In her new book, National Post columnist Diane Francis makes the case for the U.S. and Canada forming a united North America
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Veteran National Post columnist Diane Francis has written 10 books. Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country is easily her most ambitious.
Perhaps a little too ambitious, many readers might conclude.
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Plus, what would happen to the CFL? Would we still be permitted to play with three downs?
‘We’ve been dating heavily for generations. So now let’s talk about common law — or even go all the way and get married’.
Moreover, trends in public opinion, especially here in Canada, would seem to go against the grain of Ms. Francis’ thesis. A decade ago, many Canadians were envious of America’s more-vibrant economy, and there was much talk of a “brain drain.” But since the 2008 financial crisis in particular, such talk largely has evaporated, as per-capita GDP levels have equalized between the two nations.
When I raise such concerns, Ms. Francis warns me that I am missing the big picture. In her book, she argues that a “new cold war” is being fought between the U.S.-led west and the Chinese-led east — a war that “divides the world into players who are open and those who are secretive.”
She believes that the increasing Chinese ownership of Canadian resource companies shows that we’re losing this struggle. (Indeed, much of the book is dedicated to raising awareness of Chinese “economic aggression” within Canada’s borders.) And unless we Canadians embrace a full-fledged union with the United States, she argues, we are destined to become “neo-colonial” vassals of Beijing, and victims of Russian gunboat diplomacy in the Arctic Ocean. In a dystopian scenario sketched out by military historian Jack Granatstein in the book’s first chapter, readers are presented with the dubious prospect of whole flotillas of “dope smugglers” and terrorists being ferried through our Arctic waters by Chinese ships.
On the day of our interview, there was fresh news that Ukraine had inked a deal with a Chinese company to lease a full 5% of its land mass to Chinese agricultural operations. When I ask Ms. Francis if this is the type of “neo-colonialist” scenario she fears might play out in Canada, she nods solemnly.
“Canadians aren’t talking about this threat,” she says. “We have a Prime Minister who has been taking some steps [in the Arctic], yes. But then you have the four opposition leaders. Three are from Quebec and that’s what they talk about. And then there’s [the Green Party’s Elizabeth May] from B.C. who wants to turn the country into a giant park. Meanwhile, the world is hungry for our resources. If we don’t develop them [with American help], it might all be taken away from us.”
“The bottom line,” Ms. Francis adds, “is that in this world, you need to be a big player. If Canada is going to be the target of a creeping takeover from a big player, we may as well manage the process, instead of being victimized. That’s what the book is about. For Canada and the United States, one plus one is going to equal four. We’ve been dating heavily for generations. So now let’s talk about common law — or even go all the way and get married.”
— Jonathan Kay is Managing Editor for Comment at the National Post, and a Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.