Although it’s difficult to quantify the various items on Donald Trump’s ever-growing bucket list for his second administration, I would have to rank his desire to make Canada the 51st state of the United States in the top ten of his “most bizarre” pipe dreams.

Canada, of course, is a country rich in natural resources, including those rare earth minerals he has been so focused on lately (even demanding them in payment from Ukraine for having helped defend them for the past three years), and thus understandably desirable.

And it now turns out that there is another resource — one associated with a tiny, sparsely-inhabited island in the waters off the coast of both the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick — that could be of great interest to Trump. It is known as Machias Seal Island; and the 277 square miles of sea surrounding it, known as the Grey Zone, has been the subject of dispute since the late 1700s. In 1984, an international court ruling awarded both countries fishing rights to the area. [Anthony Zurcher, BBC, April 14, 2025.]

The priceless resource in which those icy waters abound is the incomparably ugly — and incomparably delicious — Maine lobster.

Or Canadian lobster — depending on where you live.

The two countries have each laid claim to the island and the surrounding waters, which would include the resident lobsters. And, despite the long history of friendly relations between Canada and the U.S., it has remained something of a bone of contention . . . to say the least. John Drouin, a U.S. lobsterman in the Grey Zone for some 30 years, has described the ongoing battle between Canadians and Americans each summer season to be first to place their lobster traps:

“People have literally lost parts of their bodies, have had concussions, [their] head smashed and everything.” [Id.]

Ouch! And this, of course, has now been magnified by Trump’s acquisitive designs on Canada, Greenland, and whatever piece of property he sets his sights on next.

I’ve been to both the far eastern and far western parts of Canada, and have wonderful memories of both trips . . . particularly the genuine friendliness of the people I met. The first trip involved a cruise from Boston to Portland to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, then down the St. Lawrence Seaway to Quebec City and Montreal. One of our shore excursions included a memorable boiled lobster lunch at a seafood shack by the shore, during which I had to instruct a family of U.S. midwesterners in the fine art of dissecting the beasts and locating the edible parts. As a native New Englander, I’ve also eaten many another Maine lobster in my lifetime. And believe me, they are worth fighting over.

I’m not here to arbitrate the territorial dispute over Machias Seal Island and its aquatic crustaceans. But, looking at the above map, I can’t help wondering what Donald Trump would think if the Canadian government suddenly decided to take a cue from his own methodology and change its maps, declaring that area — now known as the Gulf of Maine — to be the “Gulf of Canada.”

Eh?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/16/25