Wow! I’ve been a big fan since Covid started. As a business owner in Ontario, I’ve been watching this unfold for 40 years. I kept thinking that Canada would some day come to its senses and change for the better. As you so brilliantly lay out, that didn’t happen. I truly believe we are at cross roads without leadership to guide us to better pastures. I would gladly be an American state. But sadly, I don’t represent but a small fraction of the population. Thanks Julius for putting into words what I’m not capable of doing. I’m in total agreement with you.
I went to New Hampshire, and I was amazed and shocked to hear they don't pay INCOME Tax nor Property Taxes.. and their streets their infrastructure was totally well kept!
And no seat belt laws. When Gov. Sununu declared a mask mandate, my friend's town in NH held a town meeting and voted it down. And there wasn't a lick the Gov could do. THAT'S democracy. In Canada, it was one gigantic scary Covid blanket operating in lockstep from top to bottom and bottom to top. Canadians think this kind of one size fits all obedience is better than the scenario I just described. Remember, De Toqueville visited America to watch democracy in action for a reason. Not Canada.
God Bless New Hampshire!! what a beautiful FREE state, TOO much control here, love their Liquor Stores, I got liquor from Europe YOU never NEVER get in Canada! such a shame!!
Sadly there are millions of Canadians who have bought the non stop propaganda of the Canadian ruling elite, centered in the Toronto Montreal Ottawa triangle. The state controlled media CBC amplifies the Canada superiority narrative clinging to Canadas collapsing heath care and lack of gun violence (lol) as differentiators. Canada has become the East Germany of North America and we know what happened to the GDR.
I have no compulsion to advance anything your way. That article exposed canadians lack of maturing across multiple levels of life/governance. Your comment was simplistic anti american sentiment. Heres 👇another good dose of reality for you..the world is changing quickly & your negatives already sound childish to those aware of current reality https://eko.substack.com/p/override
This writing should be required reading for ALL Canadians...and Americans. Reality is often difficult to swallow especially when faced with worldly corruption. While the preamble to the Constitution of the United States remains a human light in man's darkness, in the end it will only be the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life that builds a lasting Kingdom. Be....in the Word.
totally aggree, Canadians are going to taste the sad poverty and destitute like Europe did with wars.. Canadians NEED to let go of daddy government and the false lies of the Indigenous!
It might be fair to note however, that the US just missed following our friends to the north off the same cliff. It would have looked different, and may have become a bit violent, because of our federalist system.
The US is in the midst of purging the globalist anti-freedom actors within its own government. Once that is complete the democrat party in the US will be a fraction of its current size until a more reasonable opposing party evolves, which it will, just like when the Whigs disappeared.
If we could just get rid of Cuba's government and turn it into a playground of the Americas, think how much fun that would be.
You’ve done an incredible job making the case for Canada to become the 51st state, something I’ve agreed with from the beginning, for some of the reasons you stated and many more I had not considered. The historical perspective and overall analysis is flawless. Thank you Julius for taking on this most important issue and making a bullet proof argument.
It’s time for Canada to do what it should have done from the very beginning.
Thank you Kate! "It’s time for Canada to do what it should have done from the very beginning." — 100% agree.
I sometimes feel like I would be unrecognizable to myself from as recently as 10 years ago when I consider how far my views have shifted as I keep peeling back the layers — I distinctly remember the patriotic emotions on Parliament Hill a few years before Covid as they played the anthem at the end of their summer light show, with the whole crowd singing along, hat over heart. Not anymore. It's painful yet liberating to see behind the curtain! Cheers, Julius 🙏
As an American, we would gladly have Canada and pursue a grand re-opening of the West and North. It would fuel prosperity for 100 years. The choice is basically to give into the global elite and have a post national social/communist debt slavery, or join the US as part of the core of the U.S. empire.
Caution is required here. It might look good while Trump is around but they next President may be just like Biden. Be careful what you wish for. Canada used to be a beautiful, healthy, wonderful place to live. I remember it well.
What about it? it's prehistoric to the point of inhumane. Why do people want to protect something so dysfunctional and with little appetite to reform? In Europe, you can CALL a doctor and they show up at your house. You can be in the outskirts of Rome or the Austrian alps and you'll get a doctor. Here, millions can't even get a GP and without one you can't see a specialist. Doesn't work like that in Europe. Outsiders know ( I own a business with transient people temporarily living in Canada and the #1 criticism they have is our "free" system) the system we brag so much about is garbage and we need to acknowledged this in order to actually do something about it and force reforms.
And YES, this MUST include a private option just like in Europe. We have the most rigid system in the world.
Here are the Americans coming in and offering access to their GARGANTUAN market with a shot a real prosperity (I hope anyway) and we're worried about preserving a second-rate system.
Harsh perhaps but maybe harshness and kick in the ass is what we need.
Correct. When I was a kid in Montreal in the 1960s if you need to see your doctor he was a short drive away, access to hospital care was easy, the Montreal General Hospital , the Royal Victoria, the Jewish General, Montreal Children’s Hospital all world class. Today the state bureaucracy has destroyed the Canadian health system, rationed care, waiting lists and MAID. Horrible and frightening.
This piece deserves more than the glib - though heartfelt - remark I am about to make. This Saskatchewanian, born and raised, though now living outside Canada, would gladly join the United States on one condition: that Quebec NEVER be allowed to join. The people of the West have had enough of them. Bon debarras!
