An interesting proposal: sell Montana to Canada for $1T

I came across this article online today.

Personally, were it not for Paul, I don't think it would be worth nearly as much.

Thoughts?

-CK

I think we should sell Maine. Granted, by rights as everyone in Canada and Maine knows, Maine belongs to Canada anyway. (Being the most forested state in the nation, and with timber being so valued back in the old days, we were stolen from Canada).

We could knock down the national debt, and it is not like we would mind leaving the Union anyway. Border wise I would be no big deal, with the only state in the nation with only one state that borders us, it would not change the shape of the nation a whole lot; and most national weather maps chop us off anyway. And vacation wise, we are flooded with Canadian Tourists anyway, not to mention crossing us to get from Quebec to New Brunswick. If we were part of Canada, we would definately get the east/West Highway they want to build.

Yep...we should be sold off.

I normally would say sell of California, but its not like anyone would want that state even for free!

Actually, I have heard compelling reasons for all western coastal states, in the event of the dissolution of the Repermies, joining Canada.

But we'll totally take Maine. Vermont, too, probably. I think we'd want at least Oregon and Washington if we were taking Montana. Might as well just throw California in with the lot.

There are a whole lot of issues that I'd love to dive into here that would get us thrown irrevocably into the ulcer factory. Needless to say, there are a number of issues Canada would have to deal with from a policy standpoint, from gun laws to abortion, but in all, I think it would be better for everyone.

And then we could see about offering climate aid to what remains of the Repermies.

-CK

I'm on board just for Tim Horton's and the legal weed, but only if  Montana changes to Montachewan. On the more serious side, a trillion won't do anything for national debt and they would probably just use it for steel slats or something.

I recently saw a comedian video-clip where he proposed a much simpler border wall:  If the US just takes over everything south of the border down to the Panama canal, then it would be a very small border to have to defend! [  ;-)  ]    

In addition, on a per-capita basis, there would be a much larger tax base to fund the federal coffer.  Then we could give/sell Canada the states of Maine, Montana (maybe just down to I-94??), northern Idaho, North Dakota (missile silos empty, but re-hab ready), and even northern Minnesota up to Lake Superior, but not including Duluth, which has a decent waterfront. ;-)  Canada can finally move a sizable portion of it's central population that much closer to the equator, they gain a few more eastern ports in Maine, and they can finally fix the flooding situation in the Fargo-Moorhead area the same way they did for Winnipeg.  The quasi governmental 'Bank of North Dakota' could merge with the 'Bank of Canada' and prairie province wheat growers could finally gain access to the North Dakota State Mill.  

(Promise, I won't even get into health care... )  

Is this not the very definition of "Win-Win"??

:-o)

SNIFF!
WE are AMERICA!!
WE don't don't give up land. WE acquire land!
Moon, we're coming for you.
~~Then Mars.

OK. If you give us 1 trillion, we Canadians will take that problem off your hands and fix it for you. Its not really fare but we are a charitable people.


Oh.... thats not what you meant? You actually expected us to pay for it..... Bwahahaha.

Chris Kott wrote: I think we'd want at least Oregon and Washington if we were taking Montana.

Oh yes, please take Oregon and Washington! We can join with BC to become Cascadia! (There's, I guess, a Cascadia movement for making BC down through Northern California into it's own country. I think being part of Canada would be better, though!).

I like how us Americans are all excited about joining Canada. Urm, we're not terribly patriotic, are we? Though, to be fair, Canada is pretty awesome. I think many Americans also claim to be Canadian when they travel abroad. I don't think anyone hates Canada. America, though...

Ross Raven wrote:OK. If you give us 1 trillion, we Canadians will take that problem off your hands and fix it for you. Its not really fare but we are a charitable people.


Oh.... thats not what you meant? You actually expected us to pay for it..... Bwahahaha.

Well, apparently it's a thing now to try to make other countries pay for our stuff. First a Mexico to pay for a wall, now Canada to pay for Montana? Though, from all I've heard, Montana is a pretty nice place. I'm amazed the petition isn't for foisting off North Dakota on Canada (I've never heard of much happening in North Dakota, but being the weird person I am, that actually make it look more desirable to me...).

