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CNN
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Make Alberta Great Again: In this Canadian province, separatists see Trump as an ally
It's a Monday night in June and hundreds have braved the haze of Canadian wildfires to gather in a cavernous sports facility in the city of Red Deer, Alberta. An Alberta team, the Edmonton Oilers, are taking on the Florida Panthers in a National Hockey League finals game tonight. The atmosphere is heavy with anticipation. But these people aren't here for hockey. This is a rally for Alberta independence. It might be hard to believe, given Canadian sports fans' recent booing of 'The Star Spangled Banner,' but not all Canadians took offense to US President Donald Trump's questioning of their country's sovereignty. In oil-rich Alberta, where a movement for independence from Canada appears to be gathering steam, many see in Trump a powerful and important ally whose haranguing of their former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was as welcome as his calls to 'drill baby, drill.' Though some see US statehood as a step too far, many in the Red Deer crowd believe the US president – as a fellow pro-oil conservative – would recognize a breakaway Alberta should a vote on independence go their way. 'Donald Trump is not the savior of the world,' says Albert Talsma, a welding contractor from Bentley. 'But right now he's North America's best asset.' With their 'Make Alberta Great Again' hats, 'Alberta Republic' T-shirts and posters declaring 'Albertans for Alberta!' it's not hard to see parallels to the US president's MAGA movement and the forces that inspired it. Separatists here have long argued that Canada's federal system fails to represent their interests; that the federal government's efforts to stymie climate change are holding back Alberta's lucrative oil industry (the largest in Canada); that they pay more than they get back through federal taxation; that their conservative values are drowned out by the more liberal eastern provinces. 'Alberta hasn't been treated fairly since 1905, when we joined Confederation. They basically used the west as a colony, to take wealth from the west to support the east,' says Kate Graham, a singing grandmother from Calgary. She opens the rally with a rendition of Janis Joplin's 'Mercedez Benz,' the lyrics modified to promote independence. Like Janis, she sings it a cappella, before spending much of the rest of the event at a booth by the door, selling merch emblazoned with the slogan 'I AM ALBERTAN.' Similar disenchantment is voiced by a steady stream of Albertans, each venting against their mother country on a stage flanked by a large provincial flag strung across a soccer goal. 'They want to stifle our (oil) industry,' says Mitch Sylvestre, a businessman from Bonnyville and one of the rally's chief organizers, his hoarse voice echoing over the PA system. 'We have cancer. We have a problem,' says Sylvestre. 'We have it large.' In a strange twist, the push to get Alberta out of Canada has gained momentum just as much of the country has united in patriotism in the face of Trump's tariffs and threats of annexation. Soon after Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to win the 2025 federal election in April, the Alberta Legislature passed a law making it easier to organize a referendum on independence. Under the new law, petitions for a province-wide vote now require just 177,000 signatures – down from 600,000 previously – and those signatures can be gathered over a period of four months rather than three. The province is home to nearly 5 million people, according to Statistics Canada, representing more than a tenth of the population of the entire country. One of the most vocal advocates for a referendum is Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer and co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), which organized the Red Deer rally. Rath, well over six feet tall in a cowboy hat and boots, has a ranch just outside of Calgary. He raises race horses there and follows the sport closely, especially the Kentucky Derby – where this year, he notes with a grin, ''Sovereignty' beat 'Journalism.'' 'If you wanna know what's special about Alberta, just look around, right?' Rath says with a sweep of his hand. The view from the rise above Rath's horse pasture is superb: quaking aspen, white pine and green rolling hills. 'It's one of God's treasures on earth. And the people here are very distinct people that have a very distinct culture and that are interested in maintaining that culture.' In Rath's eyes, Trump's attitude toward Canada is an opportunity. His group is counting on US government support in the event of success at the ballot box. 'Trump's election has given us a lot of hope,' Rath says. 