Your feelings are understandable but the unity demonstrated by those from Alberta and Quebec during the Freedom Convoy show what is possible when we are facing an intolerable evil oppressing us. As Julius points out "once strong, emotionally-held ideological beliefs become embedded in the human psyche, they are virtually impossible to dislodge." English and French speaking Canadians are both brainwashed by their beliefs which are different though similarly harmful and constraining.
Now is the time to set provincial mentality aside and think about a better continental reality for the future. Trump is an agent for change not the ultimate solution. We should seek peaceful solutions at home and abroad to transcend our mundane temporal concerns. The first step should be dialogue and an attempt at mutual understanding rather than economic and military threats and retaliation.
On the Freedom Convoy... yes citizens throughout Canada got involved in a peaceful and well deserved protest. Then came the reprehensible plan of Royal Bank of Canada CEO, David McKay and Chrystia Freeland. They directed "we need to designate the [Truckers] group as terrorists, seize their assets, and impair them," which is exactly what happened. Don't bank at the RBC or vote Liberal ever again. No penalties for McKay and Freeland whose directive resulted in a criminal trials of the Truckers that are still going on.
Some are peaceful protestors still in jail for trying to do a public service. Maybe the breakup of Canada in its present form is the way to go under the circumstances.
100%. That province has more social programs paid for by wealth transfer from Alberta and BC then any other province. All the Quebecers duo is complain and ask for more more more. It is never enough. I agree. Let them see what it feel like to earn your own. only instead of spending some other provinces hard earned money. definitely agree.
Yes, of course. Unfortunately BC has had a commie Gov in for so long and apparently although I have not spoken to one British Clumbian who voted NDP, they got in again after 3 weeks of working the numbers....so technically I am not sure if we contribute much. Sask I cannot say. I will leave that to you. Alberta however has held up Ontario and Quebec and the Eastern provinces since back in the 70's when fishing was closed. It's is like some idiot Cdn commentator 'Frum' I believe was talking about how Columbia has the largest distribution of cut flowers but the idiot doesn't know that only occurred..... designed to kill all of the cut flower growers in America so Columbia could have something to export besides drugs....the whole things is just complete bunk. Sorry I went off on another tangent.
I understand. I'm in Quebec. Of all places to be born in the context laid out here.
I have no idea how Quebec would play into this. Knowing the nationalists, they'd opt out of the force field. The people? Dunno. At which point, I'd have to upend my life which I don't want to do but may be forced to do so. I'm chatting with family in the U.S. I want in if it happens. Not out. Tired of being in the minority. Covid, Quebec nationalism, Liberal/NDP tyranny. Tired of it all.
I wonder if we even have the ability to appreciate genius only in the rear view mirror, and not in real time? I just finished watching all 42 hrs of the Bucky Fuller archives: WTF! This will take repeat viewings to grok his way of thinking. Compression vs Tension, and how the former imprisoned architects for millennia vs. how the latter is the way out (why boron was the missing element)
Buckminster Fuller - Everything I Know - Part 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Too bad posterity does not have a similar JR archive. Maybe today’s crop of super-smart podcasters will start building such a resource (I hope said interviewers aren’t shallow, stupid, slow, vacuous.
What Richard Feynman was to Physics, and Raymond Peat to Biology, Julius may prove to be on that level as observer, chronicler and genius-level critic.
As a Canadian of 60+ years, I am almost embarrassed at my level of comfortable naïve beliefs. Multiculturalism was, well, in the air and a “given” like so many other unexamined Canadian comforts. It’s a new day and folks had better gather their wits and think on the fly (i.e. in real time). Bobble-headed drive-by snipers waste everyone’s time. Unless you have something to contribute, please go back to enjoying your ersatz latte from Tim’s, imagining yourself on the Champs-Elysees with all of your beret-wearing influencers, k?
JR, you have lit a slow fuse around so many long-ingrained Canadian sophistries that it will take me some time to unearth them into the cold light of day.
Thank you brother. Your hard work and loyalty do not go unnoticed.
Excellent view of our decline country. I am a business owner self employed for 35 years. The decline in our country over this time has been astounding.
We are being forced out of our homes and businesses by too many immigrants and absolutely criminal government policies.
Our present federal government has caused more harm to the country than almost any government prior to it. The only other one that has caused almost as much damage is Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
We the true Canadians need to wake up and take back our country before it’s too late.
I fully understand why they are taking the approach south of the border, we need to step up and do the same here.
Get rid of all the criminal gangs, and politicians!
A tour de force Julius, thank-you. Having slogged my way through both volumes of the Fourth Turning, your analysis for the future seems very likely. Like other parts of the British Empire, Canada was never meant to be an independent country. Its purpose was to serve the Empire as a source of men and material to fight its wars. With the collapse of the British Empire, Canada has turned into a mini empire itself with the regions as colonies meant to serve the center. Trump is offering Canadians a singular opportunity to be part of the next North America saeculum. Unfortunately much of central Canada, BC and the Maritimes are perfectly satisfied with the status quo and will fight to maintain their identity as “not American.” As Bruce Pardy has suggested, the most likely way forward will be referenda in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador to join the US, possibly as states but at least with a clear path to statehood.
Well said….”Canada” was the creation of British imperialists in the 19th C as a blockade to US expansion into British territories in NA, and act as a wedge on behalf of British power. The trappings of Canadian “identity” - maple leaf flags, bilingualism, healthcare, etc were created to buttress the power of Canadas unaccountable ruling oligarchy, the so called leftist Laurentian elite, that Toronto Montreal Ottawa triangle of power which subordinates all other regions into a kind of neo colonial possession. It will never change. For decades “Canada” has been flying under the radar, mooching off the Pentagon, erecting barriers against US competition in favoured sectors, banking, food and dairy building a global drug transshipment and distribution network, laundering money, you know all the usual stuff, until one day when there’s a new guy in the WH and he looks up and says WTF? We can only hope that what’s happening to the USAid files might happen on this side of the “undefended border” lol.
