NAU - The 51st State

Everybody knows that there are 50 states. What is often not mentioned, is that there were less before. It has been 50 years since the 50th state was admitted to the Union, and now it must be discussed whether we will ever admit another State. There are many possibilities, with some being reasonable and some being far beyond foolishness to consider. But consider them we must.

1. Canada. People often, when naming Canada the 51st state, consider that it will join as a single country. They don't think of the fact that Canada is made up of 10 provinces and 3 territories. While they have sovereignty over their realm, they still have the Queen of Canada as their Head of State, who has constitutional powers of her own. It would mean that the throne would have to relinquish her claim to the country, which would most likely not happen in any peaceful way. It would take Canada to vote for their complete independence from Great Britain, which would make a very interesting event as the forces of freedom of choice of rule battled with tradition and political realities.
So assuming Canada was able to extricate itself from the Commonwealth and the Queen, it would then be discussed how exactly to merge the two. The only acceptable method of joining with the US would be for each province to vote itself out of its current membership in Canada, and into the United States as a full state or otherwise defined territory of the US. It would have to be discussed whether the US would accept the provinces as full states en masse, or if they would restrict membership to a trial basis for one or several of the provinces to start with.

That approach would raise issues of survival for the remaining provinces in the interim period, but there seems to be little risk of an invading force from overseas, and there are certainly ways to ensure fair and just rule among the provinces without the provinces that had left for the US. Which brings up a question: Would it be OK for say Saskatchewan to vote itself into the Union, while the remainder of Canada stayed fully formulated in their own right? And, would a possibility exist of accepting only the full complement of Canadian areas without even attempting a piecemeal integration?

There are definitely industries that would be affected by such a merger. The customs industry is fairly big, given the amount of trade between our nations. How would they take the news of a merger? And trucking companies that would now need to be made regulation to US rules. And banks that operate under different rules in Canada. And how would the Canadian dollar be phased out? Instant acceptance of only US currency? Or a gradual drawdown of Canadian currency replaced slowly by US dollars? Would it make sense to use that as a stepping stone to the Amero, and instigate the new currency by joining the economies into a new currency t hat was phased in all at once?

These are some serious questions that would have to be considered in detail when talking about the possibility of Canada becoming a 51st state (although 60th state and new 3 territories would be more like it).

2. Mexico - No chance right now, but a similiar strategy to Canada, without the problems of the British crown.

3. Puerto Rico - People have been agitating for PR, people have been agitating to stay independent. In a lot of ways, they are a de facto state already. Why not go the last step and vote for full statehood? It seems on the surface that the right to vote while a resident of the island is not enough of a reason to join the Union as a state, but there are other reasons also - higher Medicaid funding, lower income taxes, and a higher status in the eyes of the rest of the States, which would help in more intangible ways as Americans came to change their way of thinking about PR. Right now, popular sentiment is that Puerto Rico is "part" of the US, but they aren't really "One of us" in a determined manner. If they were to declare, I believe that they would find many people moving there, and more businesses opening on the island, giving them a needed financial boon.

4. Iraq - A topic all it's own. 51st, 52nd, and 53rd states. Although Kurdistan would most likely rather declare full independence, Turkey would never allow a sovereign Kurdistan to exist. And logistically speaking, having states in the Middle East would almost certainly start a larger war. It might be worth the effort though - from a military point of view, if Iraq were to vote itself in any way into territory status or statehood in the US, it would mean a level of dedication and commitment to the area that is lacking now. The idea of new states in the Middle East would never be accepted by the world community, though - not at this time. Even talking about it might cause huge issues. But consider it we must, after 1 or more other areas finally break the freeze and join the US.

5. Other territories under the US. Guam is the most likely candidate, and I don't know enough about Guam to even begin talking about it now. Maybe at a future time.