Look south, Barbados. Fanciful footnotes of history suggest we should.

Donald Trump’s fantasy of Canada becoming the 51st American state has remained as persistent as nut grass. “Never say never,” he quipped, even after the “owners” – the electorate of Canada – retrieved the Liberals from the brink of political death and sent the sober, experienced, business executive, former central bank governor of Britain and Canada, and profoundly serious man, Mark Carney, to deliver the ‘never for sale’ message personally to the American leader in his residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC.

Geopolitical flights of fancy can range from the fantastic to the frantic, frivolous to fraught. Trump’s fixation with making Canada a ‘big, beautiful” state enraged and befuddled Canadians, just as his designs on Greenland have earned a suitably arctic response from the islanders.

Yet, behind the bluster and bravado, one can learn a lot about relations, foreign and domestic. It took the Greenland Non-question to bring attention to simmering hostility to Denmark’s neocolonial rule (the Danes would doubtless prefer terms like free association and internal self-government).

And the flap over Canada #51 on the Team America jersey – and Trump’s advance and retreat on tariffs have shown how deeply integrated the North American neighbours, north and south, are economically. There is no “American-made” car when significant portions go back and forth over borders.

Yet, these headline-grabbing absurdities call to historical recollection a proposal once seriously considered more than 100 years ago, between Canada and, wait for it, the likely 11th province. Barbados.

Yes, Barbados did discuss the possibility of becoming a province of Canada. In 1884, the Barbados Agricultural Society – the planters of old – formally inquired whether Canada would entertain Barbados being admitted as a member of the Canadian Confederation, in business since July 1, 1867. This was part of a broader pattern of proposals and discussions about integrating Barbados and other British West Indies territories with Canada during that era.

Further talks occurred during and after the First World War, notably between 1917 and 1919, when British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Canada’s Sir Robert Borden discussed transferring the British West Indies, including Barbados, to Canadian jurisdiction. Although these discussions showed initial enthusiasm, political concerns and racial bigotry, as well as Canada’s reluctance to govern distant tropical territories, prevented the union from happening.

So, Barbados never became part of Canada. Dominion status – the jewel of the self-governance crown – was granted to all of Britain’s White colonies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa in 1926. The West Indies would languish through civil unrest, economic depression, and another world war, never receiving the coveted dominion status under the all-too-brief West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. The idea of Caribbean provinces in Canada remains one of the great “what-ifs” of Canadian and Caribbean history.

These geopolitical what-ifs and absurdities are revived on the verandahs, at the dining tables, and in the social media musings of provocateurs. But even in these great fallacies lie inescapable truths. At the moment, Carney and the Canadians are wrestling with their estrangement from their southern neighbour and largest trading partner. The new Canadian premier put it bluntly: the old relationship “based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation, is over”.

This new dispensation required Canadians to “fundamentally reimagine our economy”, he said.

We suggest that an administration that seeks to vilify small, mostly Black nations, suggests that Barbados engages in human trafficking in hiring Cuban nurses to tend to our sick and dying during the pandemic, and raises the prospect of denying visas while seeking to remove temporary protected status for thousands of asylum-seeking Haitians, is sending us a sober lesson, would that we hear it.

It is time for Barbados and the Caribbean to fundamentally reassess and reorder our economic, commercial, tourism and cultural entanglements with the US. In a rapidly shifting global economic landscape, Bridgetown should ramp up efforts to explore and deepen trade relations with our southern neighbours, particularly Panama. The burgeoning Barbados-Panama connection offers a strategic gateway to Latin America, boosted by twice-weekly flights, leveraging Panama’s world-class logistics infrastructure, including the Panama Canal and free trade zones, to facilitate efficient access to broader markets. This connectivity can reduce transport costs for Barbadian exporters and give our consumers wider access to Latin American alternatives to the southern US.

Moreover, Panama’s dollarised economy, attractive corporate tax benefits, and thriving financial industry present valuable opportunities for Barbadian businesses seeking capital and expansion.

And we have much to offer too: a stable political environment, a robust legal framework – yes, the rule of law still lives here –  and an educated and skilled workforce make us an appealing destination for Panamanian investment. The recent air services agreement and direct flights between the two countries further cement the foundation for increased tourism, business exchange, and cultural ties. The Barbadian Diaspora, whose origins date back to the enormous sacrifice of Barbadian labour to build the railway and canal, is more than deserving of a closer relationship with kith and kin – a relationship that could yet yield significant social and economic spinoffs.

Expanding trade and investment with Panama would diversify our economic dependencies, but it need not detract from regional integration efforts in CARICOM. This could be a bridge to our distant CARICOM cousin in Central America, Belize.. It could also align with our sustainable development goals, including renewable energy and technological innovation. We are aware that some Barbadian entrepreneurs have begun to build relations with Panama that could prove even more lucrative than the long-standing deals with the South Florida business community.. These budding relations should now presage a strategic national pivot to help build our resilience against external shocks from ranting world leaders and their tariffs. Moreover, Barbados could position itself as a dynamic hub bridging the Caribbean and Latin America.

So let the historical geopolitical fantasies remain a fascinating footnote. The here and now demand pragmatic and forward-looking economic diplomacy. We need to seize the momentum in our relationship with the Global South to foster sustainable growth, economic diversification, and enhanced regional cooperation. Let us not be the last to realise that we live in an interconnected world where interdependence, not nativistic independence, will save our skins.