Canada lawmaker suggests letting 3 US states join, get free health care
https://www.newsweek.com/canada-lawmaker-suggests-letting-three-us-states-join-get-free-healthcare-2011658Open linkView original on lemmy.world763
Comments187https://www.newsweek.com/canada-lawmaker-suggests-letting-three-us-states-join-get-free-healthcare-2011658Open linkView original on lemmy.world
As a Washingtonian, I’m so fucking sold.
I think a lot of us in Washington and Oregon would be all for this. And we can leave the eastern sides out. Northern California is obviously welcome.
Except for Silicon Valley, right? Or does Canada have better antitrust and worker's rights regulations and enforcement too?
The Bay Area can be excised to form the new US charter city-state of Galt’s Gulch.
Sounds like a sexually transmitted disease that you can also get from reading too much Ayn Rand 😂
Workers rights are of provincial jurisdiction with some industries being under federal jurisdiction (like banks), so it would mostly be up to the new provinces.
Healthcare coverage is made mandatory by the federal side but is of provincial jurisdiction (so it's not handled the same everywhere).
Trade NorCal for New England and it’s a deal.
Sorry. NorCal is part of our shared cultural region. We could probably accept New England in, though.
Same fucking here!
Minnesota welcomes Canada with the traditional poutine and tatortot hotdish border potluck
Please don't leave us behind
Imagine the US losing the pacific coast?
They would never let it happen.
Do you remember that time Minnesota annexed the upper peninsula? Yeah crazy, but that means we get to be Canadian too
When was that? I’m a native Yooper and I never heard about MN annexing Da Yoop even as a joke.
Vermont... I think we could get this done pretty quick... In fact, I bet the rest of the US wouldn't even notice... Bonus, we'll bring Bernie.
Vermont is already a honorary Canadian province for producing so much maple syrup.
Making maple syrup is my favorite late winter activity! I suck at it and have no real setup so it always has an ash flavor... But sitting around a fire all day watching sap boil is very relaxing... Almost everyone taps a tree or two at least.
Can Maine come too?
Maine can go to Spain, after all we already blamed the Maine on Spain.
Upvote for semi-obscure history reference, which unfortunately most products of US education won’t get.
But to get from Maine to Spain you must fly in a plane.
Gotta get your politics in line... Ranked choice voting was a good start... Is that still a thing?
For federal offices yes, for state offices it would require a constitutional amendment. I think Maine is decently progressive despite the second district.
Yeah, I think all of New England is down for this. Please.
I'm so down for this.
American here. What's a Vermont?
Lol... It's where Bernie kicked off the revolution
When did he kick it off and how is it going?
Like 9 years ago... Going great! I think we're winning lol /s
I think it's a term for small, destructive animals?
It's where some maple syrup comes from. The capital is Montpelier.
That's the full extent of my Vermont knowledge.
You mean pancake juice?
It's funny how much more favorable the comments are on this compared donnie's original comments.
Canadians on joining the US: "oh hell no!"
Americans on joining Canada: "me too please!"
Sooo, as a Canadian, I'm pretty sure I have the authority to speak for all of us, and as much as I'd love to have you all, I'd rather not tempt fate and accidentally start a war.
Also, Indiana, Idaho, South Dakota and Wyoming, you're expressly not allowed in.
You're not going to allow states that don't border you but you're okay with Montana? And I wouldn't say North Dakota is a bastion of progressivism either.
Pfft. Everyone knows nobody really lives in Montana. They just pretend they do on paper so they can incorporate LLC's there and put license plates on their dirt bikes and quads. Montana's entire population is actually in Kentucky and Florida.
Just think of all the moose you could farm in that space, or whatever it is the Canadians want to do with it.
Yeah, NoDak is pretty strong red hat territory. They wouldn't be a good fit.
There's hope yet for Montana's future.
I think Alabama is one where the feeling is mutual.
I wonder what Hawaii and Alaska would think.
As a Canadian, Hawaii really don't feel Canadian. Would they be better off as their own thing?
