In response to suggestions by a lunatic in the US Oval Office, Green Party Canada’s leader Elizabeth May suggested Canada should invite western states Washington, Oregon and California join B.C and split from Canada to form the ‘Cascadia’ eco-state.
(Note this article is from Jan 8, 2025 and Elizabeth May has since become co-leader of the party alongside Jonathan Pedneault).
Terrible idea, that new country would instantly realize how awful it is needing to negotiate for oil when you have zero local sources of it.
The US has Texas, and Canada has Alberta.
You do not wanna form any kind of new pseudo country that doesn’t have oil in 2025, you will have some serious issues within a couple years.
The only people that talk about any states or provinces separating are the people too ignorant of just how deeply they are dependent on all the rest of their country’s exports, imports, and production.
Yes, even backwater places have an absolute fuck tonne of stuff they produce that you depend on every Just because you might think mineral mines, farms, oil, steel factories, forestry, etc etc isnt of major value, it is and you literally depend on it daily
You cant break out from that, but too many people have become too deeply dumb to grok how fucked their life would become if their specific state/province seperated.
You’re cost of living would fucking skyrocket to levels you cant even imagine. So much random shit you currently take for granted still being affordable would vaporize as you suddenly realize “Oh yeah I guess we dont make that here locally do we, where does that come from? Shit it comes from there? I never knew they made this stuff, I use it every day! Now I cant have it at all? I can still, it just costs a lot more and is imported? Well how much does it cost? (spit take) IT COSTS HOW MUCH NOW?!?!”
The pure dollar loss for the US in tax money from California alone, combined with Seattle’s import hubs, not to mention all the west coast tech sector would likely end with several remaining US state collapses in sheer funding weight alone. Several southern states only survive because of the critical mass of tax money from west cost cities.
The tech companies would relocate as the US DOD will not give any contracts to the companies that remain. CA,WA, and OR aren’t going to be making a lot of money if they leave.
Curious… what in Oregon gets DOD money?
I’ll guess that you have never been to California. There was pumpjack one block away from my house when I was growing up.
But in fact, the biggest thing keeping us from moving away from fossil fuels is the political pressure from people who make money from it. And if California went into Canada or Cascadia, those people would come with it, kicking and screaming all the way.
Fun fact, oil can be brought in from other countries and when you control all the access to the Pacific ocean you’re the one who controls the negotiations.
I think you just made an incredibly strong argument for why the US would use it’s military to prevent this.
It would certainly be tricky. They would need support from the US military stationed in those states. That seems like a stretch to me. They wouldn’t defect “just cause”. You would need an action from the current US government that would force them to pick a side.
I suspect you would find a huge chunk if CA’s military gear requires stuff from other states.
It wouldnt matter as IRL the tech industry would jump ship and most who would be involved in this understand that fact.