“the most likely way forward will be referenda in Alberta and Newfoundland & Labrador to join the US” … AND everywhere in Ontario outside the GTA and Ottawa.
Everything that I thought I knew and believed about so many things has been utterly broken open and turned upside down by the events of the past 5 years and everything I have read in order to try to understand what has happened. In retrospect, I see The Convoy was a last blast of hope for Canada, for turning the tide against the Totalitarian Globalists and winning back our True North, Strong and Free. That died when the jackboots stomped on peaceful protestors.
The Canada that I grew up with is gone and has been for a very long time. It left us, just like the Liberal party left the centre and dashed off the cliff of cultural marxism.
Time for a fresh start and agree whole heartedly that Canadians deserve to negotiate with the US to be liberated from the farcical "government" that we have now.
Deeply informative. Yes, it should be required reading. Some thoughts: the global socialists are desperately trying to set up Canada as a necessary component in their agenda. They have lost the Ukraine and are losing many other countries so they are attempting to retrench in Canada. I actually doubt the O'Leary option will occur. He came in, chatted with Trump and is now out of the picture. Why? Because nothing less than annexation will stop the globalists. Mere control of the Canadian territory won't stop them, they will continue to drive ahead on their agenda. It has to be annexation. Full control.
Will Canada take it? The politicians won't, but increasingly on X I hear the voices of Canadians saying let's do this. What will make or break the situation? When Trump abolishes income tax and Canadians see that. Also, Trump tends to put out messages after he has already figured out what he wants, or has accomplished his objective. In this case, a picture of the entire North American continent with the American flag as the North American continent. It's a done deal already.
Re: tankers being allowed to access eastern ports but not the ones on the western coast
Rumour has it that the Trudeau grandfather had a stake in oil importation via the St Lawrence seaway and also in the Maritimes through an oil importer there.
So the question is…does the Prime Minister Trudeau still own portions of what his grandfather built. Ie is he profiting from oil importation from the east coast. Is this why ships are allowed access there but not on the west coast?
This was a hell of an article Julius. Very well thought out.
You touched briefly on the Electoral college impact of adding Canada as a state/states but it would be much more than that. How many House seats would get allocated to the state/states of Canada? 50? 100? More? How many senate seats? 10 provinces -> 10 states -> 20 senate seats? Probably 80% of both of them that would be almost permanently blue?
I'm a Canadian now living in the US, exactly because of the reasons you outlined in this exceptional essay. I don't want this end-game. The reason this sad state of affairs was allowed to continue so long is because the previous administration was as compromised as Canada is, perhaps even by the same compromisers. Merging them likely returns the compromisers back to permanent power.
Regarding the numerical composition of the formerly Canadian portion, I would not be tied to existing province / state structure. All of Canada is obviously too much for a single state jurisdiction, with only two Senate seats and House representation of California magnitude. Similarly, using the existing Canadian structure of ten or (Heaven help us) thirteen is also unworkable. The Territorial status of Puerto Rico has some merit if it is combined with the development of the area of the Louisiana Purchase, with certain areas, with similar societies would vote to apply for Statehood and subsequently be granted Statehood as their level of development dictated. Alberta is the obvious first thought but Newfoundland and Labrador also comes to mind. This would allow for a more gradual increase in the now closely equal Senate and House. Anyway, thanks for an interesting read. Eric1MacLeod on X.
John, Eric, and Linda, agreed on all points and thank you for your kind words about my article!
The risk of tipping the US into Democrat hands, for generations, is definitely the biggest danger to this strategy. I also think that the existing structure of the provinces would have to be rethought — there's actually no law preventing provincial borders from being redrawn in either the US or Canada. Another point that others have made is that once Canadians are liberated from the propaganda, the high taxation, etc, there is a good probability that there would be a massive shift towards conservatism — there are quite a few stories of hardcore liberals moving to America and rapidly shedding their liberal skin as the experience of living under their new Constitution changed them.
One of the most out-of-the-box ideas to offset this risk would be to split some of the mega-cities out as their own city-states (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, etc) — it sounds nuts... except that is exactly what was done when Germany became a republic with the city-states of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin, whose municipal boundaries are also the provincial boundaries — it would defuse a lot of the urban-rural tensions and while simultaneously preserving a more equal Democrat/Republician electoral balance to keep both US parties happy.
Canada is ultimately quite conservative outside of the big urban centers, so it wouldn't be too difficult to create a workable conservative/liberal split if we're willing to take a bold axe to existing provincial borders on our way to US statehood. Ironically, there's nothing preventing US states from doing something similar — everyone would be a lot better off if some of the biggest US cities were split out from the rest of their states. The time to make these changes would be during a US-Canada merger when big changes are suddenly possible that are otherwise not.
The Holy Roman Empire that existed in central Europe until the early 1800s was comprised of a flexible number of semi-autonomous micro-states, peaking at 1200 members! It sounds chaotic, yet the empire lasted over 1000 years, as long as the Western Roman Empire, and ironically became less rather than more decentralied over its history in part because of the push-pull created by having so many local micro-jurisdictions defending their autonomy in the overall political system - it is the only empire that ever resisted the forces of centralized power that I am aware of. Might be worth a future article to flesh this out.😃
thanks for this Julius. Creating city states makes a lot of sense. You've mentioned it before and anyone can observe the voting patterns of city/rural & we live in 2 differing realities. Perhaps rural Alberta has more in common with rural Ontario than they do in Calgary & Edmonton?
