Okay so imagine this:

The United States and Canada both dissolve into their internal divisions.

So instead of 2 countries, we now have:

• 50 U.S. states
• 5 U.S. territories
• 1 federal district
• 10 Canadian provinces
• 3 Canadian territories

Which means North America suddenly becomes:

69 countries.

California? Country.
Texas? Country.
Ontario? Country.
Puerto Rico? Country.
Yukon? Country.

BUT — all 69 countries immediately join a new supranational organization called the North American Union (NAU), basically our version of the European Union.

So you'd still have:

• Open borders
• Shared currency
• Free movement
• Common trade policies
• Massive economic integration

But every state/province now has way more autonomy and identity.

Idaho would literally have an embassy in Florida.
You'd carry an Idaho passport instead of a U.S. passport.
Quebec and Texas would both act like semi-independent nations while still being tied into the NAU economy.

And before people say “isn’t that already basically how the U.S. works?” — not even close.

U.S. states are not sovereign countries.
Texas cannot negotiate treaties with France.
Florida cannot open embassies in California.
Washington state cannot join military alliances with British Columbia.
New York cannot issue internationally recognized passports or directly negotiate trade agreements with Ontario.

This would basically turn every state/province into an actual nation-state while still keeping most of the economic/practical benefits of staying unified.

In both the US and Canada, there are several states/provinces/territories that want to become independent:

• California
• Texas
• Cascadia (Washington, Oregon, British Columbia)
• Quebec
• Puerto Rico
• Alberta

Imagine if the entire EU become one country, Portugal and Poland having to share a country? They are so vasty different. Thomas Jefferson himself assumed that the West Coast would be it's own country.

For the NAU capital, I think we should do what South Africa does and split it between multiple cities instead of trying to force one “true” capital.

My proposal:

• Executive capital: Washington, DC
• Legislative capital: Kansas City or Minneapolis. We should try and make it close to the center of population
• Judicial capital: Vancouver

That way neither the U.S. nor Canada fully dominates the union politically, and the power centers are geographically spread out across the continent instead of everything being concentrated on the East Coast.

We could also open up NAU membership to maybe any carribean countries that want to join.