President Trump ‘s initial talk about admitting Canada as the 511st state of the Union was widely seen as a joke, but Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada has suggested that Trump is serious — and in a pre-Super Bowl interview on Fox, Trump said that he was.
Adding Canada as a state would make the contiguous United States stretch from the Arctic Circle to Mexico. Adding Greenland would fill the entire North American continent with the United States, bringing up memories of the concept of Manifest Destiny. The current sovereign nation of Canada would disappear, leaving instead a giant state with 57 electoral votes — probably mostly Democratic.
There is no indication that Canada or the Canadian people want this, though there has been talk in the past of Alberta becoming a state. The economic consequences of annexing Canada are uncertain, too, as are the international political ramifications. War would not be impossible.
Consequences for Puerto Rico
But how would Puerto Rico be affected? Some news outlets have suggested that Puerto Rico might be miffed by this talk of making Canada the 51st state. Not at all.
“If the president decides that he’s going to push to join to the union two or three states, well, fine. We want to be one of them,” Jose Fuentes-Agostini told NOTUS. “We don’t have to be 51, we can be 52 or 53, as long as we get in.”
In fact, Puerto Rico can fit perfectly into President Trump’s strategic goals for annexing Canada. “He’s looking at places like Greenland, like Canada and like the Panama Canal as places of absolutely critical geostrategic interest to the United States,” George Laws García told NOTUS. “There is a great opportunity for Puerto Rico within this context to essentially showcase the immense value that we bring to the United States.”
Far from delaying statehood for Puerto Rico, the plan to stretch the United States from sea to shining sea north and south rather than just east and west fits perfectly with the admission of Puerto Rico.
Seize the moment
It has been nearly a century since any U.S president has seriously contemplated this kind of expansionist policy. Seize the moment, reach out to your congressional representatives, and let them know that you support statehood for Puerto Rico — whether it’s PR51st or PR53!
No responses yet