[TMWNN]

>But countries form through common language, culture, religion, geography, interests or trauma/war. Anglo-Canada and the US have all the good things in common and no war/trauma keeping them apart.

Canada is indeed an anomaly. I can't think of another circumstance in which two countries that

* share land borders

* are 95% culturally, economically, and politically identical

* do not have longstanding historical grievances against each other

have not unified after two centuries; if anything, this fact implies that annexation is more likely than not to occur, perhaps sometime this century.

Americans on either side of politics think that Canada is full of super-leftists (and there is no shortage). But were Canada a part of the US in 2016, Trump would have won AB, SK, and quite possibly enough of the GTA (the parts that loved Rob Ford, and as "Ford Country" has repeatedly won the province for Doug Ford) to win ON, the province most resembling MI/WI/PA, the three states that Trump unexpectedly won the election with.

[philistine]

My existence as a Québécois helps explain why it hasn't happened. We collectively know that our language and culture are on shaky foundations with the Canadians; we know quick and painful assimilation would await us with the Americans. Canada is a country containing at least two nations, not just one.

[TMWNN]

Sorry; I meant to say "except Quebec" in the "95% identical" line, but it somehow got omitted.

When annexation happens I do not expect the US to be interested in Quebec because of language. I suppose that means that sovereignists ought to be in favor of US annexation.

[philistine]

That’s a giant if. How can you be so sure the US would have no interest in Québec? We’re not just a bunch of loser people. We have incredible talent in multiple high-investment fields, we’re the bedrock of hydro power on the continent, and we have the cool city all the Yankees want to see to pretend they went somewhere exotic.

The Americans know as much as me that quick and painful assimilation is possible. Why wouldn’t they wish to impose it on my nation?

[TMWNN]

Puerto Rico is still 100% Spanish-speaking, 125 years after annexation by the US.

It's possible that the US would annex Quebec and similarly keep it as a territory, but more likely is the US not bothering with it at all; why bring within itself an ethnic conflict that has bedeviled Canada for 250 years?

[philistine]

Your negative bias towards my people is showing; most raw raw Canadian federalists insist the mixture of both nations benefited the country, not made it more difficult to manage.

[TMWNN]

I'm an American, so have no brief for either side. I'm happy to believe that Quebec + TROC = greater than the sum of its parts. Maybe that would be true for the US; maybe that means Quebec as territory would be the best solution to satisfy both parties.

But even setting aside the unlikelihood of Quebecois used to having so much say in governing Canada accepting no longer having voting delegates in the national legislature, surely any such benefit for the US would be a lot less, relatively speaking. And, again, why would we bring in yet another ethnic conflict into our country?