Eleventh Province !

 

                    Proposed Flag of U.N.A.  Union of North America

 Let us face it ; subtlety is not Donald Trump's strong suite and with him in the white house for the next four years Canada has a challenge on hand with our eleventh province! Apparently Trump's constant barbs about Canada becoming the fifty first state of the USA are a real  thing. At least Justin Trudeau thinks so. Sadly intelligence  never figured on the small list of Trudeau's qualifications. In my opinion Trump was emboldened to make his assertions because "governor Justin" is such a pitiable lightweight! 

It is very amusing but the fact is that 89% of entire land in Canada is currently owned by the crown. Yes the very same king.... of England !  Canadian citizens are "faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George the Sixth, His Heirs and Successors". You can split the hair this way or that way but the fact is that like the American president the English King is not "Canadian" ; never was & never will be ! Canada has always had a compromised sovereignty.

Canada is established on annexed lands belonging to the native population. Force, deceit violence, cruel, illegitimate,oppressive, con and bribery  are the words that easily come to mind. These real Canadians are hidden in reservations and marginalized. I have first hand experience and  found them generally in poor economic and social conditions with hardly any political clout. Under represented in academia, media, industry, government and every power wielding organ; they were reluctant Canadians then and they are helpless Canadians now! 

Let us address the elephant in the room - Quebec! Quebec voters have twice rejected sovereignty, in 1980 by 60-40 but in 1995 by barely a percentage point. Canada has kept them interested by equalization payments; something a lot of people see as bribes.For the year 2025/26 according to government of Canada website ;Quebec will receive C$ 29.3 billion from the federal kitty. Just compare that with C$1.0 billion for New Found land and C$ 977 million for PEI. Then there are language laws and it is an open secret that Quebec has cornered a lions share of federal jobs that tend to be french imperative. Putting all other Canadians at a permanent disadvantage. Just watch how they are shredding Mike Carney to bits because his french language skills are sketchy even though he is a nobody yet.

All this molly coddling is not enough though! Seemingly there is a strong possibility of another Quebec referendum to secede from Canada soon.  Three western Provinces  Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan have long complained about shouldering Canada's fiscal burden and net outflow to eastern Canada. Add that to the federal policy stumbling blocs for oil/gas industry and opposition to new pipelines and they have lent a very keen ear to the 51st state idea. There is some serious talk of even leaving  rest of the Canada behind.

I will not dwell upon the first generation Canadians and the legal immigrants. They have been mostly treated harshly and to their chagrin have found Canada  to be not exactly  as advertised. A lot of them would vote with their feet if they could. Most stay because their bridges are burnt ! Remember how a family was found frozen dead trying to cross into USA from Canada. What do they know that rest ignore? If only Canada was such a promised land!  Asylum seekers of various kind and other such groups have a sweet spot for Canada for lax border controls;  doles and freebies it provides. Stop those cheques and see  for yourself !

Who then is opposed to the 51st state idea ? My children for a start ! Thank God! Where would the world be without the energy, hope, brilliance and idealism of the young. Honestly I have not really conducted any survey but my limited anecdotal evidence tells me that it is the powerful that see the danger of their powers declining or even vanishing entirely if such a calamity ever took place. Again based on my limited sample size the opinion is divided down the middle. Even in the most Canada friendly province of Ontario. There is of course a clear distinction between opinions of haves and have not's. Opinion is also informed by race and ethnicity. I would however consider them all equal Canadians but do recognize the severally widening fault lines and undercurrents of serious discontent. it will have an impact on Canadian Nationhood and acceptance rate of  51st state proposals.

Where do we go from here? Suggestions so far have ranged from asinine to juvenile petulance. From banning Donald Trump from entering Canada and Revoking Elon Musk's citizenship to a proposal for Canada to join CANZUK  as a bulwark against USA. A union of Canada with UK , Australia and New Zealand. Do not laugh;really!  These people would do well by looking at a geographical map of the world and revisiting a page from the history books titled "Brexit"!

 First thing we need is a government. Trudeau government is gasping for breath in ICU and sooner we pull the plug sooner we can start building a response to the crisis. Trudeau's personal political equity is in negative and he is deservedly treated with complete disdain on the world stage. He can not provide leadership and is just scraping by, wasting precious time. Provincial Premiers  have taken various stands. Notably Ontario and Alberta among them. In my view It is just chest thumping  that is more for domestic consumption than anything else. Foreign policy is too serious a matter to be left to local political considerations. I would also discourage dealing with these matters on a province by province  basis. This totally weakens the idea of Canada.

What we can do is understand US concerns. We can see that flow of drugs and illegal migration is hurtful. We can try to understand that we can not wait till 2030 to reach our goal of 2% defence spending and still ride the NATO bus. Usually there is always more left unsaid between the lines that are said and diplomacy is required to address those. Ours is rather questionable, if it is not entirely moribund!

I would rather give a counter offer to president Trump ! Canada is in North America. Not in Europe, not in Australia and certainly not another island next to British shores. Without ruffling their feathers and diminishing existing relationships it is possible to caliberate Canada's relationship with the USA. After all Canada is part of commonwealth and US is not. Europe is together in EU and Canada is excluded from it for obvious reasons.

 

I think Canada and US should form a North American union taking some learning from The EU to see what works and what does not work. I would start with making a common currency and common border controls to begin with. That would completely integrate the economies, remove internal barriers for goods,  services and human resource. This ought to make tariffs obsolete, cut cost; reduce bureaucracy and management of security concerns efficient. It will also allow businesses to expand, use resources optimally and respond better to international economic challenges. It will bring down prices of everything from gas to housing; leading to a better quality of life and economic prosperity for the citizens of both nations. We must Use shared history, Shared values and a shared neighbourhood to our advantage.Both countries can keep their political systems and internal structure as they want. We can be the  51st state as long as US becomes our 11th province. Make North America great !

