A Politician in Ottawa Dreams of a Canadian Caribbean

A Conservative member of Canada’s Parliament from the frigid plains of Alberta, Canada, has launched a bid to annex the sun-kissed Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos – which is now a British Crown colony – and make them the eleventh, and warmest, province of ice-bound Canada.

His drive is gathering pace, backed up by a petition, a motion in Canada´s House of Commons, a proposed parliamentary committee of friendship, an effort to lobby businessmen and a website evoking the joys of "a place in the sun."

This is not the first time such a Caribbean crusade has been launched. In 1917, Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden had the same idea. However, it was affordable jet travel in the 1970s and 1980s that carried heat-seeking Canadians to the Caribbean and the annexation idea really take off.

The Turks and Caicos government requested a link-up with Canada in 1987, but a Canadian Foreign Ministry study turned down the idea.

A Liberal member of parliament for Quebec, who has joined the crusade, said in an interview with CBC Thursday that he had even kicked the idea around with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.