President Trump famously began his second term by threatening inviting our good neighbor Canada to become America's 51st state. The idea seemingly came out of somebody's butt thin air, and the reaction on both sides of the border was a mix of incredulousness and hilarity.
But we think the idea wasn't given enough consideration – by either President Trump or his detractors. At 41.5 million people, Canada would become America's largest state, by area and population. California, currently our most populous state, comes in at about 39-40 million. Accordingly, the Golden State has 52 seats in the House of Representatives. (Texas is next, with 38 seats.) So of course the 435 House seats would need to be reapportioned nationally to provide our newest state with more Representatives than either California or Texas.
But admitting Canada as just one state would be a great injustice to our friends and neighbors to the north. Wyoming, our least populous state, has a population of about 587,000. Eight Canadian provinces, each the governmental equivalent of an American state, have populations greater than Wyoming's:
Newfoundland and Labrador (pop. 550,000) and Prince Edward Island (pop. 183,000) have populations lower than Wyoming, as do Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut (non-provinces).
Obviously, reason demands that each province be admitted separately and independently. This would divide the House seats among more states and leave California and Texas in their commanding positions. Newfoundland and Labador could be combined with Prince Edward Island to make a 59th state, and citizens in the territories could be disfranchised the way we already do with people in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Plus, and this is the best part, we would have 18 additional members of the Senate to accommodate! Maybe they could time-share their desks.
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