What if Canada had annexed the West Indies Federation?

What if Canada had annexed the West Indies Federation? Let's assume that the annexation is successful, no matter how unlikely it is.

1. What would be the fates of British Honduras and British Guyana? They were observer members of the Federation, would they be included? Would they be given an option?

2. How long could they keep a hold of them? Jamaica only joined the federation under the belief they would eventually gain independence, so would they be the equivalent of Quebec in the south? Or would they eventually leave Canadian control?
 
There would be a hell of a lot of Canadian infrastructure investment to try and raise incomes and economic development levels to Canadian standards.

Probably a lot of migration back and forth between the Caribbean and Canadian provinces.

Would the Federation be one or a couple of provinces? I could see Jamaica being a stand alone province.

They'd have Senators. They'd have MP's. It would certainly make Canadian politics more interesting.
 
Last edited:
As I mentioned on the other recent thread along the same lines, giving provincehood to a bunch of foreign countries would likely cause quite a bit of resentment in Yukon, the NWT, and(depending when this happened) Nunavut. The feds would likely be compelled to grant provincial status to the territories as well, something which in OTL they have proven pretty reluctant to do.

Alternately, they could just admit the West Indies as territories on par with the north, though I wonder if the West Indians would be cool with that.
 
Simple matter of population. The Federation including Jamaica had three to four million people. A half to a third of that in Jamaica. Collectively, they would have been the third largest Canadian province. Even splitting Jamaica as a separate province, the two West Indian provinces would have each had greater populations than most of the maritime or prairie provinces. Nunavut at this point I think is still less than 20,000.
 
I suspect that the West Indies would remain more like protectorates or British responsibilities delegated to the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Lots of Jamaicans would want to move North in search of better wages.
Canadian bankers, bureaucrats, teachers and nurses would demand hardship pay when they served in the Caribbean. Behind the scenes, Canadian nurses would compete fiercely for even short-term contracts in the West Indies.
The Royal Canadian Navy would be forced to conduct winter exercises in Jamaican waters. Canadian sailors would grumble about Jamaican weather being too hot, but drink themselves silly - on Jamaican rum -every night.
Similarly, the RCAF would grudging fly the Canadian Airborne Regiment south every winter and soldiers would grumble about all the swamps in Belize - then drink themselves silly in Belize-brewed beer every night.
May we please have a round of sympathy for those poor Canadians forced to sweat through Jamaican winters?
Hah!
Hah!
 
Top