I thought Alaska could join as a territory and not a province but then realized that Alaska has more population than the 3 territories combined and then it's still over 6 times more.
Re-establish the Kingdom of Hawaii!
Since, you know, that was a sovereign government we had a hand in overthrowing
Well, we did name a popular but um controversial pizza after them.
There's far too many MAGA hats in Montana and North Dakota for them to be welcomed either.
entire west coast: let us in!
I don think you’d have to become part of Canada to join the Commonwealth so maybe there’s a chance?
Oregonian here. I am ready to pledge allegiance to the king any minute
I feel like Michigan is a bit too swingy for that, they went red again (by a small margin) last election. I would really like it tho, it would make visiting my in-laws feel a bit less daunting.
Governor and State Senate legislature are blue, just not the state house. Overall Michigan is pretty purple with a small majority left which I think blends well with Canada.
Yes. One million times yes. Let's watch the GOP fucking implode when the largest GDP State (CA) leaves their ass. It's insane they are whining about our fires... Idaho was far more on fire this year than us in California. And that was all forest, not literal neighborhoods that 100% raked their fuckin leaves.
Take Oregon and Washington and the USA is left without a Pacific Coast...LOL!
Keep it down. We don't want them figuring it out! (Also Alaska)
But my manifest destiny!
I live in WA and I want this more than anything.
California should totally join Canada.
Having similar values, California will finally be able yonreally become what it wants under Canadian law. It being a ginormous economy is nice too for Canada and would just plain bankrupt the US in one go.
They can have Alberta in return if they want
Only if we get autonomy that rivals the Quebecois, after all Canada will benefit far more from California's economy than California will from Canada. Also we demand all the dot CA domains.
Sorry, you only get .ca.ca.
Then we have no deal.
On the flip side...
California subsidizes the shit out of the rest of the USA, and relatively speaking gets less in return. Imagine no longer having to finance just about everything of failed religious states like Kentucky and Mississippi.
Also you wouldn't have to deal with racist religious extremists. Like any country, we have our crazies but we're not even close to the level of the US.
Financially it would be hugely beneficial to California to be part of Canada.
Also, get free healthcare, which is fucking awesome
We can equally share the .ca domains, it's not like there are that many left anyway
California is roughly equal in population to Canada and greater in size economically, this would make any situation where California is under Canada yet another unequal union. I propose that California, Canada, Mexico, and any other liberated states should make the North American Oil and Steel union. Basically get on the path of forming a North American Union.
I get what you're saying, I'm just saying that California under Canada would be off a LOT better than it is currently under the US.
But sure, go at it alone but make some sort of free trade and travel zone at least, ala Schengen in Europe.
The rest of Canada would never have a vote worth anything ever again. California and Canada have about equal populations.
Those are just solutions in waiting, I don't see that as a barrier form California to join
Also, Canada NEEDS more citizens, getting a huge influx of higher educated people isn't a bad deal.
Add the enormous economy and we have a winner
Here's a nice compromise position - Canada becomes a republic; in exchange, the West Coast and the East Coast down to Maryland (or Virginia) join as unincorporated territories or whatever the Canuck equivalent is.
please save us from Y'All Qaeda
I remember seeing something similar in the W days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesusland_map
It is the fact that the US is a republic that is the problem. If any US states join Canada they do it as a province of the federation.
I refuse to have anything to do with having a m*narch on my money 😤
I'm fine with being a province, but it's republic or bust
That's ok. You stay where you are and we'll stay a federation.
That's it, I support the Quebecois now! They'll understand the value of a good guillotine, at least
That's why all the billionaires are in such a hurry to get to space. Guillotines require gravity.
I'm French and I shall work on developing railgun mounted guillotine to work in space
Sorry bud. Maybe move to a state that Mexico picks up?
Isn't a guy on your money had a child from an underage slave or am I mistaking him with some other slave holding hero of the country?
Canafornia, a Democracy with no need for an electorial college, and free of having the monarch on their money.
