Canada
The United States and Canada are two former British
colonies with very similar fates. The United States came into being first,
through a fierce and prolonged War of Independence (1775-1783). Even then, many
revolutionaries, including Benjamin Franklin, hoped that the British colonies
in the north would revolt and that a new independent state would be created
across the northern continent. This did not happen. The Canadian colonies,
although there were later minor and major movements, remained loyal to the British
crown until the 'end'.
So they did indeed go their
separate ways, and these separate ways still run side by side today. But the
idea of togetherness has persisted throughout, particularly in American
thought, in American political life. It has also been embraced by several very
strong ideological currents, such as the Destiny manifesto.
Well, there are many ways to
approach the question of whether it is realistic, legitimate, beneficial for
Canada to join the United States. But why not? They are indeed two brother
nations, however vague the concept may be. Not to mention the fact that both
societies share a common Indian base, again akin to a kinship, and a strong
multi-ethnic stratum.
With a bit of topical political
malice, one could say that Americans and Canadians are as much real brothers as
Russians and Ukrainians. And how interesting that Canada and Ukraine have
something in common in name. The word Ukrainian means "end-region".
And Canada comes from the word “Kanata”, which means village, "upper
end".
There is no doubt that in recent
decades a distinct Canadian identity has begun to emerge, and it is legitimate
to speak of Canadian nationalism. It may come as a surprise, but in the 19th
century (1812-1815) a full-scale war (6,765 dead and wounded) broke out between
the USA and Canada (then a British colony). Since then, both countries have
called the US-Canada border the 'frontier of peace', which was for a long time
freely crossable and mostly still is, much to Trump's chagrin. Not to mention
that a free trade agreement (NAFTA) between the two countries (of which Mexico
is part) has been in force since 1992.
Regardless of the history, the
reality is that a US-Canada merger would be historic. Many people, for various
reasons, are afraid and reluctant. Some because they believe it would
strengthen Trump and the Trump-ruled USA. One fears the liberal bastion that
Canada has become under Trudeau's government.
Would it be good for the US and
Canada to unite? This question should of course be answered by the Americans
and Canadians first, but no one should be forbidden to have an opinion on this.
And there is not only private opinion, there is public opinion that speaks in
the name of the world and is formed also in the name of the world.
For such world public opinion would presumably be
clearly positive, as it would work in the direction of integration. It has to
be admitted, that - whether it is true or not - this issue will be on the
agenda and will come up sooner or later. There are several reasons to believe
that it will start very soon, in a meaningful way. But however much there is
agreement and serious the intentions, it is certain that this will be a very
long process. There are legal systems, administrative systems, a thousand things
to be reconciled. So there is a lot of work to be done by both sides. Some
processes can perhaps be completed in a couple of years, but overall, for two
such large countries, it may take decades.
But this does not change the point.
So, presumably, a serious integration will start and take place here anyway. I
think that is the most important thing, and it is a very encouraging, positive
development for the world. It is an old recognition that the vast majority of
people are very frightened and terrified by the idea of world government. But
common sense tells us that humanity, which is one race, one family, one unit –
we are all in the same boat in the cosmos – needs a common, democratic, effective,
good world government for its very existence.
World governance. Knowing and
acknowledging the current situation, this will probably take many decades, if
not centuries, but the smallest step in this direction is of enormous
importance, and the unification of the United States and Canada could be a very
positive example. One would hope that this would not remain an isolated,
isolated example, but would inspire many others to follow. It would not be a
bad thing at all to 'fashion' merger wherever possible.
Among them there may be some that
are not so good, so democratic, so clever, but that is history. We must leave
room for it. I think there are plenty of integration possibilities. But we have
to admit that integration is not a simple thing. In Europe we have been
struggling for fifty years with the integration, and we are nowhere. It is
certainly a difficult, controversial process, so it would be worthwhile to do
integration where it is easy. Even within Europe. We should not wait for these
30 or so, now counting the new members we are expecting, the Western Balkans
and others, to become 30-35-40 members. We should not wait for this multitude
to agree on a great integration. It is more realistic to have individual small
integrations within the current framework. One of the most daring examples is
the legitimate, historically based unification of Germany and Austria. It is
not wise to reject this just on basis of bad memories connected to the l938 Anschluss. Germany and Austria are really two brother countries.
Although the Austrians have a distinct Austrian identity, they speak the same
language and have almost the same state model and provincial structure.
Otherwise, Austrians can retain their Austrian identity, just as the Bavarians
have retained their Bavarian identity. And why not, Luxembourg could also join
the unitary federal republic.
It's not important to give everyone
a prescription, but it's quite clear that there are opportunities for
integration everywhere, on every continent. In Asia and Indochina, so Laos,
Vietnam, Cambodia. These are also three brother countries, which have been very
closely united over many periods, and are still cooperating very closely in
many respects, economically, culturally, politically, militarily. It is also
possible in the Middle East, in the Arab world, in Africa in various ways,
probably a gradual unification starting from South Africa, with the Southern
African confederation occupying the whole of South Africa, south of the
equator. It could also integrate the Central American countries separately
under the US, in the same way the Spanish-speaking South American countries
could be integrated. Thus, gradually, slowly and of course with easy,
relatively easy integrations, a new world order and a new world balance could
emerge. So let me say that now the merger of Canada and the Americas could give
a big boost to this process. So that we can say a big thank you to Trump for
taking this first step. Good luck to him.
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