this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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I'm not in favour of this, as a Canadian. The power imbalance is too great. It would make Canada a Californian state, rather than California a Canadian province. They would never accept rule from Ottawa.
What policy differences would you expect? Canada has a better "states rights"/provincial system than US in that equalization payments let the Provinces spend as they want.
You bring up an interesting issue with equalization payments. California would be a "Have" province and hefty transfer payments would probably be expected.
But mostly, I'm just concerned that California would immediately become the dominant political entity in Confederation. Right now, the centre of the world is basically Toronto. Suddenly, the financial, technological, and industrial centre of Canada would all be in California. I can't see that going super well. People and businesses would migrate en masse. It could lead to an impoverishment of other Canadian provinces as the capital all moves to California.
Population, GDP, culture.. Canada would be eaten alive by California. They wouldn't change. We would.
California already makes signifcantly more Federal tax payments, then it receives in services. It does so to a government that hates it, and manages funding red states that hate it with California's contributions.
California does have a lot of fintech, but traditional finance would likely still be centered in Toronto, unless CA wants to make it from scratch. Unclear that any industry would move.
Maybe. Not convinced it'd be best for Canada, though. I think California would be better as an independent country that we could then negotiate with on more or less equal footing.