Morale of uniting the forces really depended on what service you were, the navy was far and away the most opposed to it (but there's a whole slough of arguements to be made on that topic alone). But a lot of it had to do with Cold War politics (mostly being that Canada really doen't need a military, given that America is right next door).
I agree that alot of the reasoning was cold-war politics but I also belive that Canada has lost alot of international stature due to the lack of support we can provide. Mind you it's tough to justify armed forces when you're not in a war or constant state of hostilities.
The Turks and Caicos islands would be nice, but Canada has never really had a prescence in the Carribean, and the fact that it would enormously costly to maintain and protect was a huge disincentive. If you want the islands, you have to go back earlier and make Canada more active in the region, which means we need a navy, which we never really had until 1910.
Cost wise I would think it would be cheaper than much of the north is. Both involve large distances but the presence of ports on the east coast should make shipping relatively easy. I agree that we would need a much stronger Navy though which means maybe a WW1 policy change?
The Northwest Passage was never an issue until quite recently, so I fail to see how you're going to get more investment up there until the 70's anyways.
I would base this upon a change in the 1950's/60's when the first modern vessels went through the passage. Instead of the passive response we granted in OTL a much more agressive pressence (including anti-submarine patrols) may change things. I would base this upon the CANOL project being more successfull in WW2 making the north a high priority post war.
And the last one boggles my mind. The provinces will never go for it, and they might even take the federal government to court (and could feasably win it too). Especially if there's more development in the prairies. If the prairies are more populated than OTL, they aren't going to be beaten by Ottawa so often (or ignored, either).
Heck yeah I agree that today it could never occur...but if you can go back far enough (pre-1930) then it is possible. However there is still the potential that federal land revenues could be used.
Good to see another Albertan on the board.
foresterab