NORTHWEST ANGLE, Minnesota — A petition to correct a surveying error and "give Canada back" the Northwest Angle, an isolated piece of Minnesota, has failed.
The petition, which was reported by media across North America and on the BBC, appeared on Dec. 30 on the We The People section of the White House website.
It's not clear who initiated it.
We The People was created during the administration of President Barack Obama to give Americans the ability to submit petitions on any matter.
Requests supported with at least 100,000 signatures within 30 days of being posted online are reviewed and responded to.
The push to sever the Northwest Angle from the U.S., however, fell far short of the threshold, with only 5,554 names.
Its author had noted that the 320-square-kilometre thumb-like piece of land that juts into Lake of the Woods is American territory only because U.S. and British representatives relied on a flawed map when they drew the international border after the Revolutionary War.
Inhabited by about 120 people, it is the only part of the U.S. that's north of the 49th parallel, aside from Alaska.
We The People now displays a message stating that the petition has been closed: "This petition has been archived because it did not meet the signature requirements. It can no longer be signed."
