To the editor:
President Trump and SharkTank's Kevin O' Leary have received a lot of attention stemming from Trump's remarks in jest that Canada should become the 51st state.
Having lived about half my adult life in each country, I want to give my perspective on this.
First of all, the remark made by outgoing Prime Minister Trudeau a couple of days ago, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.” is absolutely correct.
For one thing, neither country would want to give up control of its sovereignty. And while there are no two countries whose culture is as similar to each other's, The US and Canada are two nations who are allies and trading partners, but each has its own political systems and laws.
Though Canadians probably would be more apprehensive than their southern neighbors about a merged country, it would ultimately become apparent that the addition of over 25 million generally left-leaning new voters would significantly change the political landscape of the United States. So a merger is, and should be, a non-starter.
But that doesn't mean that some system of enhanced economic cooperation wouldn't be in the best interests of both countries. And this is the path that Mr. O'Leary is advocating, noting that "We are the largest partners together on Earth."
The European Union is the largest trade bloc in the world, and the world's biggest exporter of goods and services, because of free trade, made possible thanks to the single market. So, if more than two dozen disparate countries sharing neither language nor culture can successfully forge a successful economic entity, putting together two nations sharing a common language, culture, and border should be relatively simple.
Such an economic union portends a future where the combined economies would create a prosperous and sovereign future for both nations for years to come.
Ian Saunders
Denver NC