If anything was really done, I assume it'd be just opening up (+incentivizing) immigration. Skilled labor/health/money probably will still be huge barriers, so I think the most effect it could have would be brain drain.
I mean, as a Canadian I would say come on and get this going. Hell Alaska can join as well.
Then tarriff the shit out of Trump for anything being shipped through new Canada from China lol.
I live in California and I'd like this. But then the USA would never have a non-GOP president ever again and that's against my conscience.
The "United States" is done anyway, there's no way, ironically, to make America great again.
If there was only a way
One of the Mario bros knows how
Washington would fit right in. Western Washington is already a lot like British Columbia, and Eastern Washington is already a lot like Alberta.
Alberta, aka Hellberta, aka the Texas of Canada.
Oh come on, our power grid is not that bad.
No, but the right-wing mindset is.
News to me, same crazy people all over. But as Canada's punching bag, feel free to take it out on Alberta.
I lived in Cowtown in 1979-82, before it was this bad. Kind of liked it then ... not so much now.
I get the idea, but you have not lived here since 82. I have to travel a bit in the prairies and let me tell you a lot of Canada makes cowtown look like a progressive paradise. Is it worse now, yeah. Is it as bad as say a town in Manitoba or Saskatchewan? Nope, but we Canadians don't like to think of our countries slide into right wing populism out side of Alberta.
At some point it stops being a game of "save everyone", and starts becoming "save as many as you can".
Not just three, all the Blue States would like to switch to province.
I think each individual state should be able to choose whether they stay in the US or not. Every ten years, the citizens of the state voted. If you vote to leave, you can’t come back for ten years. It would take place at the same time as the census.
Yes, the one aspect of the civil war that I have never agreed with was that a stare can not choose to leave the Union. If a terratory can vote to join the Union, I see no reason why they couldn't vote to leave it. On that note, I would also support the idea that the other states should have the right to vote out a state they no longer want in the Union.
You’re right. Self determination is a right we all have.
Which state is the Weakest Link?
Based on statistics, easily Mississippi. But most obnoxious is easily Texas. Texas would be my first vote out.
Just ignoring Florida's existence?
Just a few more years
Eh, I'd love to boot all the old confederate states, but picking off the worst first only helps the whole.
Seconded. If we oust Texas, we can regain control over the content in school textbooks.
People who want to flee can still be welcomed as refugees.
I am so fucking on board with this, lfg!
If we could trick Mexico into taking back Texas that would be ideal. But Mexico is way too smart to fall for that.
Mississippi? Alabama? Wyoming? One of those probably.
As an American, let me just say, 🎶 Oh Canada... 🎶
Some required listening before joining: A Canadian comedy debate on whether O Canada is the best national anthem
If the whole "annex Canada" stuff was just a distraction, this might become a reality, fascists like Trump are highly irrational, and might give them the 3 most western states, especially California.
Am Californian, would seriously consider joining Canada.
Trump could reflexively say whatever (as he does) but so much cargo comes through here his business people wouldn't let him do it. Too much of a tariff risk.
California has gone blue every 4 years since 1992.
If your 54 EC votes leave, this country is absolutely doomed. Please take us with you.
This. This is how you fight trump
:O take us away pls
I am Soooooo down for this!!!!!
I doubt they'll take #Arkansas, so I'm screwed either way until my familial duty is complete.
NWA here, yeah our guv'na is a fascist demon ready to put all non white christians into concentration camps
I think it's all noise to distract from issues US should solve on its own.
As someone who lives in California, I would love this.
We'd love to have ya!
Have a chat with Hawaii, okay? Mom wants to go before she dies but she won't go with Trump in charge. Get them on board and even the flight's domestic. Woot!
As someone who lives in Texas, I would also love this - once I gtfo of Texas
Pick me! Pick me! oh oh oh!
What about New Mexico?
If the US can have Alaska, we can join Canada, right?
Should join Mexico, change the name to Old Mexico
That would be ideal. But they didn't offer
No... Tis a silly place
Yah... Twas afraid of that
Sorry if you're stuck there in the Land of Entrapment... Really hope you find a way to escape!
