Hard Bargain

In 1965, philosopher George Grant told us that Canada had already “ceased” to make sense but that the nation would not disappear as an independent country for some time. Union with the U.S. “empire,” he proffered, would require extraordinary decisions. Politicians, however, find it easier to be loyal innovators, within the status quo. He called this uncertainty about the details of his bleak prophecy the “kindest of all God’s -dispensations.”

Nearly 50 years later, in Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country, Diane Francis offers a vivid, bold reply: what makes no sense must finally stop. Let’s deal! The business journalist who divides her time between Toronto and New York is not tethered by Grant’s pessimism or his sense of tradition or his affection for ideas that do not work anymore.

Here is the merger deal as Francis sees it: the Americans pay us $16.9 trillion for our over–contribution of resources, a figure...