'If anybody is going to have the guts to recognize an independent Alberta, (it) would be the Trump administration.' Separatism is not new in Canada, but it's only had real political power in the predominantly Francophone province of Quebec, which has numerous pro-independence parties and voted in two referendums on independence in the past 50 years, rejecting it by a 60/40 margin in 1980 and by around one percentage point in 1995. In Alberta, enthusiasm for separation has waxed and waned for decades, fueled initially by 'Western alienation' – resentment felt in western Canada against a federal system dominated by the more populous eastern provinces. More recently, the movement has attracted Albertans who were angered by federally mandated lockdowns during the Covid pandemic. Among them was Rath, who has in the past faced controversy for suggesting government officials should face murder and negligent homicide charges over what he claims are the ill-effects of the Covid vaccine. A recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute found about a third of Albertans currently support independence, though that support does not break down equally throughout the population. Some of the loudest critics of the idea come from Alberta's indigenous communities, whose treaties with the Canadian crown are older than the province itself. Under pressure from that community, the government added a provision to the referendum bill that guarantees their treaty rights whatever the result. Another poll, by CNN's Canadian broadcast partner CBC, found that more than half of the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) would vote to separate from Canada if given the chance. It also found that, while the percentage of the population backing independence has remained static over the past few years, the share of people who 'strongly' back it has grown. 'We can't ignore the fact that a third or more of Albertans are fed up,' Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the leader of the UCP, tells CNN. While Smith's party proposed the referendum bill, she says she is against separation herself, preferring to 'get Alberta to exert its sovereignty within a united Canada.' 'We have had, from time to time, these kinds of initiatives flare up,' says Smith. 'And they're almost always in response to a federal government that's out of control. But they have all subsided when the federal government got back in its own lane.' 'I think that it's a notice to Ottawa that they've got to take this seriously,' Smith adds. 'The question is, what can we do to address it?' One of the more explosive questions surrounding secession is whether an independent Alberta might join the United States. In February, a billboard appeared along the highway between Calgary and Edmonton, with text urging onlookers to tell Premier Smith that Alberta ought to 'Join the USA!' superimposed over a picture of her shaking hands with Trump. 'I don't think Albertans are very keen to trade a bad relationship with Ottawa with a bad relationship with Washington,' Smith says when asked about the possibility. In Red Deer, the crowd seems divided on the issue. Most who speak to CNN say they would rather see Alberta as a fully independent country. But others, like construction worker Stephen Large of Czar, Alberta, feel it would be good to have the might of the US on their side – particularly if negotiations fail in the event of a 'yes' vote for independence. 'The minute something happens here toward independence, our federal government is going to be furious,' says Large, who wears a red 'Make Alberta Great Again' cap. 'They will pull out all the stops, military and police and whatever they can find to lock us down, lock us in.' Large points to how former Prime Minister Trudeau briefly invoked the Emergencies Act when Canadian truckers blockaded downtown Ottawa to protest cross-border vaccine mandates in 2022. The statute, which had never been used before, allowed Canadian law enforcement to take extraordinary measures to restore public order – including freezing the bank accounts of certain protesters and banning public assembly in parts of Ottawa. The law also allows the government to deploy troops within Canada to enforce the law, though Trudeau did not invoke that part of the provision in 2022. 'We're gonna need some support from somewhere, and the only place on Earth that is worthy of their support is the United States military,' Large says. A woman sitting in front of Large overhears him and turns around, nodding in agreement. 'I'm with him,' she says, introducing herself as Evelyn Ranger of Red Deer. 'I'm not sure that Alberta or the western provinces, even together, can make it on their own. So, the States is still the better way to go, because you've got the military, you've got the trade and everything already set there.' For his part, Rath refuses to consider whether the federal government might invoke the Emergencies Act or use other measures to put down his movement if it were to unilaterally declare Alberta independent in the event of a 'yes' vote. 'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but we don't see that happening,' Rath says. Asked if he would be up for an interview at that point, he grins. 'Yeah,' Rath replies, before letting out a laugh. 'It might be from a jail cell.'