 

I know it is not so simple but think about it !

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Clever Mouse !

 Clever Mouse! चालाक चूहा !

 

"Be a mouse again" Pen and ink  on paper 14cm X 22cm  Feb.2025. by  Ashutosh Kaul 

Politicians do not come with a lot of recommendations. Typically they are self serving with very flexible scruples and moral values. They make deals all the time; not very transparent or lawful at that. Unfortunately they are part of the system of governance and we can not avoid them altogether. We however can select individuals with integrity, honesty and empathy for public welfare.

Back in 2012 Delhi saw a thin ,emaciated , educated and a very relatable individual come to fore. Arvind Kejriwal was an engineer from  the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology;had worked for the Revenue service and was campaigning against corruption in public life. People took to him like a duck to water! His stated goal was to set up a "lekhpal"; a sort of public commissioner that would ensure probity. He emphasized that he will not be contesting any elections and has no political ambitions ! Public had visions of an altruistic Mahatma Gandhi that has come back to life!

He soon junked that 'absurd' idea  and formed a political party; parting ways with his old mentor Anna Hazare and several other distinguished colleagues of the anti corruption movement. Good thing was that he swore an oath upon his children that he will never support that abysmally corrupt congress party nor will he ever take their support in forming the government. Come election and a hung verdict saw him form the government in Delhi province with the support of....... congress of course!

His personal integrity was still largely intact. Then he came up with  his famous "Delhi" model of governance. This was largely based on taxpayer borne freebies to select voting blocks that ensured electoral majority for himself. It succeeded beyond success and in the next election in 2015 he decimated the opposition.Winning 67 seats out of 70. This is the moment his ambitions got ahead of himself. He considered himself the centre of all that is good in this world and  projected himself for the top job in the country - Prime minister's office. He did contest against the Prime minister in a federal election and.... lost. In the process he shook hands with all kinds and took funds from entities inimical to the country. Anyone in his own party that pointed out these serious digressions from their party's stated goals was unceremoniously booted out. Even his closest associates and founding members of the party were shown the door. Not one or two; dozens had to leave ! He had the reigns of Delhi government though and controlled one of the largest provincial budgets in India.

Money is a great glue.and people still flocked to him. He took his party national and fought various other provincial elections with limited success. One province where he got a lot more purchase was Punjab where he was able to win a majority. Apparently to fund his expansion and huge election costs he accepted funds from dubious sources as well as created a 10 million dollar liquor licensing scam in Delhi.You may get drinking water in Delhi or not but you are never far from a liquor shop. Every street corner has one. Buy One Get One free scheme became common. He was later jailed and prosecuted for this corrupt mess. Currently he is out on bail in this case and professes complete innocence of any wrong doing..

In the meantime another election rolled in and on the back of his freebie strategy he steam rolled the opposition again. He lost a little bit but 62 out of 70 total seats is still a stupendous number! The fellow carried on his merry way. He turned dictatorial, confrontational and very economical with facts. Convinced that he is the next prime minister, he took one bad decision after another; turned his back on one associate after another and went back upon every word  he ever uttered publicly.

His classic assertion  that he does not want trappings of power went out of window when he got 4 heritage buildings torn down to make his 40,000 sq. ft official residence. A palace on 7 acres of land. Anyone that knows Delhi will know that 7 acres of prime residential land there would cost an unbelievably astronomical sum. On top of this he spent 8 times the allocated budget by indulging in creative accounting by breaking down jobs into smaller amounts. That  fell  just a little short of the threshold requiring oversight by the governors office !

Change does not happen overnight, things simmer around for a long time but  arrogant narcissists have their heads so far up their own asses that they fail to see it.  He truly believed that voters are very angry with authorities because he was wrongfully jailed ! In fact he boldly asserted that he will become the premier again only when people vote him in again; no matter the judicial decision in his favour. He was so certain of his victory that he asserted that no body can defeat him in this life! 

Well elections rolled in recently and people gave their verdict and declared him to be corrupt. Fellow dropped 10% support. Enough for him to loose his own seat as well as the seats of every  co accused of corruption in his cabinet. Voter condemnation was quite emphatic.In fact he lost 40 out of 62 seats he originally held. He could not get elected even as a simple member of the legislature , much less its premier ! Talk of over estimation !  Like the classic story the mouse has come a full circle to being a mouse again. This time with his tail between his legs!

He still has about 40% of the vote share in Delhi so can he cover lost ground? It depends! Without power and money that comes with it, it will be hard to keep his flock together. Especially since he does not have any largesse to dole out. I see a significant erosion in his party cadre base as well as   bolting of his second rung leaders. Punjab where his party is in power will be a difficult platform to mount a counter offensive from. He is an outsider there and dictatorial by temperament. Sadly for him Punjab typically does not take orders that well !

According to reports he is currently facing about 50 various criminal cases, from plain lying  to big time financial corruption. He is currently on conditional bail In liquor scam case. Bail specifically granted in light of elections.Elections are over and lost! His defence was being financed by Delhi tax payers. How is he going to pay for his defence now and what kind of time can he spare for politics after the full time job of trying to keep himself out of prison ? Most of his inner coterie is also looking at some quality jail time.

Kejriwal is in worse position today as compared to when he started out in 2012. All he has to show for the last 13 years is a personal image in tatters. I would not hold my breath for a swift recovery !