Ok, this is going to be a little hypothetical, but if anybody can construct
an answer, you all can.  In writing a paper for one of my history classes
I came across a reference to a proposal to demand Canada from the British
as war reparations for support rendered to the South during the insurrection.
Apparently it didn't gain much favor, as the war was just ended, the emphasis
was more on demobilizing the standing units, pacification/reconstruction
of the south, and gearing up for the indian problems as settlers continued
to develop westward territories.  Most of congress felt there was enough
going on without provoking a war with Great Brittian, winnable or not.

So, my question is:  assuming we had annexed Canada, how would things
be different today?  Would Canada be more developed or less?  Would
much or any of the pattern of settlement in the U.S. be different?
And other related ideas...

11 responses total.

Canada would be more "developed" - and the combined region would be
more homogeneous than it is now. Homogeneous, like the US is. More's
the pity. You can go anywhere in the U.S., and find the same "things"
and most customs, but cross the border and things aren't quite the
same, which is refreshing and intriguing. There are economic advantages
to homegeneity, but I don't think it challenges the human spirit as
much as does heterogeneity.

Well, I'm reasonably sure this is true although I don't remember where I
heard it.  The Canadian population centers are so close to the US border
that 85% of the Canadians can get US broadcast TV.  Some of the Dertoit
TV stations including channel 56 are on a satalite so that the other
15% of Canadians can watch American TV if they have a dish or a cable
system.  Also, there are more long distance phone calls from Canada
to the US than there are from Canada to other parts of Canada.

I like having the Canadian border so close.  I like that Canadian
restraunts know how to serve a cup of tea.  But it doesn't seem like
a particularly 'foreign' country to me.  The difference between the 
Canadian accent and mine is more subtle than the difference between the
Georgia accent and mine.  And of course they speak English in all the
civilized parts of Canada ;-).  I just read that Wal Mart is expanding
into Canada.  They already have McDonalds, Wendy's, Sears, and plenty 
of other things that make it feel like home.

You can get a Jubilee in Canada: you can't get one here. (A Jubilee is
an electric kettle. Canadians drink tea, which is not satisfactorily
prepared in a Mr. Coffee. Everyone has a Jubilee (or equivalent), to
brew up a pot or cup of tea.) There are many subtle differences like
this which come as surprises, if you are observant, among all the
plastic similarities (McDonalds et al, which you can't fairly blame
the Canadians for, except perhaps for not being determined enough).

We have a big ol' GE electric kettle here.  Perhaps I'm not understanding
just how a Jubilee differs from the kettle you put on the stove or the
electric kettle we have here, or one of those plastic hot pot things that
will boil water nicely.  

Re #3. What is the advantage to a Jubilee over heating water
and pouring into a cup with a tea bag?

If Canada were part of the U.S. since around 1870, there would
be several more states about the size of Montana or Minnesota.
I'm not sure if they would extend as far north as the provinces
presently do. There may not have been a cross country railroad
where the trans-Canada rail is.

The charm of Canada would probably be about the same as the
above mentioned two states, that is, nice but as Rane said,
much more the same as our states. 

Also, didn't some Native American tribes manage to avoid
the U.S. Army for a while by escaping into the praire provinces?
It might have been Geronimo's group. That part of history would
have surely been different.

Also, the forerunner of the present New Democratic Party in
Saskatchewan or Manitoba started socialized medicine years ago.
I doubt if that would have happened if they had been part of
our two partly system down here. It worked well enough to be
adopted by other provinces later. Part of the support for
a national health care system here comes from seeing how it
has worked in Canada for a number of years.

Crazy Horse and his band escaped to there, I believe (they later came
back to the U.S.)

Re #5: a Jubilee is just an electric kettle that heats water, which you
pour into a cup with a tea bag (except, I take the tea out of the bag
first, as I hate the taste of the paper). That's not what is different -
it is using an electric kettle. They are in many of the commons rooms
(coffee lounges) at institutions. (Now, everyone must think I have
stock in the company - just pretend I never mentioned it.....)

It seems likely that the lower part of much of canada would be divided
into more states, and there would be generally more traffic going back &
forth.  Ontario, for instance, would probably be a south & a north
ontario, and south ontario would probably be very much like NYS or
Michigan.  It seems conceivable that there might still be territories
left in the very northern parts.  But even in the north parts might be
more developed - there are a lot of valuable minerals up there, so there
might have been a lot more mining going on if there hadn't been a
barrier of sorts between US investors and canada.

Clive Cussler wrote a Dirk Pitt (tm) novel with the story line put
forth in 0.  Seems Britain made a treaty with the U.S. to sell Canada
as payment for assistance rendered in WWII and other situations...
both copies of the treaty disappeared because the British diplomat
went down on the Titanic, and the American diplomat went down with 
his ship on an inland river due to a collision with a coal collier.
Enter our hero, Dirk Pitt (tm) 50-some-odd years later to try to
recover a copy of the treaty... 
 
Re #8: that's exactly what we have only it's a GE...don't see anything
uniquely Canadian about it...

I was just in Canada for the first time in several years, and it seemed
very different from the US.  It actually almost reminded me more of
England, although I was still able to drive on the right without having a
head on collision.

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