March 6, 2025
Make Alberta America
by Bruce Pardy
AmericanThinker.com
For weeks, President Donald Trump has said that Canada should be America’s 51st state. He has mocked Canada’s economic dependence on the United States. He has condemned Canadian tariffs and trade restrictions. He has scolded Canada’s free riding on American defense. He has knocked Canada’s porous borders and drug dens. He has accused Canada of colluding with hostile foreign powers and global institutions. He has trolled our prime minister.
It’s delightful. Many Canadians are enjoying the show.
Up here in the cold white north, Trump has set the cat among the pigeons. Canada’s chattering classes are wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth. He has challenged their sense of entitlement. He has exposed their patriotism of convenience and knee-jerk anti-Americanism. He has exposed their haughty righteousness. He has identified rot that Canadian leaders refuse to acknowledge.
Here is some friendly advice for the president. The 51st state will not be Canada. The Canadian political establishment, largely centered in Ontario and Quebec, will fight it tooth and nail. Their vested interests depend upon the existing federal order of things. Big fish in small ponds will steadfastly refuse to abandon the pond. Canada will not join the United States as a single unit.
But the country’s provinces are a different matter. Some parts of Canada might be persuaded, one or two at a time, to come stateside. If there is to be a 51st state from north of the border, the best bet is Alberta. Even better would be to adopt two provinces, Alberta and Newfoundland, to start.
Canada has always been an unlikely country. It looks huge on the map, but most of its people live in a ribbon from east to west, close to the U.S. border. Canada is a layer of icing on the American cake. Trade and traffic travel primarily north-south across the border, not east-west within the country. Canada has long had tariff-like trade restrictions even between its own provinces.
The country is a collection of regions in permanent conflict. Some have legitimate and longstanding grievances. The strongest, wealthiest, and most aggrieved of these is Alberta.
The quest for liberty is America’s origin story. Its revolution against the British king lies deep in America’s cultural DNA. Canada does not share that foundation. In fact, the Canadian story is the mirror opposite. When the Americans rose up, the Canadians resolved to remain loyal to the king. If you like, Canada’s raison d’être is to oppose the American spirit. But Canada also depends on the United States for its security and fortunes. The result is a fragile national psyche. America’s best friend and ally is also its shrillest critic.
So it is understandable why politicians in Canada — even in Alberta — have decided, at least for the time being, that their political fortunes depend upon rejecting Trump’s solicitations. Instead, they have elected to wrap themselves in the Canadian flag.
Albertans, or at least a good number of them, disagree. Some want to become an independent country. A nascent movement to leave Canada has been bubbling in Alberta for a long time. They could start from scratch to draft a constitutional order that would preserve their liberty for the foreseeable future. They could even use the American constitution (not the Canadian one) as a model on which to improve. But many of these Albertans are interested in the potential of joining the United States, too.
Two weeks ago, I published a declaration of independence for Alberta. There is nothing official about it. I’m not even from Alberta; I’m an Ontario boy. Who am I to draft an Alberta Declaration of Independence? The answer is, I’m Canadian, and my compromised, complacent country needs shaking up. If Alberta and other parts of this huge country resolved to separate from Canada, who could blame them? I believe that Alberta would be better off on its own, or as part of the United States.
Many Albertans appear to agree. On X and on my Substack, they have written the equivalent of “I am Albertan, and I endorse this message.” Of course, that sentiment is not universal. Some strongly oppose any suggestion of leaving Canada. Still more, I would guess, are those in between — unhappy Albertans dissatisfied with the status quo but wary of launching into the great unknown.
Trump has opened the door. He should invite Alberta in. He should make the people of Alberta an offer, even an informal one, to tell them what potentially lies before them should they support American statehood. He might start with these two promises:
1. A State, Not a Territory
America would welcome Alberta as its 51st state, not as a territory. Trump would urge Congress to pass legislation pursuant to Article VI, Section 3 of the United States Constitution to provide for Alberta’s direct and immediate entry to the Union. It would have all the rights and status of a state of the Union, including two seats in the United States Senate and representation in the House of Representatives in proportion to its population.
2. Dollar for dollar
Upon Alberta’s entry to the Union as a state, the federal government of the United States would recognize, transfer, and exchange Canadian dollars for American dollars on a one-to-one basis, notwithstanding the difference in the value of the currencies. All accounts, financial assets, and legal instruments in Alberta expressed in Canadian dollars would be recognized and honored as American dollars. (Some transitional plan would be necessary to avoid Canada-wide free riding on this windfall.) (I disagree with this part of the plan unless the 50% boost to their savings is our way of buying the land from them. One Canadian dollar is currently worth 70¢. - De)
President Trump can make Alberta America — not again, but for the first time.
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/make_alberta_america.html
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