President-elect Donald Trump’s comment about making Canada the 51st state apparently has his supporters in stitches. A man never short of boorish comments to entertain his fans, offending his country’s closest friends and allies is vintage Trump.

His little joke isn’t exactly original. On the contrary, it has a long history. Back in the mid-1800s, U.S. President James K. Polk ran on a platform of manifest destiny and inspired by the war cry “54-40 or Fight,” he and his countrymen pushed for a border further north. However, they were distracted by a war with Mexico occasioned by their annexation of Texas. Confederation was largely about curbing such American ambitions.

Before returning to their imperialist traditions, Americans might want to shore up their homeland as it is currently constituted. Polarization of the country has lead to much talk, even outright threats, of civil war. They have a history of that, after all, and they are as gun-happy as ever.

They should ensure they can keep together the pieces of territory they’ve got before looking for more. Some parts have good reason to want out. California, for instance, a liberal state, has been engaging in a lot of activity to Trump-proof itself.

It has diminishing justification to even remain in the union. The U.S. Constitution works against states such as California. Each state, regardless of size, is mandated two senators. This means that California with 38 million people has the same representation in the Senate as Wyoming with barely half a million. In other words, each Wyoming citizen has in effect 65 votes to each Californian’s one—grossly undemocratic. And it gets worse year by year.

And it’s more than just numbers of citizens, it’s kinds of citizens. Small states tend to be more conservative, rural and whiter than the large states. This means that not only Californians generally but Democrats, liberals, urbanites and minorities specifically are reduced democratically. After a few years of Trump, Californians may begin to wonder why they are remaining part of a country which is slowly but surely disenfranchising them. Trump-proofing may not be enough.

As for Canadians, not being American has always been one of our chief sources of satisfaction in being who we are.

It is particularly ironic that Trump should bring up the 51st state business. If Canadians were asked why they didn’t want to become Americans at this point in history, the reason at the top of the list might very well be Donald Trump. Support among Canadians in the U.S. presidential election was over three to one in favour of Harris. We cannot fathom what on Earth they were thinking to elect a moral degenerate as their leader.

In any case, the fun begins. We can now look forward to four more years of boorish nonsense from south of the 49th.