Agree. One of the key issues of this article is where Canadian "states" and their electoral votes will side. Wishing that the voting population wakes up and moves away from the politically left is something I am unwilling to risk. However, I am not "armed" with intelligence about the Canadian population, and their true values.
This has to be addressed before allowing Canada in, otherwise it would destroy America.
It's one of the reasons why I have been floating the idea of splitting out the mega-cities (like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, etc) as their own micro-states, like Hamburg, Berlin, or Bremen in Germany (all city-states), as this would not only defuse the rural-urban tensions, but it would create an equal number of democrat and republican states to add to the union since our provinces are all actually quite conservative once you remove the mega-cities from the equation. It's out-of-the-box thinking, but it's the only way to guarantee that Canada wouldn't destabilize america's political balance and deliver us into the hands of the Dems/globalists for generations.
A good essay, but the problem is far deeper than you think. The problem is a pernicious set of ideas that has infected and corrupted both US and Canadian populations. Let's hear again from Steve Bannon (during interview): "I'm not a conservative. I think conservatives are pussies. The Republican party is a bunch of pussies. They're controlled opposition."
Conservatives and the masses that support them are stupid, because they don't understand the real-world consequences of what they believe in. They are unable to effectively fight leftism, because they have the same basic beliefs that comprise the moral foundations of leftism. The most pernicious of these beliefs is racial equality (implicit in civic nationalism). Unless conservatives discard racial equality, and instead embrace race realism, they will always be unwitting pawns of the left, ceding moral authority to leftists as they continue taking over every facet of society. As proof, conservatives have conserved nothing over the last 70 years, not even women's bathrooms.
Your beliefs have consequences, and rotten beliefs have rotten consequences. By their fruits ye shall know them. Regardless of what Trump can do, it may be too late to change the beliefs of the clueless masses, and thereby save western nations. Feelings trump the ordered thinking necessary to conceive of truly moral alternatives, because mindless virtue signaling and sanctimony just feel so damned good. The masses are the momentum that keeps society hurtling towards the abyss. And I'm probably just casting pearls before swine.
Wow, so well constructed and laid out, Julius! Kudos!! Be sure to send copies to any and all US politicians that may have Trump's ear... Thomas Massie, Musk, Senators Kennedy and Paul, to name a few! CC a copy to Randy Hillier too!!
I would add crucial to the optimistic scenario would be media, social media & selling the idea. Personally I was shocked visiting America and seeing how much cheaper their phone plans, banking services, gas, credit card fees, etc are. Despite the economic integration on the top level Canada is plagued with regulatory fiefdoms which serve to create oligopolies (the banks, telecoms, grocery stores).
The post-nation state of Canada primarily defines itself as "not-American" (and superficially "kind"). Redefining a national identity would be difficult and time consuming, though needed.
Proposing frameworks demonstrating the pros and cons would be a logical next step. Steel Manning.
Law Prof. Bruce Pardy at Queen's University is making a similar case to that of Julius Ruechel. As he sees it, the COVID debacle illustrated all too clearly the many problems that go back to Canada's extremely flawed Constitution that he considers very inferior to the legal infrastructure of the US Constitution.
The most likely scenario right now is for Alberta government and the Trump government to continue their tango. The lower tariff rate for Alberta oil is bound to open up internal tensions within Canada. There will not be much sympathy in Alberta for the fate awaiting Ontario cars, Quebec milk, etc. Many in Alberta would welcome moving out from under Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa imperium associated with the "Laurentian elites." With the backing of his WEF mentors, Trudeau ran Canada into the ground and there would be a certain poetic eloquence in seeing his reign of thuggery, criminality, and bigoted intolerance, culminate in Canada's coming apart in its present form. The USA, however, is also subject to major internal divisions that may become a factor in some geopolitical rejigging.
The fact that Washington DC is bought and paid for by some really reprehensible lobbies needs also to be taken into consideration. Trump did get elected but he seems to be pretty much a puppet of the usual suspects that also dominate decision making in Canada and many other countries. What must we do to get any relief from that ruthless bunch? How much can really change while they are in charge?
I've written at some length about the historical background of the 51st state/ tariff uncertainties. See
Wow! I’ve been a big fan since Covid started. As a business owner in Ontario, I’ve been watching this unfold for 40 years. I kept thinking that Canada would some day come to its senses and change for the better. As you so brilliantly lay out, that didn’t happen. I truly believe we are at cross roads without leadership to guide us to better pastures. I would gladly be an American state. But sadly, I don’t represent but a small fraction of the population. Thanks Julius for putting into words what I’m not capable of doing. I’m in total agreement with you.
I went to New Hampshire, and I was amazed and shocked to hear they don't pay INCOME Tax nor Property Taxes.. and their streets their infrastructure was totally well kept!
And no seat belt laws. When Gov. Sununu declared a mask mandate, my friend's town in NH held a town meeting and voted it down. And there wasn't a lick the Gov could do. THAT'S democracy. In Canada, it was one gigantic scary Covid blanket operating in lockstep from top to bottom and bottom to top. Canadians think this kind of one size fits all obedience is better than the scenario I just described. Remember, De Toqueville visited America to watch democracy in action for a reason. Not Canada.
God Bless New Hampshire!! what a beautiful FREE state, TOO much control here, love their Liquor Stores, I got liquor from Europe YOU never NEVER get in Canada! such a shame!!
