The future ain't what it used to be

Canada will join U.S. by 2010, futurists say
(Toronto Star, July 23, 1992)

WASHINGTON (CP) - Quebec will separate from Canada in 1996 and the other provinces will join the United States by the year 2010, predicts the U.S. World Future Society.

"There are no longer any economic reasons to force Quebec to stay in Canada," write group members Marvin Cetron and Owen Davies in a book called Crystal Globe, which makes sweeping predictions about the world's future.

In a chapter titled "55 United States and Quebec," the Washington-based non-profit research group forecasts that after Quebec leaves Canada in 1996, the four Atlantic provinces will join the U.S. as a single state.

Later, the authors say, Ontario will be admitted to the U.S. as a state and the Western provinces, which will have more in common with their southern neighbors, will form two more states.

The book also predicts Cuban leader Fidel Castro will join the Western powers, Israel will give up the occupied territories to make peace in the Middle East and Japanese economic might will decline rapidly.

The concept of a bilingual, bi-cultural Canada will fall apart, the authors predict, because English Canada is not prepared to five Quebec any more powers, he collapse of the Meech Lake constitutional accord in 1990 is cited as a case in point.

Giving Quebec a veto over the rest of Canada is "a privilege that 20 million Canadians are not ready to give."

Redrawing the country into four or five semi-autonomous zones isn't expected either, the group says, because Quebec and Ontario would dominate and that would be opposed by the West and the Atlantic provinces.

An independent Quebec would be as affluent and populous as Switzerland, and three times as large, the book points out. And the new country would have no problem negotiating a free trade deal of its own with the United States.