Sunday, August 3rd Vancouver, BC
“Thanks, Tom. See you in the morning.”
Jack Jordan watched as the limousine drove away. His thoughts hadn’t focused since the close of the Premier’s Conference yesterday in Regina and he was glad to be back on familiar turf. He unlocked and dragged through his front door hoping Jean was home.
After dropping his travel bags in the foyer, the Premier of British Columbia walked to the kitchen and stood at the sink. He grabbed a dish towel, soaked it with hot water, and was holding it to his face when she came in through the back.
“Hey, you’re home.” She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I missed you. How was the conference?” When he lowered the towel she saw it immediately, “You’re pale as a ghost. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m tired, but okay. I just feel like I got kicked in the head. You won’t believe what happened.”
“Are you ready to talk about it,” she asked, “or do you want to eat first? Can I make you a sandwich?”
“No, I just need to tell you.” He pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. “Balderson dropped a bomb on us after the meetings closed yesterday. Saskatchewan is holding a referendum to leave Canada and join the United States. My God, that’s the first time I’ve said it out loud.”
She quickly reviewed: George Balderson. Premier of Saskatchewan for the last five years? six? She asked, “What happened? Did he flip out or something?”
“I wish that were the case, but it’s not. He told a few of us, in confidence, if he doesn’t get some immediate relief from the catastrophic problems they are having, the referendum would be announced. It’s worse than we realised. The drought, all the farm failures, and now the grasshopper infestations – all of it.” He paused and sipped on the water she had brought him. “Evidently he’s been talking to people in Washington and they’re ready to put forward to the U.S. Congress support for Saskatchewan to become the fifty-first State.”
She wasn’t convinced. “How can he pull this off? He can’t just dissolve the Provincial Parliament. And what about Ottawa - they’re not going to let this happen. I mean – what about the Constitution and the Charter? Saskatchewan can’t just pull up stakes and leave the country. Can they?”
Jack closed his eyes. “Apparently, Balderson has already conferred with his Cabinet. They don’t like the idea any more than he does, but they haven’t come up with another option. The idea may have come from their Agriculture Minister, I don’t know. Even the other side, the opposition, thinks joining the States could be their only way out – unless somebody comes up with a better idea.”
He looked at her and continued, “Jean, if this happens, it will affect us beyond anything we can imagine.”
She got up from the table and walked slowly into the living room. Deep in thought, Jean could hear her husband back at the sink. After a few moments, he followed and sat next to her on the couch.
“Is there anything that Ottawa can do?” she asked, “Surely, they will come up with an emergency plan.”
He knew his wife was grasping at straws. “Honey, you know the situation as well as I do. First of all, if they decide to leave Canada, there’s nothing that Ottawa can do. The U.S. can prevent a state from seceding, but we can’t prevent a province from leaving Canada. We wouldn’t send troops in, we just don’t do that. Even if we did, Ottawa wouldn’t have the manpower and material to force them to stay.”
“Second,” he said with more difficulty, “Ottawa doesn’t have the money to bail out the entire Province of Saskatchewan. Third, even if it did have the resources, Ottawa can’t set that precedent. What happens if Manitoba is next, then Atlantic Canada, then Quebec.”
Jack snorted. “Quebec. Now there’s the irony. For over forty years we’ve gone through the trials of Quebec separation referendums, doing all the doomsday scenarios about what would happen if they became a sovereign nation. Now, just when they’ve finally settled down, Saskatchewan – of all places – decides to join the U.S. of A. What an incredible piece of irony. Who would have believed it.”
“And here we are, finally getting our economy back in order – and there’s about to be an earthquake ripping Canada in half. Wait. Not an earthquake, more like a black hole. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck us down with it.”
Jean visualised Canada with a hole in its middle the size of Saskatchewan. She quietly asked, “Why would they even want the Province, especially with the problems?”
He knew that she knew why. ‘She must be in as much shock as I was,’ he thought. “Why wouldn’t they? The U.S. would be acquiring a land mass twice the size of California for the price of a rescue effort. As far as business and industry goes, most of the larger farms are already controlled by U.S. and Canadian giants, like CanAgra and ACM, those farmers will be protected by acreage payments. It’s the smaller independents that are hurting the most, but as a State they qualify for farm subsidies. And, adding a million people to the American population base would barely affect their support systems. Saskatchewan has less people than a New York City neighbourhood.”
She leaned over and put her head in his lap. “Let me ask you this,” she said. “If and when the people vote, will they vote Yes?”
He ran his hand through her hair. She had always been there for him, thank God some things stay the same. Tenderly, he said, “I don’t know. My gut instinct tells me they will. We can’t kid ourselves. A lot of people would love to be a part of the American economy, so many have headed south for that very reason. I just don’t know, Jean. In the end, everybody just does the best they can to survive.”
Saskatchewan was drowning and the U.S. was the biggest lifeboat in the world. It was also the only one.
