Anderson: Thankfully, annexing Canada won’t happen, because our Canadian friends won’t allow it

Annexing Canada to make it our 51st state, as President Trump has suggested, is never going to happen. Not because it’s a dumb idea. But because our Canadian friends like their lives the way they are, and won’t allow it.

That doesn’t make the proposal any less frightful, because exporting our particular brand of resource exploitation to Canada — which would be inevitable if our governments joined — would, in time, diminish one of the world’s few remaining countries where wild lands and wild critters are still plentiful.

From the wolves that prowl Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, to the snow geese that nest in the Northwest Territories, the polar bears that hunt on Hudson Bay ice, the grizzly bears that roam the Yukon and the millions of ducks and geese that nest each spring and summer on Saskatchewan and Alberta prairies, Canada still hosts many of the same creatures that existed on its lands and in its waters before it was founded.

Of particular benefit to intrepid U.S. anglers during the last century have been the walleyes, lake trout, grayling, muskies and northern pike that teem in the lakes and rivers of the Canadian provinces that border Minnesota.

Some of these fish are reached by canoe in Quetico Provincial Park, others by boat on Lake of the Woods and still others by float plane touching down on the English River or Reindeer Lake, among other far-flung waters.

The only comparable northern landscape is in Russia, and it’s incomparable. Some of Russia’s rivers are still wild, unpolluted and hold trout, salmon and other fish. But much of its big game is poached and suffers from mismanagement — or no management, according to the World Wildlife Fund and other organizations.

Canada, by comparison, whose abundant fish and game could support more generous harvests than it offers, regulates its resources conservatively to ensure sustainability.

As an example, consider how Manitoba manages its walleyes vs. Minnesota.

• Minnesota has nearly 12,000 lakes, fewer than 2,000 of which have walleyes. Of these 2,000 lakes, walleyes naturally reproduce in about 260.

• Manitoba, by contrast, has more than 100,000 lakes, the vast majority of which support naturally reproducing walleyes.

•Minnesota licenses about 1.4 million anglers each year. The statewide walleye limit is six, with four or fewer allowed on some lakes. Anglers can use live bait and barbed hooks.

• Manitoba has far fewer anglers chasing its considerably larger walleye population, selling fewer than 200,000 licenses each year. Yet only barbless hooks are allowed while fishing. And while live bait can be purchased in Manitoba and possessed by anglers with the appropriate receipt, no bait can be imported to the province. And the province-wide walleye limit is four.

Canada’s lakeshore development rules are similarly restrictive, and in many cases favor conservation over development. Plenty of Canadians — and wealthy Americans and Europeans — would build remote getaways on the continent’s northernmost lakes if it were allowed. But Canada’s outlying waters and other uninhabited places are in many instances owned by the government, and the government isn’t selling.

Minnesota, among other states, manages its lakeshores quite differently, as evidenced by Gull Lake near Brainerd, Lake Vermilion near Tower or any of the thousands of other Minnesota lakes where 50-, 75- and 100-foot lots are commonplace, with cabins and, increasingly, year-round homes on each.

It’s tempting to say this is how we Americans roll, commodifying everything and selling it to the highest bidder. Which is why our fish, wildlife and other resources in many cases are so diminished relative to historical norms.

More accurately, however, we’re more consumptive in our interaction with natural resources because we have far more people than Canada — about 340 million compared to 41 million — crowded into about the same space.

What’s more, our economy is much bigger, with a gross domestic product of about $28 trillion vs. Canada’s $3 trillion (even California’s GDP, at about $4 trillion, is larger than Canada’s), and large economies consume a lot of resources.

President Trump and his ideological allies might look at these comparisons and say both countries would benefit if we became one. America would get access to Canada’s vast natural resources, including its minerals, and in exchange Canadians, perhaps sooner than later, would enjoy higher standards of living thanks to America’s well-honed ability to commercialize these and other resources at a profit.

Additionally, assuming the Arctic, as widely reported, will be the site of various geopolitical slugfests in the near future, with China and Russia competing with the U.S. for dominance, Canada and the U.S. could benefit by joining to protect their mutual interests in this important part of the world.

As an aside — and perhaps this is the heart of the matter — years ago I believed the vast majority of people could be converted to protectors of natural resources or at least advocates for them if given access to the “outdoors.‘’

In many cases, this is true. Take a kid or even an adult fishing, hiking, boating or canoeing and many of them will enjoy the experience so much they’ll go again. And again and again.

But not everyone.

Some people, I’ve come to learn, think the outdoors and the experiences it offers are one big hassle. Too hot. Too cold. Too many mosquitoes. Whatever. They don’t want to go.

Unfortunately, as America has evolved from an agrarian nation to a more urban one, more and more of these people run our economy, our government and, as importantly, our media.

Undeveloped shorelines? Plentiful fish and wildlife? Wild places? As many of today’s officeholders, policy makers and other influencers make decisions, these resources and their conservation might be considerations. But not priorities.

I, among many others, think this is wrong-headed. But who’s to say my opinion should rule over those who prefer exploitation of natural resources rather than their conservation?

This, I believe, is the existential bewilderment of modern life; the tug and pull, and the terror, comedy and irony all wrapped into considering where we’ve been, where we are and, especially, where we’re going.

Elon Musk says he wants to go to Mars, and I hope he does.

But I want to go fishing.

However these opposing interests are resolved, if they are resolved, the U.S. never will annex Canada.

Not because it’s a dumb idea, though I think it is.

But because, thankfully, our Canadian friends like their lives the way they are, and won’t allow it.