Talk of Canada becoming the 51st American state has raised an existential question on this side of the border: Could it be done? Could the maple leaf make way to the stars and stripes? According to several experts, it may be possible, but not painless.
“If the Americans wanted to conquer us militarily, I guess so. Otherwise, not really and certainly not in the amount of time the president-elect thinks it would take for this to happen,” says Adam Chapnick, professor of defence studies at the Canadian Forces College in Ontario.
There are several roadblocks that would slow, or stop, the dismantling of the longest undefended border in the world, among them, lengthy constitutional processes on both sides.
What needs to happen?
If U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s plan to use economic might to coerce Canada into joining the U.S. came to pass, Canada would need to essentially disband. That, experts say, would require invoking …