Posted on 02/02/2019 10:30:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Alberta as our 51st state is not as far-fetched as it sounds at first blush. The idea was written about by Peter Zeihan in Accidental Superpower (2014) and recently broached by Holman Jenkins, Jr. in no less than the Wall Street Journal. Before diving into the politics and practicality of a Alberta leaving Canada, let's first review some background to see why such a traumatic event could even be considered.
Unlike the U.S., which is netted together with the world's best river system and a favorable geography and climate, Canada is the opposite. Zeihan shows that three barriers split Canada into five largely autonomous regions. They are the Rocky Mountains, the Canadian Shield, and the St. Lawrence River. He says:
Geographically, Canada just isn't a unified entity, and that's without even considering its more publicly discussed challenges such as the Anglophone-Francophone divide or the country's confederal political system, or that because of cold climate most of the Canadian landmass is simply too inhospitable to support a large population, condemning everyone to live on the country's extreme southern fringe.
This makes Canada inherently unstable and unwieldy from both a political and a geographic point of view.
In two significant ways, Alberta is unlike the rest of Canada. First, Alberta is energy-rich. Thanks to a several-decade-old energy boom, Alberta has a high per capita income. This results in the central government in Ottawa sucking taxes out of Alberta. For every dollar Alberta sends to Ottawa, it gets back only about 65 cents in return. This means that Albertans pay $21.8 billion more in taxes than they get back. And it is the aging population of Quebec that benefits the most from this income transfer.
To make matters worse, neighboring provinces have blocked landlocked Alberta from building pipelines for its oil and gas.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
He’s confusing it with Austria, the land down under.
Snicker, snicker .
Yay, we’d get the Stampede!
I agree. That’s why NAFTA has been the best thing that ever happened to Alberta. It’s actually made it harder for the government of Canada to screw Alberta the way they would do it in the past.
I like the Von Trapp Family Singers.
Climb every mountain
Ford every stream
Follow every kangaroo
Til you find a stream.
(Snicker, snicker)
This idea has become more than a hypothetical consideration at several times over the years particularly when Quebec raised the spectre of separation from the rest of Canada. In 1987, there was the Meech Lake Accord and in 1992, the Charlottetown Accord both proposed a bunch of constitutional amendments (mostly designed to appease Quebec) and both were rejected (the Charlottetown Accord by national referendum). Regardless, the side-feature of course of Quebec separating was the question of what would become of the rest of the country. At the time, some of us were theorizing that it would actually result in the creation of four distinct entities Quebec, the group of provinces east of Quebec and the provinces west of Quebec. However of the provinces west of Quebec, it seemed like BC and Alberta would both probably rather join the States as opposed to the other provinces west of Quebec. The accords were rejected, it seems that notions of Quebec separating have died down and thus questions involving what might happen to Alberta and BC have been put to sleep .. for a while.
If Alberta could get Montana’s or North Dakota’s gun laws and stay in Canada that would be the best deal. Otherwise, given the possibility of another Obama type becoming president here I’d stay the hell away from the US.
Trudeau is in office because all the leftists in Alberta voted for him. Why would we want to add yet another blue state to the union?
JoMa
Alberta, come on down!
Id love to see us conquer the beta nation of Canada .
Is Calgary weather colder right now than it normally is like the US northern states, or is not possible to get any colder than normal? February in Calgary was the coldest weather I was ever in in my life.
You’ll notice the Stampeders’ nickname is the Stamps.
The last half of the team name was deemed unacceptable as a nick.
It was seen as breaking down like this ...
The western provinces have more in common with their neighboring US states than they do with eastern Canada.
They would join the US en bloc.
Ontario would remain as the dominion of Canada, possibly keeping the northwest territories.
Quebec would become French Canada with her traditional markets eastwards possibly being assimilated. But with no more transfer payments, it’s unlikely Quebec could afford to keep them.
As for the Maritimes, they are such a basket case the US would likely pass up on taking them, Quebec couldn’t afford the welfare cost, leaving some sort of self-governing rump state with all the dynamism of Bangladesh.
Alberta? No thanks - we’ll take British Columbia instead.
We had our chance, Mexicos too
To Canada New England states NY NJ CA, WA&OR east of C ascade range
To USA Alberta Saskathewan and a province to named later
Sounds good to me
We could take the Maritimes but it would have to be as one state. Newfoundland is different enough to be it’s own state or to go back to the UK.
That said, while Canada is fragile and will break up if one province leaves, I don’t see any doing so anytime soon.
Found while browsing ...
Historically, top foreign correspondents, needing a rest between assignments to Moscow or Washington, would be sent to a place called Canada, which is north of Syracuse.”
Such a far fetched idea it is not worth the discussion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.