The idea has been raised from time to time during the 20th century, particularly during the late 1990s in the face of declining regional transfer and equalization payments from the federal government.
In 1990, Nova Scotia Premier John Buchanan stated that if Quebec were to secede from Canada, separating English-speaking Canada into two parts, the Atlantic provinces would be "absurd" to try to form their own country and that there would be "no choice" but to seek to join the United States.