Walter Noel, Giant of Federalism

Walter Noel took out his crayons and wrote the following brilliant analysis for yesterday's edition of the St. John's Telegram:

The country would cease to exist without equalization. Ontario and Quebec would be the biggest losers. The other provinces would be better off financially as independent countries or American states. As Americans, citizens of the smaller provinces would also have more say in national affairs through effective Senate representation.

A few quick questions for Walter as he continues his in-depth study of the costs and benefits of being a province of Canada:

1) Which fraction is bigger, 6/105 or 2/102? Those are the fractional shares of Newfoundland and Labrador's representation in the Senate of Canada, and in the United States Senate as a hypothetical U.S. state, respectively.

2) Relatedly, which fraction is bigger, 508,548/32,777,304, 7/308, or 1/435? The first is NL's share of the Canadian population, about 1.6%. The second, about 2.2%, is its share of the Canadian House of Commons. The third is what, as a hypothetical U.S. state, NL would enjoy as representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Canadian Parliamentary representation formula is much more generous to small provinces than the American one is to U.S. states.

3) How large is the equalization payment that NL would receive as a U.S. state? (Hint: the figure starts and ends with the digit 0)

4) How large are the royalties collected by the U.S. federal government from offshore, and even onshore oil, gas, and other mineral developments? Are they larger than the comparable ones collected by the Canadian federal government? (Hint: the Canadian figure is effectively the same as the U.S. equalization figure; the American figure is a non-zero amount.)