CNN
10 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Make Alberta Great Again: In this Canadian province, separatists see Trump as an ally
It's a Monday night in June and hundreds have braved the haze of Canadian wildfires to gather in a cavernous sports facility in the city of Red Deer, Alberta. An Alberta team, the Edmonton Oilers, are taking on the Florida Panthers in a National Hockey League finals game tonight. The atmosphere is heavy with anticipation. But these people aren't here for hockey. This is a rally for Alberta independence. It might be hard to believe, given Canadian sports fans' recent booing of 'The Star Spangled Banner,' but not all Canadians took offense to US President Donald Trump's questioning of their country's sovereignty. In oil-rich Alberta, where a movement for independence from Canada appears to be gathering steam, many see in Trump a powerful and important ally whose haranguing of their former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was as welcome as his calls to 'drill baby, drill.' Though some see US statehood as a step too far, many in the Red Deer crowd believe the US president – as a fellow pro-oil conservative – would recognize a breakaway Alberta should a vote on independence go their way. 'Donald Trump is not the savior of the world,' says Albert Talsma, a welding contractor from Bentley. 'But right now he's North America's best asset.' With their 'Make Alberta Great Again' hats, 'Alberta Republic' T-shirts and posters declaring 'Albertans for Alberta!' it's not hard to see parallels to the US president's MAGA movement and the forces that inspired it. Separatists here have long argued that Canada's federal system fails to represent their interests; that the federal government's efforts to stymie climate change are holding back Alberta's lucrative oil industry (the largest in Canada); that they pay more than they get back through federal taxation; that their conservative values are drowned out by the more liberal eastern provinces. 'Alberta hasn't been treated fairly since 1905, when we joined Confederation. They basically used the west as a colony, to take wealth from the west to support the east,' says Kate Graham, a singing grandmother from Calgary. She opens the rally with a rendition of Janis Joplin's 'Mercedez Benz,' the lyrics modified to promote independence. Like Janis, she sings it a cappella, before spending much of the rest of the event at a booth by the door, selling merch emblazoned with the slogan 'I AM ALBERTAN.' Similar disenchantment is voiced by a steady stream of Albertans, each venting against their mother country on a stage flanked by a large provincial flag strung across a soccer goal. 'They want to stifle our (oil) industry,' says Mitch Sylvestre, a businessman from Bonnyville and one of the rally's chief organizers, his hoarse voice echoing over the PA system. 'We have cancer. We have a problem,' says Sylvestre. 'We have it large.' In a strange twist, the push to get Alberta out of Canada has gained momentum just as much of the country has united in patriotism in the face of Trump's tariffs and threats of annexation. Soon after Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment to win the 2025 federal election in April, the Alberta Legislature passed a law making it easier to organize a referendum on independence. Under the new law, petitions for a province-wide vote now require just 177,000 signatures – down from 600,000 previously – and those signatures can be gathered over a period of four months rather than three. The province is home to nearly 5 million people, according to Statistics Canada, representing more than a tenth of the population of the entire country. One of the most vocal advocates for a referendum is Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer and co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), which organized the Red Deer rally. Rath, well over six feet tall in a cowboy hat and boots, has a ranch just outside of Calgary. He raises race horses there and follows the sport closely, especially the Kentucky Derby – where this year, he notes with a grin, ''Sovereignty' beat 'Journalism.'' 'If you wanna know what's special about Alberta, just look around, right?' Rath says with a sweep of his hand. The view from the rise above Rath's horse pasture is superb: quaking aspen, white pine and green rolling hills. 'It's one of God's treasures on earth. And the people here are very distinct people that have a very distinct culture and that are interested in maintaining that culture.' In Rath's eyes, Trump's attitude toward Canada is an opportunity. His group is counting on US government support in the event of success at the ballot box. 'Trump's election has given us a lot of hope,' Rath says. 'If anybody is going to have the guts to recognize an independent Alberta, (it) would be the Trump administration.' Separatism is not new in Canada, but it's only had real political power in the predominantly Francophone province of Quebec, which has numerous pro-independence parties and voted in two referendums on independence in the past 50 years, rejecting it by a 60/40 margin in 1980 and by around one percentage point in 1995. In Alberta, enthusiasm for separation has waxed and waned for decades, fueled initially by 'Western alienation' – resentment felt in western Canada against a federal system dominated by the more populous eastern provinces. More recently, the movement has attracted Albertans who were angered by federally mandated lockdowns during the Covid pandemic. Among them was Rath, who has in the past faced controversy for suggesting government officials should face murder and negligent homicide charges over what he claims are the ill-effects of the Covid vaccine. A recent poll by the Angus Reid Institute found about a third of Albertans currently support independence, though that support does not break down equally throughout the population. Some of the loudest critics of the idea come from Alberta's indigenous communities, whose treaties with the Canadian crown are older than the province itself. Under pressure from that community, the government added a provision to the referendum bill that guarantees their treaty rights whatever the result. Another poll, by CNN's Canadian broadcast partner CBC, found that more than half of the governing United Conservative Party (UCP) would vote to separate from Canada if given the chance. It also found that, while the percentage of the population backing independence has remained static over the past few years, the share of people who 'strongly' back it has grown. 