Canada (Dai-tō-a)

From Alternative History

Canada is a bilingually English and French federation in the far North of the Americas. It borders with Newfoundland in the east, the United States of America to the south and Alaska to the north-west.

Canada became a self-governing dominion long before the Imperial Federation was established. It took one of the hardest negotiations of all to get Canada as a member state. Owing largely to its large francophone minority, sceptic of more British influences. The fact that most of Canada's trade is with its southern neighbour, the United States, rather than with the other nations of the former British Empire also served to cool down public opinion on the matter.

Canada is often seen to have had a decisive influence in the negotiations on the political structure of the Imperial Federation, turning it into a watered down confederation.

Most Canadian politicians sympathetic of the IF have in debates on the matter always referred to the IF as more of an International Organisation and a free trade zone than a true federation in the traditional sense, discarding the supranational aspects of which as 'merely symbolic'. There remains a vibrant public debate on this structure.