In a wide-ranging column covering Danielle Smith’s visit to president-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Alberta oil exports, Trump’s tariff threats, and more, Calgary-based writer Gillian Steward, a contributor to the Toronto Star, an official propaganda rag of the Liberal Party of Canada, suggested Alberta should contemplate becoming the 51st state of the USA. Smith has made it clear she wants a close relationship with the Trump administration, saying “Alberta will not sit back. We intend to demonstrate our support for the United States.” However, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a meeting with Canadian premiers to discuss strategy in a potential trade war. Alberta oil and gas were on the table in terms of bargaining with Trump in a future dispute. During a press conference, Trudeau didn't rule out using Alberta oil and gas to leverage an outcome for Canada. "We have made it very clear that everything is on the table as potential responses, but we've also been very, very clear that it has to be fair across the country," he said. Ottawa continues to float the idea of halting energy supplies to the U.S. and imposing export tariffs on Alberta oil and other products to the U.S., said Smith in a statement. "Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government’s plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs. Alberta will simply not agree to export tariffs on our energy or other products, nor do we support a ban on exports of these same products." Smith was the only premier not to sign a joint communique after the meeting. Smith's plan for Alberta is to more than double Alberta’s oil production, adding to the 4.3 million barrels a day she says the province sends to the US; partnering with Enbridge to find pipeline expansion opportunities to send oil and gas to the US; and using the Alberta oil it is entitled to through royalties as an investment to get the project moving. Smith was accompanied to Mar-a-Lago by Jordan Peterson and Canadian business tycoon Kevin O’Leary, who has been vocal about an economic union with the US and an erasure of the border between Canada and the US. Steward writes Smith’s entreaties are an attempt to avoid the 25% tariffs Trump has threatened Canada with. Another way for Alberta to avoid the tariffs is to do as Steward suggests, and contemplate joining the US. Lawrence Herman, a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute wrote, "Smith’s sycophantic visit to Mar-a-Lago was terribly damaging to the country, showing Trump that we’re a divided nation, precisely the wrong message at this sensitive juncture. A regrettable lack of strategic thinking." Some news for Mr. Herman: Canada essentially is a divided country, politically and economically and for the most part, always has been and likely always will be. All one need do for proof is look at the distribution of equalization payments, of which Alberta gets none. Contemplation of Alberta joining the US isn’t new, but has never been seriously pursued. Perhaps the time to do so is now, with Trump starting his second term on a much better footing than his first and with a new prime minister soon to be anointed in Canada. Whoever takes over the reins from Justin Trudeau will be a Trudeau acolyte, so it means little for Alberta. Even the demise of the Liberal Party in a fall election doesn’t guarantee a better relationship between Ottawa and Edmonton. Whether you like Trump or not, he is a deal maker. He turned a two- or three-million-dollar inheritance into billions of dollars and almost single handedly, through his companies and deal making skills, built New York City’s Manhattan financial district. Trump understands negotiations, seeing them as battles, approaching them as a good general would. He understands that while those “fighting on the front lines” are an essential part of any battle, battles are won by logistics, getting supply chains in order. Donald Trump is on a mission to repair the damage caused by the Biden administration and it’s woke DEI policies, starting with the US having world energy dominance, which he will accomplish by getting the necessary supply chains in order, including, as he announced during his run for the presidency, his intent to “drill baby drill.” Smith’s plans for Alberta’s oil and gas fit right in with Trump’s logistics, and, to be clear there is no indication whatsoever that Smith’s plans are designed to promote any contemplation of Alberta joining the US, the thought could be swirling around in Trump’s fertile mind. But bigger thinking should prevail. Alberta should be joined by Saskatchewan and BC in the contemplations, the two other provinces that receive no equalization payments, the financial rape of the West, which make life less expensive in other provinces. The economic and financial benefits alone would make it worthwhile. Personal and corporate taxes would be reduced. Taxes on gasoline, alcohol and other commodities would be reduced, or eliminated. Can you say “no carbon tax?” Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC wouldn’t be subject to the dictatorial powers the Canadian constitution gives to the governing party in Ottawa. Both prime ministers named Trudeau have abused those powers, through the War Measures Act enacted by the father Pierre and the so-called Emergencies Act, just a renamed War Measures Act, enacted by the son Justin. The ‘new states’ would not be under the control of the federal government, because in the US, per the country’s constitution, each state is its own self-governing commonwealth. Passports would not be required to visit Hawaii, Arizona or Florida in the winter, or New York, Boston and Philadelphia in the fall. Is the US a perfect country? No, nor can I think of a country that is perfect. The US has its problems, some as a result of the country’s embrace of freedom and personal rights as guaranteed in its constitution. Many of the country’s other problems were created during the Biden administration’s embrace of wokeness and DEI (best known now as die). Will the Trump administration solve or eliminate all those other Biden-era problems? Not all of them, but likely at least, some of them. Canada is a beautiful country, from coast to coast to coast, despite its political, economic and ideological differences but that shouldn’t preclude Alberta seriously contemplating becoming the 51st state
