United Kingdom of Great Britain and Canada

[InvaderX]

How could you get Canada to become a core part of the United Kingdom, with the same status as Scotland, England, etc? Assume a POD around 1860 (arbitrary, feel free to use whatever year you feel would work, but the later the POD, the better).

Perhaps Britain decides that, rather than giving Canada (relative) independence as a Dominion, it would be better to simply give Canadians representation in the British Parliament itself (rather than creating a Canadian Parliament). But I'm not sure why they'd want to do that.

 

[Dominic]

The British Empire had a large array of internal pressures that made centralisation extremely difficult to achieve internally. Too many disparate interests, and ultimately a very weak metropole relative to colonies. The only straightforward way to achieve this, IMO, is through external pressures that create a 'hang together/hang separately' scenario. The UK+Canada is far more doable than the rest of the Empire given the common ocean, what is needed is some force(s) that are sufficiently threatening that the two countries become much more closely aligned. Perhaps twin threats from the US/Europe, through some unfortunate political developments there.

 

[RMcD94]

You need to threaten Canada so much that it needs to be fully protected by the UK.

No idea how you do that without the UK losing eventually so

Aggressive Russia? Isolationist Balkanized usa?

 

[NiGHTS]

Canada would be neglected by London. Don't think this would happen? Just look at how London neglects much of England itself.

 

[Dan1988]

Hmm, French Canada would like to have a few words on that, . . .

Also, the only way I see it work for Canada (which at this point in time is not the whole of Canada as we know it ITTL but just the Province, covering what is now southern Ontario and southern Quebec) is if the UK reforms into more of a (quasi-)federal arrangement. The Maritime colonies may follow in time, but we don't know; all we know is to have it happen requires some acknowledgement of geographical problems and also addressing the needs of French-Canadians. In this case federalism is an ideal option.

 

[funnyhat]

Yeah it’s hard to see Québec accepting this idea, unless it is under some existential threat from the US and the British tell them “join or die”.