt CA, OR, WA would join Canada, but I can see them splitting off from the union, especially if things become more and more polarized between rural/urban type class warfare.

Many are correct in saying the western states have a lot of social issues. HOWEVER, they also have huge economies and a good liberal populace, so those issues should be able to get sorted out.