Yes, I often found myself passing through NH and Montpelier in VT on my way back from vacation down south.
Im with you. Lived my life in Ontario but now terrified for my grandchildren. Either we accept the trump deal or I will migrate my family south.
agreed whole heartedly
Not a “small fraction” of the population. Up to 40% in AB, for obvious reasons. Approx the same for young men under age 40.
Oh dear Dan. Did you even read the article?
Sadly there are millions of Canadians who have bought the non stop propaganda of the Canadian ruling elite, centered in the Toronto Montreal Ottawa triangle. The state controlled media CBC amplifies the Canada superiority narrative clinging to Canadas collapsing heath care and lack of gun violence (lol) as differentiators. Canada has become the East Germany of North America and we know what happened to the GDR.
I have no compulsion to advance anything your way. That article exposed canadians lack of maturing across multiple levels of life/governance. Your comment was simplistic anti american sentiment. Heres 👇another good dose of reality for you..the world is changing quickly & your negatives already sound childish to those aware of current reality https://eko.substack.com/p/override
This writing should be required reading for ALL Canadians...and Americans. Reality is often difficult to swallow especially when faced with worldly corruption. While the preamble to the Constitution of the United States remains a human light in man's darkness, in the end it will only be the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life that builds a lasting Kingdom. Be....in the Word.
totally aggree, Canadians are going to taste the sad poverty and destitute like Europe did with wars.. Canadians NEED to let go of daddy government and the false lies of the Indigenous!
It might be fair to note however, that the US just missed following our friends to the north off the same cliff. It would have looked different, and may have become a bit violent, because of our federalist system.
The US is in the midst of purging the globalist anti-freedom actors within its own government. Once that is complete the democrat party in the US will be a fraction of its current size until a more reasonable opposing party evolves, which it will, just like when the Whigs disappeared.
If we could just get rid of Cuba's government and turn it into a playground of the Americas, think how much fun that would be.
I absolutely agree.
You’ve done an incredible job making the case for Canada to become the 51st state, something I’ve agreed with from the beginning, for some of the reasons you stated and many more I had not considered. The historical perspective and overall analysis is flawless. Thank you Julius for taking on this most important issue and making a bullet proof argument.
It’s time for Canada to do what it should have done from the very beginning.
Thank you Kate! "It’s time for Canada to do what it should have done from the very beginning." — 100% agree.
I sometimes feel like I would be unrecognizable to myself from as recently as 10 years ago when I consider how far my views have shifted as I keep peeling back the layers — I distinctly remember the patriotic emotions on Parliament Hill a few years before Covid as they played the anthem at the end of their summer light show, with the whole crowd singing along, hat over heart. Not anymore. It's painful yet liberating to see behind the curtain! Cheers, Julius 🙏
As an American, we would gladly have Canada and pursue a grand re-opening of the West and North. It would fuel prosperity for 100 years. The choice is basically to give into the global elite and have a post national social/communist debt slavery, or join the US as part of the core of the U.S. empire.
Caution is required here. It might look good while Trump is around but they next President may be just like Biden. Be careful what you wish for. Canada used to be a beautiful, healthy, wonderful place to live. I remember it well.
what happens to our universal health care
Have you or a loved one required the services of a Canadian hospital recently?...or had the misfortune of trying to find a family doctor?
Canadian 'health care' is definitely NOT what it once was and definitely NOT worth clinging to in the face of what our nation has become.
What about it? it's prehistoric to the point of inhumane. Why do people want to protect something so dysfunctional and with little appetite to reform? In Europe, you can CALL a doctor and they show up at your house. You can be in the outskirts of Rome or the Austrian alps and you'll get a doctor. Here, millions can't even get a GP and without one you can't see a specialist. Doesn't work like that in Europe. Outsiders know ( I own a business with transient people temporarily living in Canada and the #1 criticism they have is our "free" system) the system we brag so much about is garbage and we need to acknowledged this in order to actually do something about it and force reforms.
And YES, this MUST include a private option just like in Europe. We have the most rigid system in the world.
Here are the Americans coming in and offering access to their GARGANTUAN market with a shot a real prosperity (I hope anyway) and we're worried about preserving a second-rate system.
Harsh perhaps but maybe harshness and kick in the ass is what we need.
Cheers.
Correct. When I was a kid in Montreal in the 1960s if you need to see your doctor he was a short drive away, access to hospital care was easy, the Montreal General Hospital , the Royal Victoria, the Jewish General, Montreal Children’s Hospital all world class. Today the state bureaucracy has destroyed the Canadian health system, rationed care, waiting lists and MAID. Horrible and frightening.
That's where i am. Montreal. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and it was starting its slow descent. Quebec is among the worst of the provinces.
I believe some states have universal health care or nearly.
Texan here. Both Massachusetts and Hawaii have something akin to universal health care. I don't know the details.
This piece deserves more than the glib - though heartfelt - remark I am about to make. This Saskatchewanian, born and raised, though now living outside Canada, would gladly join the United States on one condition: that Quebec NEVER be allowed to join. The people of the West have had enough of them. Bon debarras!
Your feelings are understandable but the unity demonstrated by those from Alberta and Quebec during the Freedom Convoy show what is possible when we are facing an intolerable evil oppressing us. As Julius points out "once strong, emotionally-held ideological beliefs become embedded in the human psyche, they are virtually impossible to dislodge." English and French speaking Canadians are both brainwashed by their beliefs which are different though similarly harmful and constraining.
