Alberta, Quo Vadis?

by Armando Simón (July 2025)

Earlier in the year, it was predicted that after years of rule by the totalitarian-admiring buffoon, Justin Trudeau, the Liberal Party would go crashing down in well-deserved flames in the upcoming elections, not only because of his policies but by his flushing the Charter down the toilet during the covid farce.

In a last-minute attempt to salvage power for the Liberal Party, Trudeau stepped down and a globalist with triple citizenship was appointed prime minister. But what really tipped the balance—actually slammed the balance one way—was Trump sticking his foot in his mouth by repeatedly referring to Canada as the 51^st state.

To many Canadians, national identity has simply been rooted in not being American; in addition, Canadian liberals have as much hatred for America as do American liberals. The War of 1812 is seen in heroic terms by all Canadians for repulsing an invading American force, Laura Secord being one of their national heroes. Even so, countless Canadians have built up a great career in the United States, and commerce and vacations are taken for granted, and many Canadians have become rich and famous as a result.

After much ironic posturing for nationalism by the globalist Carney, the Liberal Party won the elections and set about increasing the punitive policies of his predecessor. At this point, the province of Alberta threatened secession (occasional cries in the provinces for secession have been as periodic in Canada as it is in America). Albertans have voiced that there is no point in them voting in elections because Ontario and Quebec are much more populated than the western provinces so the federal government passes laws and regulations that are punitive to Alberta and the latter can do nothing about it (this is relevant to Americans in regard to the electoral college). Think of District 12 and Panem.

Most people view each country as unitary countries, but this is not entirely so. Both are federal entities and the process of the formation of both countries paralleled each other. Because the size of the provinces and states are so big, especially compared with crowded Europe, each state and province has its own culture, legal system, history, cuisine, laws, governments, traditions, natural environment and sometimes language. Brits coming to America often enlighten their fellow citizens back home how enormous it is and that many individual states are so huge that a person can be in the desert at one point, then in a lush forest after a few hours’ drive. The same of course applies to Canadian provinces (sans deserts).

Because the United States was a union of sovereign states, when Lincoln was elected president and was openly anti-slavery, the Democrats went into hysterics for him saying things that they did not want to hear and portrayed him as a demon (sound familiar?) and, of course, seceded from the Union. Many Americans, both north and south, at that time had the belief that a state could leave the Union. Lincoln did not. The Civil War ensued.

The Canadian provinces are in an even looser confederation than American states. Two different failed referendums on becoming independent led by the obnoxious branch of Canadians in Quebec failed by a mere 1%. In 1998, the Clarity Act followed a ruling by the Canadian Supreme Court that legalized independence of a province, if certain conditions were met. As a result, the Premier of Alberta has called for a referendum on independence to take place in 2026. Aside from the political policies by the liberals which are anathema to most Albertans, there is also the fact that it is an energy rich province and the federal government takes their wealth and sends it to the other provinces in a socialist manner to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, going primarily to Quebec as a bribe to remain inside Canada (almost as bad is that Canada has interprovincial trade barriers).

Some Albertans have voiced a desire to become the 51^st American state. This, in turn, may result in fewer votes for independence, even though one would not necessarily follow the other. In order for independence to succeed, the referendum should not only call for independence from Canada, but also state that, if sufficient Albertans wish a referendum on whether to join the United States, or a union with other seceding western provinces, it would come at a much later time.

Independence instead of becoming America’s 51^st state would actually be ideal for Alberta. The most obvious one is that the vast wealth that the province sits on would benefit the citizens of Alberta. People would have more money that they could use to buy homes, food, etc. instead of being sent to other provinces to give away to illegal aliens and bureaucrats; having such energy resources, every country will want to be Alberta’s friend. They would also be rid of the insane rules that the leftist ideologues have imposed on the whole of Canada, not to mention that they would not be subject to censorship or arbitrary arrest for saying politically incorrect views or facts (which has happened due to the liberals’ hysterical reaction when presented with differing viewpoints). The Alberta representatives could then fashion a set of ironclad inviolable Rights that can rebuff any future Trudeau wannabe. They could also have a free press devoid of the constant propaganda that is the Canadian media.

The case against becoming the 51^st state is that first, America is heavily in debt because of its gigantic bureaucracy and past liberal policies, so they would be trading one entity for its potential twin, financially speaking.  On top of that, America sends much of its wealth overseas as “foreign aid” which only serves to enrich dictators and weaken America, which is why the Marxist-Democrats support it under a torrent of fake compassion. Yes, Trump is in the process of dismantling the bureaucracy and making ends meet despite the shrieks of the media hivemind and the Marxist-Democrats. But he is another Sisyphus; even if he is successful, there is no guarantee against a future Marxist-Democrat Administration or the entrenched bureaucrats will undo his work, as happened after his first Administration and as happened after Thatcher. And one cannot count on mouth-breathing conservatives preventing a rollback. Secondly, there would be tremendous anti-American resentment in the rest of Canada if Alberta were to join the United States, and one can already imagine the conspiracy theories of Americans supposedly being behind Alberta independence.

But, if some time after getting independence, Albertans wish to join the United States, they should think long and hard as to what benefits and guarantees they can obtain and nail down from the US for attaching their rich province to the south.

What American laws and policies are anathema to Albertans? What permanent limitations in, say, future taxes can be demanded? Also, there should be a clause to being able to secede and reestablish independence, or rejoin Canada after a referendum after say, twenty years from union if things go sour. They could insist on being immune from paying income tax, something that exists at the state level in some American states.

If this sounds unpalatable to Americans, they should remember that when Texas joined the Union, the treaty that was signed had certain unique demands by Texans (by treaty, the Lone Star state can divide itself into five states).

Then, again, considering the past few years of outrages carried out by the federal government of Canada, it may send troops into Alberta to prevent the referendum. Or, it may fool Albertans in appearing to temporarily acquiesce to their demands in order to defuse the situation.

We shall see.

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Armando Simón is a retired psychologist and historian, author of The U and The Book of Many Books.

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