Just as it seemed the 51st state talk from south of the border had cooled off, Courtenay-Comox MLA Brennan Day says he received a letter from a Maine State Senator suggesting Western provinces join the U.S.
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe it’s legitimate, but we reached out to his office. It is a legitimate memo,” said MLA Day in an interview with 1130 NewsRadio.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!“I’m not entirely sure why it was sent or who it was sent to, but I assume other elected officials across the country got it as well.”
Day says that the letter, penned by Republican Senator Joseph E. Martin from Maine, is concerning as it oversteps his position as a state-level senator.
“He is a state-level senator, so he has way overstepped his boundaries here, speaking for the country. And I certainly know most Americans I know don’t share his feelings,” explained Day.
Day said that the letter “reads like a recruitment brochure for a political ideology, not a sincere offer to neighbours.”
In multiple sections of the letter, Maine Senator Martin criticizes Canada on the topic of freedom.
For example, Martin claimed in the letter, “For too long, Canadian citizens have been subjected to an illusion of freedom administered through bureaucratic means.”
The letter continued, “Their speech would be truly free. Political expression, religious conviction, and the right to assemble — these would no longer be subject to the ever-changing winds of Canadian tribunals or hate speech commissions.”
“Perhaps the starkest example of this is the Second Amendment,” Martin continued. “Upon admission, residents of the new American states would have the same right to keep and bear arms as those in Texas, Florida, or Wyoming.”
The letter read, “New Americans would be expected to learn and respect the Constitution, salute the American flag, and teach their children the history of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln — not Louis Riel or Pierre Trudeau.”
“It’s concerning what he has to say in regard to Canadian sovereignty,” Day said.
In his response, Day said, “We believe in individual rights, but not at the expense of collective responsibility.”
“We are a distinct nation, forged through compromise, built on cooperation, and defined not by revolution, but by evolution.”
“We don’t measure freedom by the number of firearms owned (but we do own a few),” the MLA wrote.
“We measure it [freedom] by how we care for one another—how we build strong public institutions that ensure our kids are educated, our seniors are looked after, and no one goes bankrupt because they broke a leg or needed chemotherapy.”
“We are not Americans with a maple leaf sticker”
Day said that Canadians are not “Americans with a maple leaf sticker.”
“What you call baggage—we call the backbone of a functioning democracy,” Day countered Martin.
UBC Political Science Professor Stewart Prest says the letter, laying out conditions for provinces joining the U.S, is just another example of throwing American weight around.
“No one is asking to join the United States with special Canadian conditions; it’s just making up a piece of a conversation that doesn’t exist,” he explained.
With files from Ben Bouguerra.