Now is the time to set provincial mentality aside and think about a better continental reality for the future. Trump is an agent for change not the ultimate solution. We should seek peaceful solutions at home and abroad to transcend our mundane temporal concerns. The first step should be dialogue and an attempt at mutual understanding rather than economic and military threats and retaliation.
On the Freedom Convoy... yes citizens throughout Canada got involved in a peaceful and well deserved protest. Then came the reprehensible plan of Royal Bank of Canada CEO, David McKay and Chrystia Freeland. They directed "we need to designate the [Truckers] group as terrorists, seize their assets, and impair them," which is exactly what happened. Don't bank at the RBC or vote Liberal ever again. No penalties for McKay and Freeland whose directive resulted in a criminal trials of the Truckers that are still going on.
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/canada-is-older-than-the-usa
Some are peaceful protestors still in jail for trying to do a public service. Maybe the breakup of Canada in its present form is the way to go under the circumstances.
Hmmm ... sounds like the J6 political prisoners' situation in the US.
Also, it would seem that Quebec and all the provinces would have more autonomy as states.
Did Grok AI write that for you? What a load of shite.
He’s 100% accurate.
How many cats do you own, Jan? His bland, woke, meandering statement sound like something only a cat lady could defend.
100%. That province has more social programs paid for by wealth transfer from Alberta and BC then any other province. All the Quebecers duo is complain and ask for more more more. It is never enough. I agree. Let them see what it feel like to earn your own. only instead of spending some other provinces hard earned money. definitely agree.
And Saskatchewan, thank you very much!
Yes, of course. Unfortunately BC has had a commie Gov in for so long and apparently although I have not spoken to one British Clumbian who voted NDP, they got in again after 3 weeks of working the numbers....so technically I am not sure if we contribute much. Sask I cannot say. I will leave that to you. Alberta however has held up Ontario and Quebec and the Eastern provinces since back in the 70's when fishing was closed. It's is like some idiot Cdn commentator 'Frum' I believe was talking about how Columbia has the largest distribution of cut flowers but the idiot doesn't know that only occurred..... designed to kill all of the cut flower growers in America so Columbia could have something to export besides drugs....the whole things is just complete bunk. Sorry I went off on another tangent.
I understand. I'm in Quebec. Of all places to be born in the context laid out here.
I have no idea how Quebec would play into this. Knowing the nationalists, they'd opt out of the force field. The people? Dunno. At which point, I'd have to upend my life which I don't want to do but may be forced to do so. I'm chatting with family in the U.S. I want in if it happens. Not out. Tired of being in the minority. Covid, Quebec nationalism, Liberal/NDP tyranny. Tired of it all.
I wonder if we even have the ability to appreciate genius only in the rear view mirror, and not in real time? I just finished watching all 42 hrs of the Bucky Fuller archives: WTF! This will take repeat viewings to grok his way of thinking. Compression vs Tension, and how the former imprisoned architects for millennia vs. how the latter is the way out (why boron was the missing element)
Buckminster Fuller - Everything I Know - Part 2 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Too bad posterity does not have a similar JR archive. Maybe today’s crop of super-smart podcasters will start building such a resource (I hope said interviewers aren’t shallow, stupid, slow, vacuous.
What Richard Feynman was to Physics, and Raymond Peat to Biology, Julius may prove to be on that level as observer, chronicler and genius-level critic.
As a Canadian of 60+ years, I am almost embarrassed at my level of comfortable naïve beliefs. Multiculturalism was, well, in the air and a “given” like so many other unexamined Canadian comforts. It’s a new day and folks had better gather their wits and think on the fly (i.e. in real time). Bobble-headed drive-by snipers waste everyone’s time. Unless you have something to contribute, please go back to enjoying your ersatz latte from Tim’s, imagining yourself on the Champs-Elysees with all of your beret-wearing influencers, k?
JR, you have lit a slow fuse around so many long-ingrained Canadian sophistries that it will take me some time to unearth them into the cold light of day.
Thank you brother. Your hard work and loyalty do not go unnoticed.
Thank you Lenny! I'm honored by your compliments! 🙏🙏🙏
Fuller is one of the all-time great minds.
Excellent view of our decline country. I am a business owner self employed for 35 years. The decline in our country over this time has been astounding.
We are being forced out of our homes and businesses by too many immigrants and absolutely criminal government policies.
Our present federal government has caused more harm to the country than almost any government prior to it. The only other one that has caused almost as much damage is Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
We the true Canadians need to wake up and take back our country before it’s too late.
I fully understand why they are taking the approach south of the border, we need to step up and do the same here.
Get rid of all the criminal gangs, and politicians!
I bet you don't live in Alberta.
A tour de force Julius, thank-you. Having slogged my way through both volumes of the Fourth Turning, your analysis for the future seems very likely. Like other parts of the British Empire, Canada was never meant to be an independent country. Its purpose was to serve the Empire as a source of men and material to fight its wars. With the collapse of the British Empire, Canada has turned into a mini empire itself with the regions as colonies meant to serve the center. Trump is offering Canadians a singular opportunity to be part of the next North America saeculum. Unfortunately much of central Canada, BC and the Maritimes are perfectly satisfied with the status quo and will fight to maintain their identity as “not American.” As Bruce Pardy has suggested, the most likely way forward will be referenda in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador to join the US, possibly as states but at least with a clear path to statehood.
Thank you Hugh! Your description of Canada's history and purpose sums it up perfectly!
The Fourth Turning is a must-read! What Bruce Pardy laid out seems very possible as those least happy with Confederation break away first.