Lots of people call it that. I rather like it here.
Well, best of luck to you
no fair man. illinois. illinois.
Everybody hates Illinois. People who live there even hate it. I was born there and promptly left.
Also lived there, also hated it. Never again
@[email protected]
@[email protected]
Well obviously not everyone as I love it but im ok with you guys not wanting to be there. I have a feeling if you don't like chicago you would not like toronto.
I don't have a strong opinion on Chicago, I've only spent a few days there and it was downtown in a cold snap in February. There were some nice things to do but it was expensive and overall I've had better experiences in other cities. I liked it better than my wife did, she hates the cold. I on the other hand like to go snow camping (without her).
The people in the rest of the state hate Chicago because it dominates the politics, and the few Chicagoans I know aren't a fan of the rest of the state. For awhile I lived in St. Louis but worked across the river. I still have to drive across Illinois pretty often. It's flat fields of corn and thunderstorms in the summer, and frigid and hostile in the winter. I don't really hate Illinois by any means and I didn't choose to move away - I was only two and my parents moved to the Netherlands. I actually like Champaign/Urbana, I have lots of connections there. I still wouldn't choose to live in Illinois though.
I mean it sounds like your judging Illinois by your experiences in east saint louis which is one of the worst places in Illinois. Also just south of there is the southern tip of Illinois. The part where it starts contracting to a point. That is honestly more like Kentucky than Illinois. Most people in the state don't hate Chicago. I mean there are some but every state has folks that are like that. East of the mountains in California is sorta the same thing. North of Kankakee is far different than middle Illinois like urbana which is far different from that swampy southern area of the state. Anyway Illinois it likely more like Ontario than any other state although admittedly Minnesota may be the exception but only because the weather gives them an edge :)
I never really spent any time in East St. Louis. I worked in Belleville, Collinsville, Fairview Heights and Alton. I've been down south and up north and most of the middle of the state. I've lived in Minneapolis too, and a lot of other big cities both in the US and Europe. Minneapolis wasn't my favorite either. I love Portland, San Francisco, Duesseldorf, St. Louis and Cincinnati. I'll pass on most of southern California too. Paris is another one I'm not a fan of, but France overall is nice. I think it's okay to have broad opinions based on your personal experiences. Obviously I'm not judging every individual. Some places just have a certain vibe.
I getcha. Even Champaign/Urbana is two very different places but I liked them each in their own way I feel they each complimented each other. All the specific places you mention though are basically that near saint louis and south of that I would attribute to the south of the state thing or the saint louis thing. Don't get me wrong I like saint louis but illinois is basically the bad side of saint louis and its basically a small bit around that city. then that southern part of illinois you pretty much draw an east west line from the center of saint louis north/south and its south of that. Its funny because when on the road the highway takes a deep dive down and I swear you start hearing that music from deliverance.
Most likely not, I hated the years I spent in Chicago and am much happier now that it's behind me. Food is incredibly good though so getting fat is so easy there. Chicago Pizza is without question the best on earth.
Everyone has their preferences. I can't imagine living someplace without a good metro system. Actually I have to add integrated to that as that is where chicagos shines. DC's metro was a massive let down. I hate driving but love modern stuff so I need to live somewhere I can get to all sorts of things by foot, bike, or transit (superconvenietly. Im complaining after 10 minutes of waiting for something). Oh and I hate smartphones and even being a passenger in a car so uber does not open up places for me.
I would say Chicago is bad at that too lol, Asia and Europe are where the game for that is strong. SF and Seattle are making big progress but NYC still the leader.
You sound like someone not from chicago. We have a grid system and transfers between bus and train are free. In addition a fare is currently at most two dollars fifty cents and a day pass good for all trains and busses for 24hours is five bucks. Sure there might be all sorts of better aspects to transit at many places but for getting from A to B affordably chicago can't be beat.
Those aren't the states I picture as being closely connected to Canada, but maybe that's because I'm jealous
As a Georgian, I badly want to be included no matter how irrational it would be.
