Can the U.S. really make Canada the 51st state?

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.

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.

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 a constitutional amendment that would require the agreement of the House of Commons, the Senate, and of every province.

“And even with all that, then you have Indigenous Nations. Even if they are implicated in disbanding this union, there is no guarantee they would want to join the United States,” says Chapnick.

Additionally, south of the border, the processes could be fraught with peril. The annexation would trigger votes in both the Congress and Senate.

“I don’t think that most Republicans would want Canada to become the 51st state. Based on our forty million population, we would get approximately the same number of seats as California. It is possible that many of those seats could go to Democrats,” says Chapnick.