Well said….”Canada” was the creation of British imperialists in the 19th C as a blockade to US expansion into British territories in NA, and act as a wedge on behalf of British power. The trappings of Canadian “identity” - maple leaf flags, bilingualism, healthcare, etc were created to buttress the power of Canadas unaccountable ruling oligarchy, the so called leftist Laurentian elite, that Toronto Montreal Ottawa triangle of power which subordinates all other regions into a kind of neo colonial possession. It will never change. For decades “Canada” has been flying under the radar, mooching off the Pentagon, erecting barriers against US competition in favoured sectors, banking, food and dairy building a global drug transshipment and distribution network, laundering money, you know all the usual stuff, until one day when there’s a new guy in the WH and he looks up and says WTF? We can only hope that what’s happening to the USAid files might happen on this side of the “undefended border” lol.
“the most likely way forward will be referenda in Alberta and Newfoundland & Labrador to join the US” … AND everywhere in Ontario outside the GTA and Ottawa.
Everything that I thought I knew and believed about so many things has been utterly broken open and turned upside down by the events of the past 5 years and everything I have read in order to try to understand what has happened. In retrospect, I see The Convoy was a last blast of hope for Canada, for turning the tide against the Totalitarian Globalists and winning back our True North, Strong and Free. That died when the jackboots stomped on peaceful protestors.
The Canada that I grew up with is gone and has been for a very long time. It left us, just like the Liberal party left the centre and dashed off the cliff of cultural marxism.
Time for a fresh start and agree whole heartedly that Canadians deserve to negotiate with the US to be liberated from the farcical "government" that we have now.
Deeply informative. Yes, it should be required reading. Some thoughts: the global socialists are desperately trying to set up Canada as a necessary component in their agenda. They have lost the Ukraine and are losing many other countries so they are attempting to retrench in Canada. I actually doubt the O'Leary option will occur. He came in, chatted with Trump and is now out of the picture. Why? Because nothing less than annexation will stop the globalists. Mere control of the Canadian territory won't stop them, they will continue to drive ahead on their agenda. It has to be annexation. Full control.
Will Canada take it? The politicians won't, but increasingly on X I hear the voices of Canadians saying let's do this. What will make or break the situation? When Trump abolishes income tax and Canadians see that. Also, Trump tends to put out messages after he has already figured out what he wants, or has accomplished his objective. In this case, a picture of the entire North American continent with the American flag as the North American continent. It's a done deal already.
Re: tankers being allowed to access eastern ports but not the ones on the western coast
Rumour has it that the Trudeau grandfather had a stake in oil importation via the St Lawrence seaway and also in the Maritimes through an oil importer there.
So the question is…does the Prime Minister Trudeau still own portions of what his grandfather built. Ie is he profiting from oil importation from the east coast. Is this why ships are allowed access there but not on the west coast?
It deserves some investigation at the very least!
👀 interesting question indeed!
If my memory serves it was a chain of retail gas stations Trudeau’s were involved in. Not sure of current ownership…
This was a hell of an article Julius. Very well thought out.
You touched briefly on the Electoral college impact of adding Canada as a state/states but it would be much more than that. How many House seats would get allocated to the state/states of Canada? 50? 100? More? How many senate seats? 10 provinces -> 10 states -> 20 senate seats? Probably 80% of both of them that would be almost permanently blue?
I'm a Canadian now living in the US, exactly because of the reasons you outlined in this exceptional essay. I don't want this end-game. The reason this sad state of affairs was allowed to continue so long is because the previous administration was as compromised as Canada is, perhaps even by the same compromisers. Merging them likely returns the compromisers back to permanent power.
John, (and Julius too I hope) -
Regarding the numerical composition of the formerly Canadian portion, I would not be tied to existing province / state structure. All of Canada is obviously too much for a single state jurisdiction, with only two Senate seats and House representation of California magnitude. Similarly, using the existing Canadian structure of ten or (Heaven help us) thirteen is also unworkable. The Territorial status of Puerto Rico has some merit if it is combined with the development of the area of the Louisiana Purchase, with certain areas, with similar societies would vote to apply for Statehood and subsequently be granted Statehood as their level of development dictated. Alberta is the obvious first thought but Newfoundland and Labrador also comes to mind. This would allow for a more gradual increase in the now closely equal Senate and House. Anyway, thanks for an interesting read. Eric1MacLeod on X.
John, Eric, and Linda, agreed on all points and thank you for your kind words about my article!
The risk of tipping the US into Democrat hands, for generations, is definitely the biggest danger to this strategy. I also think that the existing structure of the provinces would have to be rethought — there's actually no law preventing provincial borders from being redrawn in either the US or Canada. Another point that others have made is that once Canadians are liberated from the propaganda, the high taxation, etc, there is a good probability that there would be a massive shift towards conservatism — there are quite a few stories of hardcore liberals moving to America and rapidly shedding their liberal skin as the experience of living under their new Constitution changed them.
One of the most out-of-the-box ideas to offset this risk would be to split some of the mega-cities out as their own city-states (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, etc) — it sounds nuts... except that is exactly what was done when Germany became a republic with the city-states of Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin, whose municipal boundaries are also the provincial boundaries — it would defuse a lot of the urban-rural tensions and while simultaneously preserving a more equal Democrat/Republician electoral balance to keep both US parties happy.
Canada is ultimately quite conservative outside of the big urban centers, so it wouldn't be too difficult to create a workable conservative/liberal split if we're willing to take a bold axe to existing provincial borders on our way to US statehood. Ironically, there's nothing preventing US states from doing something similar — everyone would be a lot better off if some of the biggest US cities were split out from the rest of their states. The time to make these changes would be during a US-Canada merger when big changes are suddenly possible that are otherwise not.
