AHC: Make Canada a superpower by 1945

With a POD in 1867, change the course of history in order to make Canada a superpower by 1945. And no you can't have it be annexed by America.:rolleyes:
 
Sometime before the Mexican-American war, Spain sells most of Alta California to Britain. It realises it can't defend the north long-term, and would prefer a British California to an American one.

Britain wants to keep its enormous portion of the West Coast, seeing its strategic value, but needs a clever way to keep it from America. The solution is the Confederation of Canada in 1848: British America is united into the Dominion of Canada, which consists of Lower Canada (otl Quebec), Upper Canada (otl Ontario+Prairies), Acadia (otl Maritimes), and New Canada (everywhere west of the continental divide; capital Fort Astoria), with the capital in Ottawa. The four divisions are mostly independent of one another, and New Canada sets up a homesteading grant system for prospective settlers, making any settler an automatic citizen.

The legal system is designed to be attractive to Americans (New Canada even has its own flag!), and it works. By 1900, New Canada has 15 million people, almost as much as the "Old Canadas". Canada gets de facto independence from the UK in 1932, at the same time moving its capital to San Francisco, and by 1945 it has over 100 million people, unquestionably a superpower. Canada is clearly dominated by its west coast.

...dammit, why didn't I submit this to the current MotF?
 
Sometime before the Mexican-American war, Spain sells most of Alta California to Britain. It realises it can't defend the north long-term, and would prefer a British California to an American one.

Britain wants to keep its enormous portion of the West Coast, seeing its strategic value, but needs a clever way to keep it from America. The solution is the Confederation of Canada in 1848: British America is united into the Dominion of Canada, which consists of Lower Canada (otl Quebec), Upper Canada (otl Ontario+Prairies), Acadia (otl Maritimes), and New Canada (everywhere west of the continental divide; capital Fort Astoria), with the capital in Ottawa. The four divisions are mostly independent of one another, and New Canada sets up a homesteading grant system for prospective settlers, making any settler an automatic citizen.

But this is before 1867, which is the stated POD.

With an 1867 POD I don't really see how it's possible.
 
Somehow the USA collapses, and many former states join Canada. This is pretty much the only way to bring Canada out of America's shadow and give it a large enough population base to be a superpower. Making the USA break up after the ACW is more or less impossible though.
 
Somehow the USA collapses, and many former states join Canada. This is pretty much the only way to bring Canada out of America's shadow and give it a large enough population base to be a superpower. Making the USA break up after the ACW is more or less impossible though.

The ACW drags on an eventually the people in the North decide it isn't worth to keep fighting to bring all of the dumb hicks down south back into the fold so the North quits, lets the South secede and then what is left of the USA joins Canada.
 
The ACW drags on an eventually the people in the North decide it isn't worth to keep fighting to bring all of the dumb hicks down south back into the fold so the North quits, lets the South secede and then what is left of the USA joins Canada.
What's left of the USA would still have tons more people than Canada. Plus, the POD's in 1867. You'd need an earlier POD to have the South win.

Labor relations get worse in Britain, and by the early 20th century there's a civil war and revolution which sees commies take control of the Isles. The monarchy flees across the sea, and Canada becomes the new head of the British Empire.
 
Canada has the resources, size and industry to become a Superpower. What it lacks are the people. Increased immigration would fix that, but I'm not sure how it would be managed. It's also a bit of a satellite for Britain. An earlier break from the Britiah would help too.
 
Canada has the resources, size and industry to become a Superpower. What it lacks are the people. Increased immigration would fix that, but I'm not sure how it would be managed. It's also a bit of a satellite for Britain. An earlier break from the Britiah would help too.

While Canada has natural resources in abundance they are for the most part more difficult to access than those in the US, further north, and well beyond the means of the nation in the early 20th century. The other problem is the lack of easily accessible good land compared to the US.

While the obvious way to make Canada more powerful vis a vis the US would have the US split to some degree this challenge lacks that, but there are some ways to do it.

Obviously a good starting point would be having the Canadian trans-Pacific railway completed sometime before the 1880s and thus open up much of the better land out west in the 1870s which would have a better knock on effect for settlement and immigration (probably one of the only ways to get Canada up above a population of 10 million around the turn of the century or 1910). Making Canada more attractive to more than Anglo-Saxon immigrants earlier on is something necessary too (perhaps less of a Conservative dominated post Confederation political landscape?) and invite further immigration from Europe.

Next you'd need more of an industrial boom in the 1910s-1920s to foster economic growth.

Beyond that I'll try to think of a more reasonable way to get a Canadian superpower tomorrow.
 
Britain declare war on us.
Win the war, take some land from the northern east coast. Then have it break free with Canada.
Then join the axis power with mexico, win WW2, annex more land. Done.
 
New France gets more immigration from France,with Louisiana becoming heavily populated.Gets independence from France eventually.That's a good start.
 
Britain declare war on us.
Win the war, take some land from the northern east coast. Then have it break free with Canada.
Then join the axis power with mexico, win WW2, annex more land. Done.

