This new petition wants to sell Montana to Canada. Here’s why

Feb 19, 2019

By Herb Scribner

A new petition on Change.org has called for Montana to be sold to Canada so the U.S. can start paying off the national debt.

Ian Hammond, who started the petition, wants to sell Montana for $1 trillion.

“We have too much debt and Montana is useless. Just tell them it has beavers or something,” the petition description reads.

More than 7,600 people have already signed the petition, which hoped to garner at least 7,500 total signatures, Fox News reports.

“We have too much debt and Montana is useless,” the petition reads.

The petition says the U.S. should tell Canada that Montana “has beavers or something” to convince the neighbors to the North to buy the state.

The national debt is about $22 trillion (and counting).

People who signed the petition shared their support for the sale, according to the New York Daily News.

“MT resident here that will gladly join Canada. The U.S. is a mess and POTUS is an embarrassment,” said one commenter.

Another wrote, “I live in Montana. I want to live in Canada but I don’t want to move.”

Canadians even jumped in on the fun.

“I’m Canadian and we will take you,” said one commenter.

So could the U.S. sell a state to another country? Back in 2012, a writer for The Washington Post opined that the U.S. should sell Alaska to cure the national debt.

The writer made the case that Alaska would have plenty of interested buyers, including Russia, China and even Donald Trump. Seriously. Check out the article to see what I’m talking about.

And though the U.S. hasn’t sold off a state in this way, there’s still precedent across the world that could help guide the country into selling a state.

“Selling off the national furniture isn’t unusual or far-fetched in other parts of the world. When governments spend beyond their means, the International Monetary Fund usually rolls up and offers aid, often with a condition: Sell state-owned assets,” according to The Washington Post. “Sometimes that means the state-owned airline or phone company. After the fall of communism, Eastern European countries sold off state-owned enterprises.”