Because the US is tired of subsidizing the Canadian economy while also guaranteeing their security, President Donald J. Trump has floated the shockingly unexpected idea of annexing Canada as ‘the 51st state’.
The idea fell like a bomb in the great white north, and in a first poll, more than 10% of the population is already behind it.
In some Canadian provinces like Alberta, the idea is gaining ground. Bison farmer Don Casselman worries that Canada is doomed and, if Alberta is to save itself, it must break away and become a US state.
After all, with just 63,000 military troops to defend over 10 million km2, it is powerless against incursions by Russia or China.
The Telegraph reported:
“The answer, to Mr Casselman, was obvious. ‘I want President Trump to come and visit us’, he said, referring to the bison ranch-turned-separatist hub that stretched out over the fields into the distance. Perhaps a plan could be hashed out with Danielle Smith, Alberta’s conservative premier, for the absorption of Alberta into the United States. ‘I want my children to understand what it means to be free’.”
Initially, most people imagined that Trump’s idea was nothing but a good old-fashioned troll, but ‘Governor’ Trudeau soon learnt to take the ‘threat’ seriously.
The secessionist provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan make up almost exactly 10 per cent of the country that was polled to be favorable to the 51st state idea.
If these provinces make a concerted effort to leave, it could ‘unravel the basis of the Canadian state.’.
“’I’m thinking of moving with my family to the US’, sighed Chris Hunter, a 40-year-old oil worker, over a pint of beer at the [Edmonton] bar. […] While Mr. Hunter was not an active supporter of secession, he said he would reconsider his decision to leave Alberta if Mr. Trump took over. ‘He’s a businessman’, Mr. Hunter said, ‘and so am I’.”
“Over a lunch of hot dogs, the separatists shared the beliefs that had steeled them to face public derision. Some mentioned vaccine mandates imposed by the federal government, others the harsh treatment of the 2022 ‘Freedom Convoy’ trucker protest, which snaked from Alberta to the capital.”
Albertan citizen James Goransrud talked about the imposition of a carbon tax: “It’s taxation without representation, and historically that’s a problem, right?”
Others complain that Alberta is ‘better at killing patients than treating them’, following the and wide popularization legalization of ‘assisted suicide’ (a.k.a. euthanasia).
“’All we’re doing is saying we want this, yeah, we accept President Trump’s offer’, [oil worker Peter] Downing said, while 18-wheeler trucks roared past on the snow-fringed highway outside the window. ‘We want lower taxes. And we want to never pay another dime to Ottawa through ‘equalization.” […] Moreover, if Mr Trump took power, ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ would remove the shackles from Alberta’s oil industry.”
Read more:
First, World Leaders Complain, Then They Do What Trump Wants
