An interesting proposition to have one country north of Mexico for sure but we would be 13 new States. What would we gain if we keep this non-functional government that is taking us towards a welfare state? This government absolutely never considers how to make new ideas work for themselves so they become self-supporting instead of increasing debt onto the next generation (no they just set up a new branch of government and hire thousands of people increasing the national debt). The Americans would want to have keen excited citizens (second class citizens have no say). So no, we need to be first class Americans not second class citizens. All that we would likely share as states would be policing, foreign affairs and other national level items and our military as your states appear to do now (along with tax collecting as that is how ours works with transfer payments to the provinces for health, for education, for national infrastructure and other negotiated items plus the Provincial taxes since the tax monies are all submitted to the CRA by us!). For our military to give up their present Canadian military status would be a big deal. We have stood tall amongst the allies during the First and Second World War and during the Cold War and that status is born on the blood of our youth (our losses in the First World War were huge (and we were a very small country much less than half of what we are now in population) and substantial enough in the Second World War). The Americans too stood tall as our allies in these conflicts and coming together is not a bad idea given the way that the world is moving; we already work together on many items. But to leave us as we are one unit in 51 would not benefit us. There needs to be a gain for us in becoming one huge country; one huge wealthy country - Canada is a very wealthy country in minerals, fresh uncontaminated water and so many other assets etc etc. But, of course, there must also be buy-in with our First Nations. Our medical system although short at the moment on physicians (that is the fault of the stingy government reducing Medical School enrollments in the 1990s knowing that the Baby Boomers were on their way to old age) is very effective and costs less overall than in a lot of countries (I worked there for 12 years). No Canadian is refused normal health care but you do have to pay for your own drugs unless you have a health plan but some of these are not covered so can be expensive for some.
As for the electricity that crosses into the United States; paying 25% tariffs to sell it is not practical. But everything is negotiable and that is the trademark of the incoming President-elect Donald Trump "to make a deal." One wonders what kind of deals will be offered. We are after all your good friend and neighbour.
On the other hand we could work on our provincial trade barriers and eliminate all of them making it easier to sell our goods between provinces if we face tariffs going south. Hopefully our government will soon be replaced with people interested in making government efficient. I really dislike the attitude of the present government towards Israel; they have a right to defend themselves. You can counter with "they can defend themselves" but that doesn't change what started it all. Israel was invaded by a foreign government that was elected by the people of Gaza - they and they alone are responsible for what is happening. When a bully attacks (Hamas supported by in this case Iran and the people of Gaza and here that cheered in our streets (they should have been arrested for their hate crime on the 8th of October last year and later)). We normally side with the person attacked whether they can defend themselves or not. Plus they continue to hold hostages to this day in inhuman conditions under ground including children, women and men (both old and young). The people of Gaza (they did after all elect Hamas) have not returned all the bodies of the people Hamas killed for proper burial. Free the hostages immediately.
Back to the book today. Cleaning all accomplished. Hopefully fresh snow on that crusty ice so that we can get some more skiing in. The first time out was great; difficult but great but I am going on 80 so not surprising. I haven't skied for a while for sure.
Breakfast completed. Latin is next and then the book broken up with exercise routines throughout the day along with my 250 steps per hour for the FitBit.
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