What would happen if the Oregon Country/Columbia District was given to Canada
 

What would happen if the (Oregon Country / Columbia District) was given to Canada by Oregon Treaty?

What would happen if highlighted disputed area of Oregon Country / Columbia District was given to Canada ?

How it would affect Seattle and Vancouver (BC)?



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...goncountry.png

That would be cool. I could drive from Castlegar along the Columbia River all the way to BC's former capitol Vancouver Washington. With a stop at The Gorge for an outdoor concert lol.

I know what would happen. The Oregon Country/Columbia District would belong to Canada.

Lmao!
This question needs to be asked during the next leadership debate!

Nuclear War would have ended civilization in the 1960s so thank whoever you thank this was never given to the Brits.

What would happen is BC would be the most populous or second most populous province in Canada, shifting the power balance west. :cool:

Disputed area made me think of this..

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At least Boeing and Microsoft would have been Canadian companies:cheers::)


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Maybe.

Probably not much. Canada is exceptionally bad at this sort of nation building. If we’d gotten Alaska, I’m sure Anchorage today would be no bigger than Prince Rupert. And the same for this territory, unless Vancouver consequently developed farther south. But Canada definitely would never accomplish two large cities on the west coast.

If Canada was in control of the PNW (including Alaska) there is no guarantee that the likes of Boeing or Microsoft would establish themselves in Canada. We have a poor record of growing great establishment of the likes of those giants.

Look at our sports and entertainment. Until the NHL was wholly taken over by Americans it was going to remain a niche sport confined to New England and the Great Lakes region. It wasn't until the American Bettman pushed the NHL to expand into non traditional markets. Would that have happened if the head office remained in Toronto or Montreal? I highly doubt it.

Our entertainment industry (English) is a laughable and anyone with an ounce of talents seems to head to the states as soon as they can.

Same with our Universities both in research and sports. Every Canadian kid in sports seems to have dreams of getting a NCAA scholarship or an Ivy League Law degree. Our schools are content to not do the work to make it attractive for the best student and student athletes to stay in Canada.

On the professional sports side we laugh at the leagues that remain in Canada (CFL, CPL, CEBL) and only seem to care or feel validated if Toronto is playing New York vice playing Edmonton.

Hell we can't even muster the courage to renovate our Prime Minister's Official Residence!

Canada is a cheap, small minded provincial country. We could be so much more
but our inferiority complex holds us back.

It's as much a problem with "tall poppy syndrome" as it is with a chronic inferiority complex.

Canadians tend to be incredibly envious of other peoples success, and will do everything in their power to drag them down........

They just would be located somewhere else. Maybe California. Those companies wouldn't develop in Canada. Boeing is a a machine in the US Military industrial complex, and Microsoft was reliant on US venture capital. Neither would happen north of the border.


Canada would likely have a much higher population and Vancouver would be a small backwater town. Seattle would likely be Canada's #2 city above Montreal, and a huge portion of the country's growth would be happening in the area due to the favourable climate (Canada without the cold!) and accessibility to the Californian economy.

I can't get around that everything that happened in the last 200 years would have still happened if the Brits ended up with the territory.


Re: Microsoft
Let's keep in mind Elon Musk has(d) Canadian citizenship and studied at Queens before heading to Pittsburgh(?). His eyes were always on Silicon Valley. Best place to raise capital and plenty of buyers willing to shell out hundreds of millions/billions when you are ready to exit. Much of that just has to do with the scale of the United States. For example, you need national distribution to sell 40 million loufas in Canada. The same can be accomplished regional in most parts of the US.

This is so speculative it doesn't really merit discussion.

You really are grilling with your realism.

What would happen if Canada had 500 million people?
What would happen if Baffin Island was tropical?
What would happen if Alberta had no fossil fuel resources?
What would happen if Canada was majority French-speaking?
What would happen if Winnipeg had a port on the ocean?
What would happen if Canada were an Island like Australia is, and 10K kms away from the Excited States?

Actually, the 2nd one isn’t all that far-fetched at this rate, but it sure will be disastrous.
The 4th one, I think there’s already a thread on it, but bref threads get hidden all the time.

???

That's not how this works at all.

If Michigan was a part of Canada, would Toronto be a small backwater town?? Conversely, what would happen if the Niagara Escarpment was the US border?

Vancouver actually has a special, even geographically unique setting with a great harbour and lots of agriculturally fertile land nearby. It's the most northerly location suitable for a large city on the coast.

The funny thing is that there would be two cities called Vancouver.

But there are two cities called Vancouver. If the British had retained it all there would only be one.

Yes one of them is Vancouver BC other one is Vancouver WA.
But with this new scenario, both cities would have been in the same province.
( If the British had obtained highlighted disputed area as indicated on the map.)


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I think if the Oregon Country/Columbia District was given to Canada, we may have needed to fight a war to retain it over the long run. A war that we most certainly would have lost. The USA takes what it wants.

Then our Vancouver would have had a different name, still a similar city, but with much more population to the south. Different political borders would have resulted in a different population distribution, with more to the south still hugging the border. However, our Vancouver would still be a city because of the geography we have here.