Recently, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been describing Canada as the 51st state.
The idea of Canada or parts of Canada joining the United States has been a recurring theme in Canada’s history. This was especially true for the years before and just after the confederation in 1867.
Related to this topic is the idea of western provinces and western states, forming a new independent country of Cascadia.
Lincoln Administration
Abraham Lincoln was elected in November 1860. William Seward was Lincoln’s Secretary of State. Expansion of the U.S.A. was one of Seward’s goals. One example was the purchase of Alaska from Russia, spearheaded by Seward.
In 1860, the U.S. government created an annexation map of the Colony of British Columbia. Three years earlier, the Fraser/Cariboo Gold Rush, created an influx of American gold miners. Britain was concerned about the sudden large population of Americans and the threat of Britain losing this territory. The Colony of British Columbia was created in 1858. But also the idea of U.S. annexation of British territory.
With the election of Lincoln in 1860, his victory triggered declarations of secession by seven Southern slave states, and eventually the Civil War. The idea of the annexation was postponed.
There is a Summerland connection to this story. The 1860 annexation map shows the settlement of ‘Priest’ at Summerland’s Garnet Lake. Priest was the first non-Indigenous site in the Okanagan Valley, 15 years before the Pandosy Mission. In 1994, Summerland Council purchased property at Garnett Lake with the goal of creating a park. In 1998, council approved a 20-hectare park: Priest Camp Historic Park.
Annexation Bill of 1866
Following the conclusion of the American Civil War, the Annexation Bill was introduced by Nathaniel Banks, Governor of Massachusetts. He was a vocal supporter of the ‘Manifest Destiny’ (expansion of the U.S.)
The bill described the annexation of all of British North America (Canada) and the admission of its provinces as states and territories into the United States. The wording of the bill’s preamble was “the admission of the States of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West and for the organization of the Territories of Selkirk, Saskatchewan and Columbia.” The House of Representatives never voted on this Bill; it never passed.
Alabama Claims
The first international arbitration board was created to determine compensation following the American Civil War.
For a number of reasons, the United Kingdom supported the South during the Civil War. The British government disrupted the Union’s naval trade and attacked Union merchant ships.
One particular British vessel, the CSS Alabama, attacked Union ships, hence the name. This British ship which included Confederate officers, captured 65 Union vessels and sank one Union warship. To compensate the United States, several items were considered: the Colony of British Columbia, all of Canada and $15.5 million in cash.
In September 1872, the crbitration committee concluded that Britain pays the United States $15.5 million as compensation for the Alabama claims.
Cascadia
The idea of Cascadia consists of Canadian provinces joining American states and creating a new independent country. This idea is not a new one.
Thomas Jefferson envisioned such a country in the early 1800s. He named the land the Republic of the Pacific, independent of the United States and the British Empire.
The name Cascadia came from the botanist David Douglas when he described in his journals the “cascading waterfalls.”
Military Commander C.H. Wilkes created a map in 1841 which described the potential boundaries of a new Oregon Territory. Expansion of this territory was limited by Russia to the north and Spain to the south.
In the 1930s, the Cascadia movement used the name; State of Jefferson. During this time, there were even disputes about ownership of state highways. In the 1970s, David McCloskey, a Seattle University professor coined the name Cascadia. The amount of land within Cascadia has fluctuated over the years, sometimes expanding to include California, Alaska and Alberta.
In the early 2000s, a Cascadia Mayors Council of American and Canadian mayors was formed. In 2005, a survey by Western Standard determined that 35.7 per cent of British Columbia and 42 per cent of Alberta supported secession from Canada. A Zogby International survey found that 22 per cent of Americans supported a state’s right to peaceful secession from the United States.
In 2008, the Pacific Coast Collaboration Agreement was signed by the governors of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska and the Premier of British Columbia. When the 2008 PCC agreement was signed, this region included a population of 52 million people with a gross domestic product of $2.5 trillion.
In 2018, a new railway company, Cascadia Rail, was founded. This proposed high-speed railway will connect cities in Washington State, Oregon and British Columbia. The goal of this company was given verbal support by the state governors and British Columbia Premier John Hogan.
David Gregory is a Summerland historian.
