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Fifteen new Canadian provinces in 2010?

Will Canada expand south from Montana to Ohio in 2010? That’s the prediction of a Russian professor. The Hook thinks we’d better start thinking about the consequences.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, whose credibility is unquestioned, Professor Igor Panarin predicts the U.S. will break up in 2010:

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

In this scenario, Canada will acquire fifteen new provinces, ranging from Montana in the northwest to Ohio in the northeast, with Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri forming our new frontier with the Texas Republic.

While this will not be far enough south to please Canadian snowbirds yearning for Tucson and Tampa, it does pose challenges and opportunities.

For example, do we inherit the Congressional representatives and senators of our new domain, or does Stephen Harper appoint the senators while the representatives run for Parliament?

Also, are millions of these new Canadians entitled to healthcare? Do we inherit the nuclear missiles still sleeping in their North Dakota silos? Will we have to pay for bilingual signage at O’Hare International Airport?

And do we inherit the disaster of Michigan’s auto industry?

Even more to the point, since Illinois is scheduled to become a Canadian province, does Barack Obama become our new prime minister under a grandfather clause?

And if so, which Canadian political party gets him?

Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee, and a pushover for a good idea for a sci-fi novel.

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