Meet the Albertan separatists who want to be American

By Rupa Subramanya | The Free Press

Summary

A growing band of Canadians are advocating for Alberta to become independent and join the United States. Alberta holds the third-largest oil reserves in the world, trailing only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, and sits atop rich deposits of coal, lithium, and other critical minerals that America is actively seeking. Meanwhile, the severe tariffs the Trump administration has unleashed on Canadian imports adds yet another incentive for Alberta to join the U.S.

“Alberta plus Texas would surpass OPEC,” says Peter Downing, the executive director of AmericaFund.ca, an organization pushing for Alberta annexationism to the United States.

From high-profile supporters of Alberta’s independence movement—including Alberta lawyer Jeffrey Rath (who is organizing a delegation to pitch Alberta’s statehood to the Trump administration)—to proponents on the frontlines impacted by Trump’s tariff war, writer Rupa Subramanya looks at why Albertans are open to the idea of becoming the 51st state.

She notes the province’s proximity to Montana and its strong libertarian values is a factor, but “Western alienation” is at its core. The feeling of being treated as an economic colony by the federal government and central Canadian interests [a sentiment that can be traced to the mid-1800s], was reinforced by Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s National Energy Program in the 1980s.

Although, not from Alberta, Canadian legal scholar and professor of law at Queen’s University, Bruce Pardy, supports the province’s potential breakaway and even drafted a declaration of independence.

He believes Alberta is the entire country’s best hope for change:

“Canada has become a stagnant, politically ossified country. It is stuck in a dead-end status quo and dominated by an overbearing managerial elite. People in Alberta, more than anywhere else in the country, seem able to perceive that something in Canada is amiss. By resolving to leave, Albertans could upset the Canadian apple cart and disrupt the established order. Political disruption is what this country needs.”

Read the full article at the publisher’s website here.

Main image: “The Milch Cow” cartoon from The Grain Growers Guide (1915), represents the historical economic resentment of Western Canada towards Eastern Canada.