MAPLE LEAF FOREVER: Smith insists on ‘Team Canada’ within a unified North America

Proudly riding the pine. And the Maple.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says there’s little doubt where her true loyalties lie in the debate over making Canada the 51st state. And it isn’t in Mar-a-Lago.

“What I have seen so many Canadians and Albertans in particular, reaching out and saying, ‘we have got to put Canada first’,” she said at a press conference in Calgary on Monday. 

“We are a strong, independent nation who can play hockey better than anyone else in the world. And so we do that, we can do a whole lot of things better.”

Smith was responding to billboards on the QEII highway near Bowden emblazoned with a photo from her Twitter (“X”) feed at Mar-a-Lago alongside US president Donald Trump last month before the imposition of 10% tariffs on Canadian oil and gas.

The placard, which popped up on the roadside last week shows Smith and Trump alongside a soaring eagle and message encouraging Albertans to “Tell Danielle! Let’s join the USA!”

The marker is the brainchild of a group calling itself ‘America Fund’, made up of the remnants of the Maverick Party, Wexit and other Alberta and Saskatchewan separatist movements.

According to Maverick founder Peter Downing, who is acting as a spokesperson for the group, one of the motivations for the ad was to pin down the premier on the issue of joining the US. And there will be more to come in the coming weeks, in places like Ponoka, Strathmore and even Chestermere.

“Mission achieved to to fix her in her positions, and she can't move from it later on, now that everybody knows where she stands right now,” he said in an interview with The Western Standard.

“Now we've achieved that, and we're quite happy with that.”

According to Downing, the premier has been deliberately vague on her positions regarding the separatist movement — advancing positions like a provincial police force and Alberta pension plan and moving to implement the so-called Sovereignty Act while deferring to her cohorts like Ontario Premier Doug Ford on the issue of standing up to tariffs.

And in fact, she’s been branded a traitor by the eastern media and not a member in good standing of ‘Team Canada’. Little surprise she uses hockey metaphors to enunciate her position on trade.

Downing said she can’t have it both ways. He said Alberta’s interests would be best served by a political and economic union with the US.

“The premier, through these billboards… through the image we used, was to force her to respond. And that's that's something that we wanted to achieve. We wanted to fix her in her political position, because so far, she's kind of been talking on both sides of her mouth.”

But on Monday, Smith was unequivocal in her position that Alberta — and Canada — have a role to play in creating a North American energy “fortress” that can help guarantee “national security, international security, food security… working in partnership together building on the kinds of trade relationships we’ve had in the past.”

“I see no enthusiasm for that notion (separation),” she said. “What I have seen is so many Canadians and Albertans in particular, reaching out and saying: ‘we've got to tear down provincial trade barriers. We've got to find new markets. We've got to support each other in building new pipeline infrastructure. I've seen a sea change in attitudes across the entire country. I'm very, very encouraged by that.”

“So I don't think there's a lot of enthusiasm for for what the billboard says, or what the President has been talking about, and that's why I say let's continue to be the US’ best trading partner. Let's continue to be a sovereign nation, and let's get to talking about the things that are going to make us pull stronger.”