Hey, take illinois. Its connected via the great lakes, and we may be #12 in terms of GDP, about 50-60%% of goods travelling by rail or road through the US have to go through us.
The Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways are busy in the Chicago area.
Calling Elizabeth May a lawmaker is the most credibility the federal Green party has ever gotten
Yeah, right. If California joined they’d be subsidizing health care for the rest of Canada through transfer payments since every province would be considered a “have not province” compared to California.
This is like inviting your billionaire uncle to move in with you and also open a joint bank account.
Edit: just to put some numbers on my point, the GSP (gross state product) of California is $4 trillion, nearly twice that of the GDP of Canada which is $2.18 trillion. Canada’s economy would effectively triple in size by bringing in California.
She's trolling trump. It's not a serious proposition.
One can still fantasize about a brighter future, can they?
Yes, by all means. Considering how dismal it’s about to be in the states, the only ones that would revile you for imaging a brighter future are mostly those who voted to make it darker.
Plus, while May is a parliamentarian, she is also the leader of a party of one elected person.
Which should have been three elected if Trudeau had kept his promise of electoral reform.
Isn't this kinda already the case when you compare California to other states? In terms of subsidizing the rest of the country, not healthcare.
Canada has a massive program of equalization transfer payments where taxes collected in rich provinces go to subsidize poor ones. The US does not have anything like this. None of the state governments have their budgets subsidized by other states.
It's federal taxes so it's the federal government that's subsidizing some provinces and not others to make their potential tax revenue per capita the same, the goal is to make sure those provinces aren't left behind.
If the program didn't exist Albertans would still pay those taxes, they would be used to pay for other Canada wide programs.
Bonus: Lil'PP signed on the the current calculation of transfer payments, it was put in place during the Harper years.
Maybe not directly, but... https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/donor-states
I wonder if Canada sending its water bombers so that California doesn't get burnt to a crisp counts as a transfer payment.
Nah, that's just being a good neighbour.
Yes subsidized healthcare is the goal.
Mostly ours is single payer, except for prescriptions, etc.
Although it has been moving further towards private because of the right-wing provincial governments (who control healthcare spending).
So?
Do you understand the goal of transfer payments? Because from what you just said you already don't understand how it works.
Our population would double too
And we wouldn’t have to cross the border to fight wildfires anymore!
We already don't have to. Plenty of wildfires happen here too.
chonglibloodsport has forgotten how much smoke and burning embers we sent America last year.
Better balance all that by including New England. In Massachusetts, we’re already closest to universal healthcare
Minnesota is basically already there
Maryland. I'm in. It's closer than you think.
Hey... don't forget Vermont!
Let the negotiations begin xD kek
Can we get a relocation care package for all of the reasonable people stuck in red state hell-holes!? I'd move to literally any blue state if I had the resources and reassurance it won't be sucked into US federal far right bs. So done with this scam country.
Technically that would make king charles my head of state seeing as I live in California. Not into that. A lot of pros/advantages though, I'll say that much.
Except seeing him on money he affects Canadians in zero ways. And y'all have Jackson on your money so I wouldn't go throwing stones.
Is he even on our money yet? I haven’t used cash in months so I wouldn’t know
Every major currency has at least one jerk face on it.
King Charles has much less power than King Trump. Multiple orders of magnitude less.
I am aware, but it makes me finicky. Irks me irrationally.
As an American you should be used to picking between the lesser of two evils... This is an easy choice if you had to pick ...
I started voting green party when I realized that that was the system - lesser of two evils. To me, it doesn't feel like the least of all evils, it just feels a little disappointing as a third party almost inherently. But then I get a second wind sometimes and concert myself to making something of it.
Yeah but with how the system works your just voting for the worst evil to win... Or at least helping that side win... Such a great system we have
I have heard a friend say that about kamala and now he is upset that Trump is his president.
Elizabeth May, you’re swell!
North Carolina please
What a Sucker Punch ! I like that
Maybe they can swap the US Alberta for them
That's where all their oil is... Don't give Trump any ideas.