Dear editor:

Last week, Donald Trump was asked whether he might use military force to achieve an annexation. He answered that it would be “highly unlikely.”

Eyebrows up! Unlikely? Wow! Is Trump reserving his options at this point?

If the mercurial Mr. Trump says “unlikely” on Monday, we might well hear “possibly” on Tuesday. If he felt confident about the feedback, he could be saying “probably” by Wednesday. With his sycophants egging him on … well, you see what I’m getting at.

But why would he be using the word “unlikely”? There could be several reasons, the first being fear of starting an actual war. This would also bring fear of NATO coming to defend us.

Thirdly, surely he could not be confident of support from the House or the Senate for such truly mad belligerence. Are those reasons not sufficient to deter him from his insane idea?

Conversely, he may be thinking that at this time we are weak. Two of our western provinces with powerful ties to the United States are openly discussing the idea of how they might choose “sovereignty within Canada,” whatever that means.

Maybe he thinks this is his opportunity to seize the moment. Suppose he annexed those two provinces? Canada, broken into three pieces. How would British Columbia feel about that? I hate to say it, but would there not be a certain ambivalence?

Which brings me to the present relationships between provinces.

Shortly after our country was first established, the equation was Ontario plus Québec plus the Maritime provinces. With Ontario on the one hand and Québec just across the river, that made Ottawa a reasonable choice as a location for the national government.

But now, does that still work? Ever since the Prairies were opened up, a mere 140 years ago, there has been a certain discordance, the western provinces often being at odds with faraway Ottawa.

Much of this disunity was on account of the already existing residents, the Métis and the Indigenous people being generally ignored, disrespected and treated not as citizens, but as wards of the state. We are still trying to repair the damage done by that.

Our country is still young. Some of our problems are caused simply by the geographic reality: The huge size of our country; the great differences in climate; and the differing utility of the land, which inevitably induces very different interests, aims and concerns of the various groups inhabiting it. There is uneasiness between these groups.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but the bright side is this: The threat from the south has unified us to a new level. The great majority of us agree on what we don’t want.

P.S. Here’s a thought — considering our country is bigger than the United States, why don’t we invite them in as the 11th province?

Andrew Henwood
NOTL