Brooks Bulletin editorial
June 29, 1950
Canada should join with the United States in one big North American republic. That is the suggestion of George E. Shea, financial editor of the Wall Street Journal, contained in an article written for the magazine “Look.”
Such a union would obliterate the tariff wall between the two nations and would result in the maximum development and joint use of United States and Canadian resources.
Canadian people do not take kindly to any such suggestion, more from a political standpoint than an economic one. While Canada, with its long reach from sea to sea and with its diverse and conflicting economy and its sparse population is a difficult country to govern; and while there are frequent quarrels between the various divisions of the nation, the great majority of Canadian people prefer to govern themselves rather than join with the United States.
We like our form of government in which the prime minister and his cabinet take their place on the floor of parliament and the governing group stands or falls by votes in the House of Commons. We prefer our judiciary system and the setup of our local and provincial governments. We are somewhat fearful of the influence in the United States of the huge cities there with their political machines and their gangster element.
We like to watch political and economic experiments undertaken by our giant neighbor and, quite often, if they turn out well, we adopt them in more or less modified form.
There is truth, however, in what Mr. Shea writes about the prospective advancement of both nations if they united. The trade barriers are most oppressive to Western Canadians. Our costs out here on the prairies would be substantially lowered with ready access to U.S. sources of supply and we would have a great market there for most of our surpluses.
The only time that there has been a test of public feeling in this matter occurred 38 years ago when reciprocity with the United States was the main issue in a federal election.
Sir Wilfred Laurier and the Liberal Party sponsored the program and R. L. Borden and the Conservative Party opposed it. The result was a sweep for the Conservatives.
While the program did not imply anything other than freer trade between the two nations, the Conservatives suggested that it was the first step leading towards annexation by the United States. Even French Quebec voted Conservative.
We see no chance of bringing about union between these two nations but there should be freer trade. There is a fair degree of prosperity in Western Canada today but should economic troubles arise once again, as in the Depression Years, and the heavy costs of railway freights and manufactured goods once again overburden the prairie provinces, the general sentiment might well undergo a sudden and drastic change.
