They’d Never Give Us The Vote

When collaborators like Danielle Smith or Jamil Jivani undermine Canada’s existence in favour of the aggressor threatening to annex us, what are they actually expecting to happen?

Norwegian military officer Vidkun Quisling assisted the Nazi invasion of his own country and spent the rest of the war as the leader of Norway’s puppet government, from where the term “quisling” derives for a traitor. He ultimately ended up in front of a firing squad, but caused an awful lot of damage on his way there in the pursuit of his own personal glory.

When Smith pursues her referendum on Alberta’s sovereignty, intended to make Alberta subservient to the United States, and Jivani attacks Canada’s government for standing up to the United States in the unprovoked trade war the country is using to destabilise and conquer us, they can only be doing so for personal gain. For people whose job descriptions are specifically about the public good to be working so hard against it, they must have other, stronger motivations, ones that do not include the public interest.

If these Quisling-inspired leaders get what they want, what would it mean for the rest of us if the United States annexed Canada?

First off, Trump says he wants Canada to be the 51st state, not the 51st through 60th states. From the starting line, Canada’s political weight as a sovereign power would be eliminated, reduced to a giant Puerto Rico, a possession rather than a part of the United States.

Our medicare system, already straining from years of its universality being attacked by an increasingly strong private option, would be the first target of our new overlords. Single-payer healthcare would be dead before the ink dried on the surrender agreement between the Quislings and the Maganauts. Having a universal healthcare system would undermine their ability to recruit our citizens into their military, which would be necessary to keep control of a restless northern people.

All forms of gun control would be out the window. Canada does not meet the American quota of unnecessary child deaths required to keep their firearm industry profitable. The gun section at Canadian Tire could be moved out of its locked display windows up to the checkout row next to the Mars bars.

And speaking of Mars bars, American food would be imposed on Canada. They would be allowed to call their candy bars “chocolate” bars, with Canadian regulations on chocolate content no longer applying. While the Americans anticipate the landing of thousands of tons of discounted beef with an unstated source, with curious timing after China rejected a shipment of beef from Argentina because it contained the banned substance chloramphenicol, conquered Canadians could look forward to joining in those low American public health standards. We would finally be able to indulge in American milk with its bovine growth hormone abundance. And we could enjoy sweeter American Oreos and M&Ms, whose US recipes differ from their Canadian equivalents. Imagine the cost savings for American food industry! Definitely worth selling out our country, don’t you think, Mr Jivani?

Our natural resources would become American possessions. Oil, potash, wood, even fresh, drinkable water, would be subject to American whims with no economic or environmental protections. It is what Danielle Smith is working hard to achieve. Energy independence for Americans rather than Canadians, a laudable goal if your objective is to be the leader of an American puppet government in Alberta County.

We would trade the etched image of King Charles for King Trump on our money as we are forced to adopt American currency, selling our discounted resources at domestic rates, no longer able to afford much of anything as the federal minimum wage adopted America’s $7.25 per hour.

Indigenous reconciliation would come to a grinding halt. French language protection would go from a matter of regional cultural identity and political debate to an issue of actual rather than perceived assimilation and oppression. French labels on our candy bars — sorry, chocolate bars now — would be a thing of the past. Want to know which carcinogenic artificial flavours have been added to our deregulated food? You might only know in English, but it would be moot because they would not have to tell you.

With the Trump administration systematically undermining the function of their democracy, currently trying to undermine mail-in voting through presidential executive order, one wonders how much of a say an annexed Canada would have in our own political future.

The Americans would probably grant us a passport, labelled something like the “United States of America - Canadian Administrative Region,” complete with a regional flag clearly showing us as a possession. It would drop us from 7th to 10th on the passport freedom index at minimum. We would have everything that makes us Canadian taken from Canada, but do not believe for a second that annexation would be followed with full citizenship. Canada is far too multicultural and entirely too socialist a nation for the Americans to absorb wholesale. The subsidiary passport would not come with the full rights of American citizens, such as participation in what is left of their elections.

The last thing the MAGA Republicans in charge would ever allow is for Canadians to be granted a vote in American elections, though we might still be granted some token amount of democratic selection for our regional leadership, possibly even up to and including our governor.

If granted statehood, we would receive 2 Senate seats. But with the Senate often balancing on the knife-edge of majority in their two party system, that is not likely. Nor would we get the 40 or so Congressmen that statehood would grant us. Far too many would likely be Democrats — and the Sanders/AOC/Al-Sayed/Mamdani flavour of Democrats at that — for them to handle our voices.

At best, we might be offered the Puerto Rican model of a “Resident Commissioner” who can attend and speak in Congress, but cannot vote. There to observe the destruction coming our way without even token power to obstruct it.

When we look at what the quisling Conservative leaders in Canada want when they offer us up on a silver platter to the American dictatorship, we must understand what is on the table. It is not a mere matter of free passage at the border — there is no guarantee they would even remove border checkpoints for us common folk — but of undermining everything that makes Canada.

Quisling leaders like Jivani and Smith are doing vastly more than offering settlement and partnership with the Americans. They’re offering up Canada as little more than a meal to hungry American oligarchs and the fascist movement they are backing.

Fighting and winning this unprovoked trade war is about a lot more than tariffs and gas pump prices. It is about defending the very existence of Canada as an independent, sovereign country, the seriousness of which cannot be overstated.