I want to move to Montana so I can be grandfathered in and move to Canada.

Until there is a balanced budget and a constitutional amendment requiring an ongoing balanced budget, anything sold and any money gained would be like adding water into a bucket with a hole in it.

Let's sell the military industrial complex instead and gain a balanced budget almost instantly.

Travis Johnson wrote:I think we should sell Maine. Granted, by rights as everyone in Canada and Maine knows, Maine belongs to Canada anyway. (Being the most forested state in the nation, and with timber being so valued back in the old days, we were stolen from Canada).

Are we permaculturists drawn to Canada or what!  

Culturally Maine is more a part of the Canadian Maritime States than we are part of the United States (I write as I sit here in my black and red flannel shirt surrounded by snow).  My grandparents spoke French and when I recently drove to Halifax I chatted with several people who look like dead ringers for my aunts (not too surprising since my grandmother was born there).  Apparently it would be very easy for my family to get Canadian citizenship.  We're seriously thinking about it.  Everyone in Halifax that we spoke to was super duper nice and encouraged us to move up!!!  We actually looked into home prices....not bad!  

Of course now that I think of it, that being my Great Grandfather losing his life to keep Maine from being part of Canada, maybe we should just do the opposite: just annex all of Canada into the United States. I don't really think they would mind. They all complain about us, but 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the border anyway. I think secretly they want to be known as Northern American's, if not, that is what I call them anyway.

We would get way more money for the national debt than selling Montana if we treated them like true Mainers and just tax the crap out of them. That drove us Mainer's into submission pretty easily.

But the United States map would look pretty impressive. No longer would Maine share a border with East MA (also known as New Hampshire), and Alaska would no longer be lonely. And it was the United States...actually a Mainer...who had enough ambition to go to the North Pole for the first time, so we minds well own land up to it. We could use a few diamonds mines while we are up there as well...Katie could use a new diamond engagement ring, and my diamond concrete saw is getting dull. The National Hockey League would no longer be a misnomer and actually be the NHL, and it is not like Canadian or American, all hockey players are paid in US Curreny by union contract. But since there is no wall between the USA and Canada anyway, it would just save us building one to keep the American's in.

Canadians would get a lot, as every person would lose 75 pounds in weight since they would no longer have to be lugging Loonie and Twonies around in their pockets everywhere they go. They would no longer have to sneak into the United States for proper health care, and court costs would be framatically decreased since lawyers and judges would not have to buy costumes from the 1700's era (to which the pantyhose cost reduction would be worth it alone I would think). But the best thing is, they could stopping saying, "Eh", and starting using, "Dude", instead.

Of course I am not heartless. I recognize some Canadians would still want to be Canadian's, so we would freely give up California so they could have that state for their own country. It is nice and warm. It still has some gold in the Sierra's so they can get their mining fix, and has a nice mix of desert, mountains, and trees.


(Written in tongue and cheek humor from a guy who has a LOT of family in Canada...within two miles of the border...but in Canada)

I always thought that the US should have bought British Colombia to have a land passage all the way up to Alaska.  We could have bought it from the Brits when it was cheap.  We could have traded Maine, Vermont, and a few of those eastern States to England because they were closer to them anyway.  Basically, give them everything east of New York and north of Connecticut.  Take Boston, please.  In exchange we would have taken everything north of Helena -- all that Alberta oil and farm land.  They could keep the fish off the North Eastern seaboard and we'd get the fish off the BC coast.  Fair trade.

And while we were at it, we should have bught Baja Mexico and had an uninterrupted coastline all the way from Cabo San Lucus to Barro Alaska.

J DavisU wrote:
Let's sell the military industrial complex instead and gain a balanced budget almost instantly.

Impossible. The military, no matter how large, is inherently valueless without the tax sheeple to be sheared.

https://www.change.org/p/christian-moms-against-private-education-sell-montana-to-canada-for-1-trillion-to-eliminate-the-national-debt

Obviously, this is just a gag.  But I'm curious what the forum might consider to be the best advantages and arguments for, and against, such a maneuver.