Let’s parse the image.
What do know about Switzerland?
- It has been decidedly neutral in Europe’s constant warfare.
- Every able bodied Swiss male gets a rifle at age 18, becomes part of the Swiss Army, drills with his weapon and surrenders it at age 65 when his military obligation is complete.
- Every bridge and tunnel in the country has a built-in bomb to delay invaders.
- The Swiss franc was once backed by gold, but that ended some years ago.
- Swiss bank secrecy ended some years ago under pressure from the US and the EU.
- The federal government has little power, and most government is handled at the canton level, which makes it an exemplar of federalism.
What do we know about the image of Trump and Canada?
Trump said at dinner that perhaps Canada could come into the Union as the 51st state with Trudeau as governor. The laughter was very nervous. Trump wasn’t joking. He was pulling Trudeau’s chain.
- Much of the population of the western provinces would be happier as an American state. Vancouver and environs, not so much.
- Quebec and Ontario? Not so much.
- The poverty stricken Maritimes? Lester Pearson’s welfare state is what keeps them going. What do they do when financial realities kill off the welfare state?
- Canada has a stronger sense of federalism than the US. For example, transportation is a provincial responsibility, which is why Canada has nothing like our interstate freeways.
Is Trump proposing a sense of federalism, perhaps Swiss style, that we had before the Civil War as a lure to get Canada to join the Union as one or two states? Is that what the image is all about?