As I have noted in the past, there are only two reasonable outcomes to the Brexit saga. Either Britain remains in the European Union or it leaves without any real agreement.
I am proposing a third outcome that is admittedly a bit bizarre: Britain forms a union with Canada. Canada already has an trade agreement with EU with more favorable terms that Britain is likely to see. Canada also has agreements with US and Mexico under NAFTA as well.
Canada and Britain already share a common monarch, so the question is what level of confederation is required to officially become a single nation at least for trade purposes. Technically Canada did not become fully independent of Britain until the 1980s, when the British parliament passed the Constitution Act of 1982 that allowed Canada to amend its constitution without consent of Britain. Theoretically Britain could still amend the Canadian constitution to form a union, although at least consent from the Canadian parliament would be required as a practical matter.
Obviously many details would have to be worked out. Britain and Canada would have a single seat in the UN and other international organizations, and any union would have to be designated a successor state to retain Britain’s veto power on the security council. It is not clear what level of union is required on a governmental level; a loose confederation for trade purposes may be sufficient. Other countries have more than one capital, more than one currency, and a high degree of regional autonomy. It may not be necessary to have a single parliament, a single currency, or a single capital for a union to work.
Given the major issues, it is difficult to see how this could be worked out by the scheduled Brexit date, but it does provide a more reasonable outcome for a Brexit from a British viewpoint than anything I have seen so far. It is not clear what Canada would think of the idea.
What do you think, is a United Kingdom of Canada, Great Britain, and Northern Ireland is just a bizarre idea?
Or does it have some potential as a real solution?
