I am a bit of a history buff so when I came across this story how Canada just missed out on an attempt to Annex a Hawaiian Island in the 1800s I was enthralled. Even though I am American I found this story complicated and fascinating. So give it a read!

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David Raymont

The Beaver Magazine

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If only Sir Sandford Fleming had succeeded in his 1894 ambition to annex a Hawaiian island.
The notion that every man is an island may be up for debate, but it is indisputable that every country needs an island — preferably one that’s hot year-round.

Several times — under Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Robert Borden and Brian Mulroney — Canada had the chance to acquire its own island paradise, and each time the politicians blew it. No wonder the Tories have such a tough time getting any traction these days.

In the latest issue of The Beaver magazine, David Raymont reveals how Canada missed its first chance, when it tried to annex an Hawaiian island.

In 1894, Sir Sandford Fleming, former Canadian finance minister, attended a conference of the British colonies to pitch the idea of a telegraph cable spanning the Pacific Ocean to connect with Fiji and Australia, and on to South Africa. For security reasons, the cable was to only touch on British soil, which created a problem. He needed to find an intermediate station to ensure the signal would maintain its strength across the huge expanse of ocean. The solution was Necker Island — an uninhabited and unclaimed piece of volcanic rock, 17 hectares in all, located near the Hawaiian Islands.

Fleming convinced the Brits that the cable was needed and, deciding to treat the island as if it were the property of Hawaii, Britain promised to negotiate a way-station on Necker with the then- independent Hawaiian government. But the Brits dawdled. Fleming, seeing his ambitious project stalled, decided to take bold action. He recruited retired naval officer R.E.H. Gardner-Buckner to race to Necker Island, raise the British flag and claim it for the empire.

However, the Hawaiian government realized the scheming was afoot and claimed the island first, the very week Gardner-Buckner arrived in Honolulu, causing him to return home empty-handed. Shortly after, in 1898, the U.S. annexed the entire territory.

The second blunder took place after the First World War. British prime minister David Lloyd George suggested to Canadian prime minister Borden that Canada should assume responsibility for the entire British West Indies. Borden made note of the conversation in his diary, and did nothing about it. Although several of these islands later became independent, the 36-island cluster of the British Virgin Islands remains a colony of Britain to this day. It could have been ours.

In the 1960s, the island of Dominica, nearly 300 kilometres northwest of Barbados, approached Canada with a request to be annexed. Its rainforests and mountains, rare flora and fauna, and undeveloped landscape were not enough to convince the curmudgeons of the day to say yes — it was turned down cold.

Canada’s last best chance to get in on the Caribbean was in 1987. A delegation from the Turks and Caicos — a chain of islands between Puerto Rico and Miami — arrived in Canada wanting to shed British colonial rule, and asked Canada to annex them instead. At the time, 90 per cent of the islanders favoured association with Canada. MP Dan McKenzie even convinced Mulroney to establish a parliamentary committee to consider the request. And why not?

The two groups of islands — the Turks (named after a native cactus flower that resembles the red Turkish fez) and Caicos (from the Spanish word cayos, meaning cays) — cover 520 square kilometres and have 370 kilometres of pristine sandy beaches. Temperatures average 20 to 30 degrees Celsius year-round, with a rainy season that runs from September to December. Lobster and conch are plentiful, and its spectacular coral reefs create a dream vacation for divers and sport fishermen.

Under British rule, the Turks and Caicos operate pretty much independently, with a 13-member legislature to oversee domestic matters. A British governor is responsible for defence, foreign affairs and internal security. At the time Canada was considering taking this island cluster on as its very own sunshine province, Britain was only paying $1 million US a year to cover the budget shortfall for services to the island’s 10,000 residents. At less than $100 US per person, it would have been a steal.

Imagine being able to take a Caribbean holiday without having to clear customs, pay import duties on purchases, convert Canadian dollars to U.S. funds (and lose at least 30 per cent on the exchange), and arrive there direct from Toronto in under four hours at a cost of less than $1,000 round-trip.

But, yet again, the politicians weren’t swayed. Perhaps they never imagined a world where the Canadian dollar would sink as low as 62 cents and cross-border travel would become an exercise in frustration. Or perhaps Conservatives really are as stuffy as they say.

Today, the Turks and Caicos is in the middle of a mini-boom, with year-over-year tourism up 42 per cent, and a population that has swelled to 35,000. With summer holiday season upon us, it’s tempting to think maybe it’s time to try again. Anybody got an extra island for sale?