Holy shit, I didn't know Alberta had a trade mission in DC. Yeah, that's a pretty big step. It really does sound like Albertans, even some government Albertans, have been laying the groundwork for this. I think you would probably NEED to be some kind of territory of the US, because there's no shot Canada doesn't put those boys on their horsies and march them right into your oil sands. Now, I do happen to know a country with the greatest military on Earth... And we DO happen to have an explicit and very well-laid-out plan for other nations applying for statehood.
The premier of Alberta in the early 2000s was Ralph Klein, a hard-drinking newspaper reporter who ran for mayor of Calgary on a bar bet and won, because he gave no fucks about playing the game. He transitioned to provincial politics after the crowning glory of bringing in the only profitable Olympics ever, the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Klein won one provincial election by so many votes for the Progressive Conservative Party that there were only 11 opposition Members of the Legislative Assembly, but being as dedicated as he was to democracy, he still gave the provincial Liberals all the privileges of the Official Opposition even though they didn’t have enough seats to officially qualify.
As mayor he built strong ties to Houston, Texas. Calgary and Houston actually have the highest inter-city air travel rate within North America due to the oil industry.
When he became Premier, Klein was dealing with a Liberal federal government run by a corrupt Quebec shitbag who was a disciple of Pierre Trudeau and fucked us hard in revenge for not voting Lib federally. We lost all service on the federal passenger railway system, most of our army bases and he increased the restrictions wheat farmers faced. He also oversaw the dismantling of Alberta’s oil refineries, crippling Canada’s fuel independence in the process and leading to eastern Canada importing oil from the gulf states when we have more in Alberta than Saudi Arabia does by a factor of five.
Klein got in good with George W. Bush and negotiated trade deals and infrastructure compacts, including a pledge of support from the United States should Alberta ever seek independence.
Bush and Trump have both made speeches shitting all over Canada but praising Alberta. Trump even gave Calgary a specific shout-out in his speech at Charlie Kirk’s funeral. That was headline news in Canada, and some of the shit the eastern media said about Alberta over it was amazingly distasteful.
As an Albertan, I have always felt more like a misplaced American than any kind of Canadian.
Shit, maple trees don’t grow in the west, that’s why I tell people I’m not a leaf, I’m a wild rose, our provincial flower. It was chosen because it’s very existence as a perennial in the rough conditions here are a symbol of the will to fight to be.
