U, S and A

The newly-minted leader of the Economic Union Party and Responsible Government League, Danny Williams is musing about statehood.

"Not interested in a new state, are you?", he said to U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins.

David Jackson in the Chronicle-Herald called it a "quip."

Noop.

It was yet another dog-whistle for the benefit of his hard-core crypto-separatist Danny Fans.

So perhaps one of those Danny fans can explain to The Master, in small words he'll understand, some of the following:

As Danny is fond of complaining, Newfoundland and Labrador has only seven seats of 308 in the House of Commons. How many members would the State of Newfoundland — Labrador would not likely be part of this scheme — have in the House of Representatives? (Hint: Newfoundland's population is less than that of the least-populous existing state.)

The average U.S. state government receives 26% of its revenues in transfer payments from the federal or local governments. The average Canadian provincial government gets 26% of its revenues in transfer payments from the federal government alone.

Of the U.S. state government's federal transfer revenues, how much is in the form of equalization? (Hint: it's a really round number.)

How much does the U.S. federal government collect in royalties from offshore oil and gas? For that matter, how much does the U.S. federal government collect in royalties from onshore oil and gas, and other mineral extraction? (Hint: unlike the situation in Canadian provinces and offshore Canada, the amount is not zero.)