[richardkiss]

As a Canadian who has lived in the US for a long time (but who happens to be in Canada at the moment to visit family), I've long thought a European-style union between the two countries would be a good idea.

I think Canadians would like to keep their own laws and culture, because they wouldn't want to give up their health care system, legal system (which for some reason involves much less litigation and fewer lawyers), and much simpler tax law.

Canadians have also mostly settled several of the large culture war issues that divide the US: they're happy with legal abortion, (mostly) illegal guns, and gay marriage, and are not interested in reopening debate on those issues.

But allowing labour visa-free access and unifying financial systems would provide great benefits. Not to mention how much I hated the moronic hoops I had to jump through to get my green card.

[vorg]

> a European-style union between the two countries would be a good idea

The E.U. was primarily a union between 4 equally-sized countries, i.e. Britain, France, Italy, and West Germany, each having about 60 million people and similar-sized economies. No single nation could lord it over the others, as would the US over Canada in a North American union.

[olalonde]

Agreed. I would be all in for removing barriers to trade (including labor) but that's about it. Also, if Canada were to merge with US, Quebec would almost surely certainly become independent unless the CanadUS agrees to officially become a bilingual country.

[AaronIG]

The U.S. doesn't even have an official language, at the federal level, nor do some of the states. Hawaii has two official languages (English & Hawaiian). Some states have given Spanish and French special status, while others are de facto bilingual.