There is no realistic way for Britain to win a land war with the USA post-1812. IIRC, Britain's strategy for defending Canada in the event of an Anglo-American War was basically just "Don't".

Plus, the US has a bigger population than Canada and Mexico combined, as well as having a bigger industrial base and a bigger military. Besides, why would Canada join the Axis when both Britain and America are in the Allies?
 
Obviously a good starting point would be having the Canadian trans-Pacific railway completed sometime before the 1880s and thus open up much of the better land out west in the 1870s which would have a better knock on effect for settlement and immigration (probably one of the only ways to get Canada up above a population of 10 million around the turn of the century or 1910). Making Canada more attractive to more than Anglo-Saxon immigrants earlier on is something necessary too (perhaps less of a Conservative dominated post Confederation political landscape?) and invite further immigration from Europe.

Next you'd need more of an industrial boom in the 1910s-1920s to foster economic growth.

Alrighty continuing in this vein say you've got a more liberal Canada with a population of roughly 11 million by 1918. If Canada gets an industrial boom lasting to the 1930s you'll be in a good spot.

However they are still going to be eclipsed by the US no matter what they do at this point, so lets say there was a Great War roughly on schedule, and there is an economic downturn worse then the Great Depression. Then say you have a second US Civil War ala The Falcon Cannot Hear. Refugees help boost Canada's population and territories like Maine and Washington either seek to join Canada or are pre-emptively annexed to prevent lawlessness on the border.

The aftermath of the civil war leaves the US poor, balkanized, and devastated. Canada by contrast is fresh, has a larger population, and intact industry.

So for the sake of argument let us postulate this 'Second Civil War' starts in 1938 ends in 1945 with somewhere near 55 million Americans killed or fled abroad, leaving the various successor states with a population of roughly 77 million between them[1]. Canada through immigration from abroad, US refugees and annexation now has a population of 25 million.

The 1950s sees Canada as a rising power, especially in North America as it is now the largest and richest state on the continent, and immigration and trade is seeing the Windsor Corridor, the Maritimes, and BC becoming more industrialized than OTL with the Prairies getting highways and better rails. Canada also has a larger military by necessity.

Come 1960 Canada has a population of 30 million or more.

We now have to assume the rest of the world is multi-polar by this time. Say a resurgent Germany is in Europe, a decaying Russian Empire[2] sits astride Asia (the tsar being a figurehead of a militarist regime) and an unchecked Japanese Empire is doing its thing in the Pacific[3] and a balkanized China on the mainland unable to interfere much.

Britain and France are in the throes of decolonization (say a nasty Indian Civil War since we are now sans Ghandi[4]) and various colonial troubles in Africa. With Britain being stretched around the world Canada starts picking up some of the slack as the most powerful Dominion with a decent Pacific Squadron (maybe Hawaii falls into their sphere of influence?) and there being cooperation between Australia NZ and Canada on Pacific issues, which eases the pressure on the Royal Navy.

Say Canada has launched or bought its own aircraft carriers from Britain in the 50s and exercises with the RN Pacific Squadron.

We have Britain and Japan engage in a war in the Pacific in the 1970s, Canada puts her best foot forward (and say there is also help from whatever West Coast successor state of the US is still around) and Japan is defeated, but not so badly as it was in OTL's WW2[5]. Canada gains lots of prestige and becomes the unquestioned dominant power in the Pacific with Australia, NZ, Hawaii, and the Philippines looking to her.

By the 1990s Canada has surpassed Britain in terms of population with 70 million people inhabiting it, and up to 80 million by the 2000s[6]. Industrially she benefits from good trade relations with most of the American successor states and stable trade in the Pacific with only Indonesia and the rump Japanese Empire being her greatest competitors besides British trade interests.

By 2010 her only competitors are Russia and Germany who are the other economic power houses besides Britain, but Canada is unquestionably the great power in North America and a great power in her own right.

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Now this doesn't fulfill the OP's requirements of a Canadian superpower by 1945, but Canada becomes the regional power by that date. Come the 2000s she's a great power all her own, and an ally of Britain forming a very persuasive Anglo-Commonwealth power bloc.

Is all of this incredibly likely? Not very and you're stretching plausibility quite a bit to make it happen, but it is the closest I can come to plausibly hitting the OP's goals in this thread.

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[1] Assuming the US has close to its OTL population of 134 million around this time. This also assumes a fairly brutal civil war and the breakdown of internal order and authority across the nation leading to famine and disease outbreaks.

[2] Soviet Russia would be waaaay to powerful without a US or European counter balance and would be the unquestioned global power on its own.

[3] No US and a distracted Britain means Japan will play around in the Pacific to her hearts content assuming a similar history from the Boshin War onwards (which wouldn't be terribly hard to assume with a POD in 1867).

[4] A big messy colonial war in India is exactly what we need to knock Britain down a bit without the expense of WWII tying her down. It would naturally call on the resources of a larger Canada.

[5] Assume nukes play some part at least.

[6] This assumes a constant steady stream of immigration and at least one 'baby boom' type event for native Canadians.
 
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