“Thanks, Tom. See you in the morning.”
Jack Jordan watched as the limousine drove away. His thoughts hadn’t focused since the close of the Premier’s Conference yesterday in Regina and he was glad to be back on familiar turf. He unlocked and dragged through his front door hoping Jean was home.
After dropping his travel bags in the foyer, the Premier of British Columbia walked to the kitchen and stood at the sink. He grabbed a dish towel, soaked it with hot water, and was holding it to his face when she came in through the back.
“Hey, you’re home.” She walked to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I missed you. How was the conference?” When he lowered the towel she saw it immediately, “You’re pale as a ghost. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m tired, but okay. I just feel like I got kicked in the head. You won’t believe what happened.”
“Are you ready to talk about it,” she asked, “or do you want to eat first? Can I make you a sandwich?”
“No, I just need to tell you.” He pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. “Balderson dropped a bomb on us after the meetings closed yesterday. Saskatchewan is holding a referendum to leave Canada and join the United States. My God, that’s the first time I’ve said it out loud.”
She quickly reviewed: George Balderson. Premier of Saskatchewan for the last five years? six? She asked, “What happened? Did he flip out or something?”
“I wish that were the case, but it’s not. He told a few of us, in confidence, if he doesn’t get some immediate relief from the catastrophic problems they are having, the referendum would be announced. It’s worse than we realised. The drought, all the farm failures, and now the grasshopper infestations – all of it.” He paused and sipped on the water she had brought him. “Evidently he’s been talking to people in Washington and they’re ready to put forward to the U.S. Congress support for Saskatchewan to become the fifty-first State.”
She wasn’t convinced. “How can he pull this off? He can’t just dissolve the Provincial Parliament. And what about Ottawa - they’re not going to let this happen. I mean – what about the Constitution and the Charter? Saskatchewan can’t just pull up stakes and leave the country. Can they?”
Jack closed his eyes. “Apparently, Balderson has already conferred with his Cabinet. They don’t like the idea any more than he does, but they haven’t come up with another option. The idea may have come from their Agriculture Minister, I don’t know. Even the other side, the opposition, thinks joining the States could be their only way out – unless somebody comes up with a better idea.”
He looked at her and continued, “Jean, if this happens, it will affect us beyond anything we can imagine.”
She got up from the table and walked slowly into the living room. Deep in thought, Jean could hear her husband back at the sink. After a few moments, he followed and sat next to her on the couch.
“Is there anything that Ottawa can do?” she asked, “Surely, they will come up with an emergency plan.”
He knew his wife was grasping at straws. “Honey, you know the situation as well as I do. First of all, if they decide to leave Canada, there’s nothing that Ottawa can do. The U.S. can prevent a state from seceding, but we can’t prevent a province from leaving Canada. We wouldn’t send troops in, we just don’t do that. Even if we did, Ottawa wouldn’t have the manpower and material to force them to stay.”
“Second,” he said with more difficulty, “Ottawa doesn’t have the money to bail out the entire Province of Saskatchewan. Third, even if it did have the resources, Ottawa can’t set that precedent. What happens if Manitoba is next, then Atlantic Canada, then Quebec.”
Jack snorted. “Quebec. Now there’s the irony. For over forty years we’ve gone through the trials of Quebec separation referendums, doing all the doomsday scenarios about what would happen if they became a sovereign nation. Now, just when they’ve finally settled down, Saskatchewan – of all places – decides to join the U.S. of A. What an incredible piece of irony. Who would have believed it.”
“And here we are, finally getting our economy back in order – and there’s about to be an earthquake ripping Canada in half. Wait. Not an earthquake, more like a black hole. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck us down with it.”
Jean visualised Canada with a hole in its middle the size of Saskatchewan. She quietly asked, “Why would they even want the Province, especially with the problems?”
He knew that she knew why. ‘She must be in as much shock as I was,’ he thought. “Why wouldn’t they? The U.S. would be acquiring a land mass twice the size of California for the price of a rescue effort. As far as business and industry goes, most of the larger farms are already controlled by U.S. and Canadian giants, like CanAgra and ACM, those farmers will be protected by acreage payments. It’s the smaller independents that are hurting the most, but as a State they qualify for farm subsidies. And, adding a million people to the American population base would barely affect their support systems. Saskatchewan has less people than a New York City neighbourhood.”
She leaned over and put her head in his lap. “Let me ask you this,” she said. “If and when the people vote, will they vote Yes?”
He ran his hand through her hair. She had always been there for him, thank God some things stay the same. Tenderly, he said, “I don’t know. My gut instinct tells me they will. We can’t kid ourselves. A lot of people would love to be a part of the American economy, so many have headed south for that very reason. I just don’t know, Jean. In the end, everybody just does the best they can to survive.”
Saskatchewan was drowning and the U.S. was the biggest lifeboat in the world. It was also the only one.
