[AmishDude]

The most interesting part of this article is the Candian Supreme Court decision that any province could choose to leave Canada. This means Albertans can force the issue. With the exchange rate so bad, they might.

If any Canadian province leaves (We were all thinking Québec, weren't we?) Canada won't survive well. I wonder if it can be argued that Canada's health care system is essentially paid for by Alberta oil.

Now, with regard to the first sentence: Neither Bush nor the US in general is particularly eager to get Alberta's oil. Yes, it'd be nice to have it within US borders for national security purposes, but Canada needs to sell it more than we need to buy it and it won't be free -- US consumers still have to buy it no matter what. It just won't be subject to whatever tariffs or other taxes Canada puts on it.

[Arkinsaw]

US consumers still have to buy it no matter what.

If Alberta joined the Union would the democrats allow the Albertans to drill for oil in the pristine Alberta environment even if they wanted to? I suspect they would make it into Grand Escalante north forthwith. Alberta should go for independence if they want to control their own destiny. Our Congress might prove to be more disadvantageous to them than their parliament and obviously their Supreme Court is less hostile to their interests than ours would be.