[Alberta's Child]

If the U.S. had won the War of 1812, most of Southern Ontario would have ended up as part of the U.S.

Interesting history lesson played out in our modern highway map ...

US-2 was one of the original Federal highways in the 20th century. It was constructed along a route that had been designated decades earlier as an east-west road along the northern edge of the U.S.

From east to west, the route runs from Houlton, Maine (right on the border with the Canadian province of New Brunswick) to Rouses Point on Lake Champlain in upstate New York (right on the New York-Quebec border).

From west to east, the route runs from Everett, Washington (on the Pacific Ocean) to St. Ignace on the southern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula (the north side of the Mackinac Bridge).

The gap between the eastern and western sections of US-2 covers an area that would have been part of the U.S. if the War of 1812 had gone our way.

[sparklite2]

Please take this as rank speculation steeped in fantasy.

The peoples of the western provinces have more in common with the US cultures just below them than the provinces have with the central government in Ontario.

The Canadian federal government denies the provinces sole possession of their own mineral resources.

The irritation of treating Quebec as if it is somehow endangered while forcing English speakers outside Quebec to accept French, then letting Quebec actively discriminate against Anglophones, becomes a catalyst for breaking up.

If Canada were to break up, look for the western provinces, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to join the US. Ontario would remain as the nation of Canada along with the Northern Territories. Quebec would break off to become French Canada, probably taking her trading partners, the Maritimes, with her.

Or maybe not. Without transfer payments from the rest of Canada, Quebec might be too economically challenged to administer the provinces east of her. In that case, the Maritimes, unable to survive economically on their own (they’re a basket case now) would petition to join the US. The US might not want to add to her number of dependent states. It could get interesting.

[Publius]

...the route runs from Everett, Washington (on the Pacific Ocean)...

Puget Sound, not the Pacific Ocean.