Surely you are joking!!

Give up our funded health care?? Give up our funded pension system? Give up our system or elected representatives who are actually elected by we the people rather then appointed by wealthy corporate lobbyists and then formalized via the electoral process?

What does the USA have to offer? A society engaged in class warfare where the top 25% of the earners get tax breaks and the bottom 25% go homeless? A country overrun by wacky religious fundamentalists? A country that turns its back on science and such scientific findings as global warming? That undermines its educational system, that has the highest incarceration rate in the world, that has a corrupt and biased press, a militaristic society that engages in jihad and crusade, one that condones and encourages state sponsored terror and undermines global institutions and conventions? Why would we want to be part of this?

My fear is that global warming and NG shortages will combine to make the southern states uninhabitable and Americans will migrate north. But you will not like it here at all, honestly. We are all gay and have abortions on demand, we drink mostly tea and we all speak french and our money looks funny.

Given the billions you are investing in Iraq, I suggest you move there.

Americans may find it hard to believe, but few Canadians want to join the US. You should remember that many of the early immigrants to the eastern provinces were "United Empire Loyalists", refugees from the American Revolution. There is a quiet but strong sense of rejection of American vision of the world in many Canadians. If there weren't Canada would have long ago been absorbed into the American Union. We do things diffently here. And don't forget Quebec. Quebecers are more interested in leaving than joining!

Even if Canadians were interested in joining the US, it's unlikely that the current administration would welcome them, since most Canadian provinces would enter as "blue" states. That would upset the current balance of power in the US. It's easier and cheaper for the US to get what it wants by indirect means. Simply threating to slow or halt Canadian (non-energy) exports is enough to terroize Canadian politicians and businessmen into making concessions, but we do tend to be stubbornly difficult about it. There is no need for military intervention.

Most Canadian politicians do not know or are not yet willing to acknowledge it, but energy prices and security are about to become major, divisive issues. When the Canadian government attempted to introduce a two price system and energy security strategy in response to the seventies energy crisis -- the National Energy Policy -- Alberta rose up in arms. There is no dirtier word in Alberta than "NEP".

At that time Albertans promised to "let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark". In a sense, NAFTA has become the instrument to make good on that promise. Albertans may yet get their wish.