# Should Canada annex the Turks and Caicos Islands? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 16, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828 "2003-07-16T06:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/1 "2003-07-16T06:53:51Z")
The CBC just put up a new backgrounder on their website: [Canada’s Caribbean ambition](http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/turksandcaicos.html). It concerns whether or not Canada should annex, or form some other sort of association with, the Turks and Caicos Islands of the Caribbean, currently a British overseas territory. Lest you think it’s silly season down at the Mother Corp., this is in fact an idea I’ve heard floated around before. It’s also been brought up in Parliament on several occasions, the first of which was by Prime Minister Robert Borden himself in 1917. ([Old parliamentary magazine with a brief history of the idea](http://www.parl.gc.ca/infoparl/English/11n2_88_e.htm)) Apparently, the islanders are into it a great deal themselves. The archipelago’s main source of tourist trade is Canada, and a saying runs that “every islander knows a Canadian”. Arguments are that it would be good for the economy, not to mention the national psyche, to have a warm island region in association with us; that it would help keep tourism dollars in Canada, rather than blowing them in the conversion to US dollars and other currencies; and that it would improve prospects for the Turks and Caicos Islanders as well. So what do you think - shall we? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/2 "2003-07-16T06:58:43Z")
:eek: Canadian imperialism! Bomb them! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/3 "2003-07-16T07:04:46Z")
Hey, it wasn’t all _our_ idea… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/4 "2003-07-16T07:08:36Z")
From one of the above links: > [@](#): > > [In 1988], the new Government [of T&C], under [Prime Minister Oswald] Skippings, stated that one of its first priorities will be a close examination of the relationship between Canada and the Turks & Caicos Islands. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/5 "2003-07-16T07:09:21Z")
Given how much our leaders love Castro, I think we should annex Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/6 "2003-07-16T07:29:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > Given how much our leaders love Castro, I think we should annex Cuba. Is there something we in the Free World can do for you oppressed victims of the Socialist States of Canada? Food parcels? Bibles? A portrait of Our Lord and Saviour George W. Bush to comfort you? ---
**Author:** ![Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Planet\_of\_the\_Shapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Planet_of_the_Shapes)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/7 "2003-07-16T10:52:42Z")
Can Canada just annex the T&C islands? Wouldn’t the UK, as the current owner of the islands have something to say about that? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/8 "2003-07-16T10:58:41Z")
I thought ‘we’ still owned Canada as well ? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/9 "2003-07-16T11:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by London\_Calling \* > \*\*I thought ‘we’ still owned Canada as well ? \*\* Dream on, Tommy. I’ve favoured the annexation (with a clear majority vote of the T&C citizens) since I first heard about it in the early eighties. Start them out as a “territory” similar to the Yukon and in a generation or so, consider provincehood. Start culling in the tourist bucks from nonCanadians and then make plans to take the Falklands… oops, I’m getting ahead of myself. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/10 "2003-07-16T11:45:49Z")
😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/11 "2003-07-16T12:59:35Z")
In reply to the OP, yes. I think it is a marvelous idea. For now you’ll have your own Hawaii and when the next Ice Age comes you’ll still have year-round ports. As for your ambitions towards Cuba, I regret that the US didn’t annex it when we had the chance and I still expect eventual statehood. You’ll have to fight us for it. (I was watching a documentary filmed in Cuba and realized what an excellent place to retire it would be. I mean, I’ll die fairly young but I’ll outlive Castro, relations will normalize almost immediately but the cost of living will remain low, and the place looks like the Heaven I’m unlikely to land in. Perfect!) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/12 "2003-07-16T13:08:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by London\_Calling \* > \*\*I thought ‘we’ still owned Canada as well ? \*\* It could be set up in a sort of carve out and spin off basis, you know Canada sub-division of England Inc. takes over the T&C brand. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/13 "2003-07-16T13:08:41Z")
Another cool place to go diving where I won’t need my passport? Annex away, Canada. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/14 "2003-07-16T13:45:50Z")
That oughta be interesting. Heck, it may provide Maritime Command with a justification for actually investing in building a new Escort Canoe and buying a couple of low-mileage Fast Attack Inflatable Rafts. 'cause, y’know, you have to defend the sea route from Halifax and all that… From where I sit, if they do it, let them do it like **Bryan** proposes, an integral annexation as territory-on-the-way-to-province-someday. Last thing we need is yet another neighbor with an ad-hoc “special-status” as overseas-somethingorother for tax and ship-registry purposes, to support our own indecision. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/15 "2003-07-16T14:19:03Z")
Some sort of relationship, if desired by majorities in both nations, sounds like a good idea. (The United Kingdom’s stance since the 1960s has been that any dependency that wants to depart, either to independence within or outside the Commonwealth or to a freely-chosen union with a neighboring country, is welcome to do so – but they’ll stand by anyone who wants to remaiun an overseas part of Old Blighty, including by force – e.g., Gibraltar and the Falkland Is.) Provincial status seems a long way away, and I strongly doubt they’d want to surrender autonomy for even Canadian territorial status (Canada’s territories have significantly more independence of Ottawa than U.S. territories do of Washington.) There are only six inhabited islands, out of 30 islets, with a total rea of 193 sq. mi., and a 1999 population of 16,863. (By comparison, P.E.I. has 2,185 sq. mi. and 134,557 people; all three Canadian territories have approximately twice the T&C population.) Their main exports, according to the World Almanac, are salt, shellfish, and conch shells. I could, on the other hand, see them as Canada’s Key West. But was it them or the Caimans that refused to let a cruise ship catering to gay couples dock a couple of years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/16 "2003-07-16T14:25:34Z")
I say, go for it! Let Canada annex the Turks and Caicos! We could use somewhere to go in November (the most depressing month)… They get a Senator, an MP, insignia on the door of the Senate chamber… and lots of tourists. 🙂 Our polite world domination commences! ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/17 "2003-07-16T14:31:55Z")
Well yeah but where’s the next piece of nowhere that no one has heard of? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/18 "2003-07-16T15:21:40Z")
Actually, **Sam Stone** , offhand, Canada annexing Cuba is not immeadiately a nonsensical idea, once Castro kicks the bucket. Assuming that the Cubans wanted to be annexed. It would take a lot of planning though, not least to reduce expectations of Instant Affluence, and would be a major effort. I foresee an East Germany/West Germany situation as far as payments and rebuilding of infrastructure go. The Turks and Caicos are so small that their entire population is only a drop in Canada’s yearly immigration stream, and we could afford infrastructure improbvements no prob. It would be far more doable, and serve as a practice manoeuvre. A link off the CBC backgrounder referenced in the OP: [Canadians for a Tropical Province](http://marley.perception.net/cfatp/) 😃 Googling revealed these links: [Turks and Caicos Gateway](http://www.turksandcaicos.tc/) [T&C Tourist Board](http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com/) Why do I have this image of the polar bear from _Sherman’s Lagoon_ toasting himself on the beach? ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/19 "2003-07-16T15:37:31Z")
You Canadians think you can just walk in and impose your values on the rest of the world? Your racist imperialistic policies are anathema to social justice in the developing world. There will be nationalist resistance to your every move. Oh, and save me a nice villa down by the beach. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828/20 "2003-07-16T15:47:55Z")
Oh yes. Our stormtroopers are going to march in and… be _nice_ to everyone. 😃 \ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-canada-annex-the-turks-and-caicos-islands/188828.md?page=2)