Dear Mr. President-Elect:

Once you invade Panama and buy Greenland, it seems clear from your statements that you will turn to annexing Canada.

You might want to think twice. Canada has everything you hate:

• Universal health care. The public-private system is going through hard times right now, but everyone is still covered regardless of employment, income or age. Result: Satisfaction with the system is much higher than in the U.S.
• Welcome for immigrants. Here too, opposition to immigration is rising, enough to help push Prime Minister Justin Trudeau out of office. But even Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, leading in the polls, is talking about reducing the number of new arrivals, not deportations.
• Uncooperative underlings. I can’t imagine you would appreciate a U.S. state that demanded its own language, special subsidies and the right to separate. The sovereignty movement has been quiescent lately, but Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has vowed to hold a referendum before 2030 if his party takes power in the province.
• Foreign languages. Every leader of Canada in the modern era has been bilingual. Do you really want to learn French?
• Support for science and vaccinations. 91% of Canadians received at least one COVID shot, as opposed to 82% of Americans. And they did it with less hysteria – give or take one shutdown of the capital – than south of the border.
• Future Democrats. Even Canada’s Conservatives would never propose ending national health care, or sending millions of immigrants home. Of Canada’s 40 million people – that’s 47 electoral college votes – only a slim minority would be likely to embrace the MAGA agenda.

Most important, you’d have to realize just how strongly Canadians feel about Canada. When Charlie and I arrived in Toronto in 1993 as correspondents for the Washington Post, I expected to find a wannabe-American mentality. I’d read about Canada’s inferiority complex vis a vis its larger neighbor and assumed it would manifest that way.

What I found was a proud country that cherished its own traditions and cultures – many cultures – regardless of what Americans thought. I was struck by the widespread civility, the love for the health system, the generous social benefits and the appreciation for Quebec. They even enjoyed winter.

When it appeared in 1995 that the separatists would prevail in an upcoming referendum, the entire country begged them not to. Nova Scotia schoolchildren wrote a letter in French to the people of Quebec asking them to vote no; an Alberta farmer plowed a 1,000-foot-long fleur-de-lys in his canola field along with the message C’est Mieux Ensemble” (It’s Better Together). The referendum failed by just over a percentage point.

True, this Pollyannish portrait of Canada was an exaggeration at the time and has become even less accurate. Canadians are more divided than ever. Whoever runs Canada next – even including you, Mr. President-Elect – will have to deal with a struggling health system, restive Quebec leaders, growing opposition to immigration and, of course, strong opposition to new tariffs.

Some of your sycophants say Canadians should be “honored” to become Americans.

For some strange reason, no Canadian leader feels this way. They universally oppose your casual references to the 51st state and “Governor Trudeau.” The political parties haven’t been this united since the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series (for the second straight year) in 1993.

Which makes me think: Maybe you actually should keep talking about annexing Canada. It might get Canadians to appreciate what they have, and to make it better together.

Very best regards/Très cordialement,

Anne Swardson

Flag image: Pixabay