The Holy Roman Empire that existed in central Europe until the early 1800s was comprised of a flexible number of semi-autonomous micro-states, peaking at 1200 members! It sounds chaotic, yet the empire lasted over 1000 years, as long as the Western Roman Empire, and ironically became less rather than more decentralied over its history in part because of the push-pull created by having so many local micro-jurisdictions defending their autonomy in the overall political system - it is the only empire that ever resisted the forces of centralized power that I am aware of. Might be worth a future article to flesh this out.😃
thanks for this Julius. Creating city states makes a lot of sense. You've mentioned it before and anyone can observe the voting patterns of city/rural & we live in 2 differing realities. Perhaps rural Alberta has more in common with rural Ontario than they do in Calgary & Edmonton?
And more in common with BC outside the lower mainland & the Island. Anyone connected to the land in Canada is bound to be more conservative.
Yes please for a future article on the HRE.
Agree. One of the key issues of this article is where Canadian "states" and their electoral votes will side. Wishing that the voting population wakes up and moves away from the politically left is something I am unwilling to risk. However, I am not "armed" with intelligence about the Canadian population, and their true values.
This has to be addressed before allowing Canada in, otherwise it would destroy America.
It's one of the reasons why I have been floating the idea of splitting out the mega-cities (like Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, etc) as their own micro-states, like Hamburg, Berlin, or Bremen in Germany (all city-states), as this would not only defuse the rural-urban tensions, but it would create an equal number of democrat and republican states to add to the union since our provinces are all actually quite conservative once you remove the mega-cities from the equation. It's out-of-the-box thinking, but it's the only way to guarantee that Canada wouldn't destabilize america's political balance and deliver us into the hands of the Dems/globalists for generations.
A good essay, but the problem is far deeper than you think. The problem is a pernicious set of ideas that has infected and corrupted both US and Canadian populations. Let's hear again from Steve Bannon (during interview): "I'm not a conservative. I think conservatives are pussies. The Republican party is a bunch of pussies. They're controlled opposition."
Conservatives and the masses that support them are stupid, because they don't understand the real-world consequences of what they believe in. They are unable to effectively fight leftism, because they have the same basic beliefs that comprise the moral foundations of leftism. The most pernicious of these beliefs is racial equality (implicit in civic nationalism). Unless conservatives discard racial equality, and instead embrace race realism, they will always be unwitting pawns of the left, ceding moral authority to leftists as they continue taking over every facet of society. As proof, conservatives have conserved nothing over the last 70 years, not even women's bathrooms.
Your beliefs have consequences, and rotten beliefs have rotten consequences. By their fruits ye shall know them. Regardless of what Trump can do, it may be too late to change the beliefs of the clueless masses, and thereby save western nations. Feelings trump the ordered thinking necessary to conceive of truly moral alternatives, because mindless virtue signaling and sanctimony just feel so damned good. The masses are the momentum that keeps society hurtling towards the abyss. And I'm probably just casting pearls before swine.
Most people don't have time to think, and would not allow themselves to think.
Wow, so well constructed and laid out, Julius! Kudos!! Be sure to send copies to any and all US politicians that may have Trump's ear... Thomas Massie, Musk, Senators Kennedy and Paul, to name a few! CC a copy to Randy Hillier too!!
Excellent exposition. Hard truths that need to be spoken!
Excellent piece.
I would add crucial to the optimistic scenario would be media, social media & selling the idea. Personally I was shocked visiting America and seeing how much cheaper their phone plans, banking services, gas, credit card fees, etc are. Despite the economic integration on the top level Canada is plagued with regulatory fiefdoms which serve to create oligopolies (the banks, telecoms, grocery stores).
The post-nation state of Canada primarily defines itself as "not-American" (and superficially "kind"). Redefining a national identity would be difficult and time consuming, though needed.
Proposing frameworks demonstrating the pros and cons would be a logical next step. Steel Manning.
Law Prof. Bruce Pardy at Queen's University is making a similar case to that of Julius Ruechel. As he sees it, the COVID debacle illustrated all too clearly the many problems that go back to Canada's extremely flawed Constitution that he considers very inferior to the legal infrastructure of the US Constitution.
The most likely scenario right now is for Alberta government and the Trump government to continue their tango. The lower tariff rate for Alberta oil is bound to open up internal tensions within Canada. There will not be much sympathy in Alberta for the fate awaiting Ontario cars, Quebec milk, etc. Many in Alberta would welcome moving out from under Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa imperium associated with the "Laurentian elites." With the backing of his WEF mentors, Trudeau ran Canada into the ground and there would be a certain poetic eloquence in seeing his reign of thuggery, criminality, and bigoted intolerance, culminate in Canada's coming apart in its present form. The USA, however, is also subject to major internal divisions that may become a factor in some geopolitical rejigging.
The fact that Washington DC is bought and paid for by some really reprehensible lobbies needs also to be taken into consideration. Trump did get elected but he seems to be pretty much a puppet of the usual suspects that also dominate decision making in Canada and many other countries. What must we do to get any relief from that ruthless bunch? How much can really change while they are in charge?
I've written at some length about the historical background of the 51st state/ tariff uncertainties. See
https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/canada-is-older-than-the-usa
Good to see you weigh in on this, Anthony. You’re research and connections are much needed on this topic.
As an aside, I did, in fact, move all my assets out of RBC in late 2024.