As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office, Canada and the United Kingdom have emerged as the most likely candidates for an honor no one knew was up for grabs: the 51st state.

On paper, it might seem a ludicrous proposition. In practice, both nations — blessed with historic ties to the U.S., yet plagued by domestic dysfunction — appear poised to give it their best shot.

Canada’s political landscape has long been a study in polite decline. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s nearly decade-long tenure is finally coming to an end. It has been an exercise in performative politics, replete with international virtue-signaling and hollow domestic promises. His failure to meet NATO’s 2 percent GDP defense spending target and the ongoing debacle of defense procurement — most recently exemplified by the decision to purchase submarines few believe will ever see water — evince a nation more comfortable with the aesthetics of governance than with its mechanics.

But Trudeau is merely the most recent symptom of Canada’s broader malaise. His predecessors, from Stephen Harper’s studied inertia to Jean Chrétien’s parochial small-ball politics, all contributed to an erosion of Canadian ambition and capability.

Canada has sold itself on the myth of the middle power: a nation that punches above its weight in multilateral institutions while quietly deferring to larger allies like the U.S. The reality is more damning.

From its decayed military infrastructure to its nonexistent Arctic strategy, Canada has become a marginal player even in areas of vital national concern. Worse still, its political class is content with this mediocrity. Canadians,........

© The Hill