What if West Indies join Canada?

Well, other than the snowbirds finding a place to go to during the winter? :D

For starters, IMO, the WIF would be split up into a couple of provinces, to make it easier:
  • the Province of Jamaica - comprising Jamaica, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Cayman Islands
  • the Province of the Leeward Islands - comprising the Turks and Caicos Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, and Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • the Province of the Windward Islands - comprising Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada
  • the Province of Barbados
  • the Province of Trinidad and Tobago

This would actually be in keeping with British administratiion pre-WIF.

Also, IMO, Trinidad and Barbados could be "have" provinces whilst the others would be "have-not" provinces, meaning that they would get equalization payments from Ottawa.

In reality, this would require a constitutional amendment to the Canadian constitution, which is possible, but how many Canadian politicians were willing to do that (other than when admitting Newfoundland into Confederation)?

Personally, though, I think it would be interesting for Canada to have some property in the Caribbean.
 
I don't know, can Canada even absorb the WIF? A large country like the U.S. can absorb an extra 3 and a half million people easily enough, but for Canada, it would be a 20% increase in its population, of people not naturally Canadian living far from the Canadian Center. It would be like the U.S. annexing Japan.
 
How can the Turks and Caicos Islands both be a part of the Jamaica province and the Leeward Islands province??

Drats! :eek: Thank you for pointing out that error - I was going to originally say the Leeward Islands, but after looking apparently Jamaica had the Turks and Caicos as a dependency, so I added it there without deleting the other. :eek: I'm sorry.
 
I don't know, can Canada even absorb the WIF? A large country like the U.S. can absorb an extra 3 and a half million people easily enough, but for Canada, it would be a 20% increase in its population, of people not naturally Canadian living far from the Canadian Center. It would be like the U.S. annexing Japan.

Well economically, IIRC Canada was one of the Caribbean's largest trading partners, and apparently Canada was pretty "friendly" to the WIF. I think that, barring a required constitutional amendment, it could be possible for Canada to absorb the WIF (it did for Newfoundland, and that's far from Central Canada.
 
Hmmm. That is an interesting question. If it happened, it would certainly be good for the snowbirds who go down to Florida every year.

What time period are we talking here?
 
Hmmm. That is an interesting question. If it happened, it would certainly be good for the snowbirds who go down to Florida every year.

What time period are we talking here?

Well, Wiki says that during the early years of the WIF some of the political leaders wanted to join Canada as a province - however, I think it could be possible to have any of the constitutent areas of the WIF join earlier than that. There is certainly precedent - Bermuda wanted to join in 1949, and (though outside the scope of the board, but they could try again pre-WIF) Jamaica and Barbados (at separate times) during the late 19th century. Wiki also mentions that PM Robert Borden put pressure on David Lloyd George vis-à-vis the BWI (plus Bermuda) during the Paris peace conference in 1919 (citing the Australian precedent).

So, either it could be following the OP and having the WIF (minus the BVI and Bermuda) join Canada around the late 1950s (though I think that Ottawa would eventually split the WIF into the five "provinces" I mentioned already to make governing all that territory easier), or (what I think could also work) doing it independently (and even then, maybe not even all of it - Bermuda could join separately, but at the same time as Newfoundland [if that still goes as per OTL]) between 1900-1958, especially if Borden is able to gain the BWI (including the BVI and Bermuda) in 1919.
 
FYI

These are the island groupings from 1900-1958 (according to Wiki) before the formation of the WIF, minus Trinidad (and Tobago), the Bahamas, and Bermuda:

-Jamaica
  • Jamaica
  • Cayman Islands
  • Turks and Caicos Islands
-British Leeward Islands
  • Antigua-Barbuda-Montserrat
  • Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
  • British Virgin Islands (not in WIF)
  • Dominica (to 1940)
-British Windward Islands
  • Grenada (seat of the colonial capital)
  • St Lucia
  • St Vincent
  • the Grenadines
  • Dominica (from 1940)

Barbados was a separate colony. In addition, British Honduras (now Belize), which although is physically located in Central America is culturally Caribbean (and also was not in the WIF), was the most enthusiastic for joining Canada as a province.

Just to keep that in mind.
 
BTW, here's another factor: during the 1950s/1960s, there was a lot of immigration to Britain from the Caribbean. How would this change if the WIF were part of Canada?
 
BTW, here's another factor: during the 1950s/1960s, there was a lot of immigration to Britain from the Caribbean. How would this change if the WIF were part of Canada?

They'd immigrate here instead of to Britain.

Canada would have to deal with the modern day problems that effect most of those nations, especially drugs.
 
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