'We can't ignore the fact that a third or more of Albertans are fed up,' Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, the leader of the UCP, tells CNN. While Smith's party proposed the referendum bill, she says she is against separation herself, preferring to 'get Alberta to exert its sovereignty within a united Canada.' 'We have had, from time to time, these kinds of initiatives flare up,' says Smith. 'And they're almost always in response to a federal government that's out of control. But they have all subsided when the federal government got back in its own lane.' 'I think that it's a notice to Ottawa that they've got to take this seriously,' Smith adds. 'The question is, what can we do to address it?' One of the more explosive questions surrounding secession is whether an independent Alberta might join the United States. In February, a billboard appeared along the highway between Calgary and Edmonton, with text urging onlookers to tell Premier Smith that Alberta ought to 'Join the USA!' superimposed over a picture of her shaking hands with Trump. 'I don't think Albertans are very keen to trade a bad relationship with Ottawa with a bad relationship with Washington,' Smith says when asked about the possibility. In Red Deer, the crowd seems divided on the issue. Most who speak to CNN say they would rather see Alberta as a fully independent country. But others, like construction worker Stephen Large of Czar, Alberta, feel it would be good to have the might of the US on their side – particularly if negotiations fail in the event of a 'yes' vote for independence. 'The minute something happens here toward independence, our federal government is going to be furious,' says Large, who wears a red 'Make Alberta Great Again' cap. 'They will pull out all the stops, military and police and whatever they can find to lock us down, lock us in.' Large points to how former Prime Minister Trudeau briefly invoked the Emergencies Act when Canadian truckers blockaded downtown Ottawa to protest cross-border vaccine mandates in 2022. The statute, which had never been used before, allowed Canadian law enforcement to take extraordinary measures to restore public order – including freezing the bank accounts of certain protesters and banning public assembly in parts of Ottawa. The law also allows the government to deploy troops within Canada to enforce the law, though Trudeau did not invoke that part of the provision in 2022. 'We're gonna need some support from somewhere, and the only place on Earth that is worthy of their support is the United States military,' Large says. A woman sitting in front of Large overhears him and turns around, nodding in agreement. 'I'm with him,' she says, introducing herself as Evelyn Ranger of Red Deer. 'I'm not sure that Alberta or the western provinces, even together, can make it on their own. So, the States is still the better way to go, because you've got the military, you've got the trade and everything already set there.' For his part, Rath refuses to consider whether the federal government might invoke the Emergencies Act or use other measures to put down his movement if it were to unilaterally declare Alberta independent in the event of a 'yes' vote. 'We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but we don't see that happening,' Rath says. Asked if he would be up for an interview at that point, he grins. 'Yeah,' Rath replies, before letting out a laugh. 'It might be from a jail cell.'
Washington Post
16-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
51st state? Bring it on, these Canadians say.
CALGARY, Alberta — As President Donald Trump visits western Canada for this week's Group of Seven economic summit, a passionate minority is thrilled by his talk of making them part of a 51st state. Across most of Canada, Trump's annexation talk has caused outrage. His antagonism has stirred displays of flag-waving patriotism that are unusual here. In downtown Calgary, shops that sell maple syrup and other Canadian souvenirs have seen a surge in purchases of Canadian-flag lapel pins. A bookstore says 'Proudly Canadian' in its window. But the U.S. president's expansionist designs have also galvanized a 'Make Alberta Great Again' movement, which has gained traction among some in western Canada long frustrated by a Liberal government that they say stifles the oil and gas industry that drives their economy. For them, Trump's 51st-state talk is not a provocation, but a chance for lower taxes, Second Amendment gun rights and a shot at the American Dream. At the Red Deer Curling Center, about 90 miles north of Calgary, hundreds of Albertans gathered Saturday to discuss their frustrations with Ottawa at an event hosted by the right-wing media company Rebel News. Several in the crowd wore black or red Make Alberta Great Again caps, and provincial flags flew from their trucks in the packed parking lot. Most cheered as a speaker standing in front of a black curtain that partially covered the rink's scoreboard made the case for forming a 51st state. Jacob Fraser, selling bags of Resistance Coffee at the event, said he was 'excited' when Trump began talking about annexing all or part of Canada. The 37-year-old sees joining the United States as an opportunity to gain more freedom of speech, more gun rights and more opportunities to pursue his own businesses. 'We're very much intertwined with the States, and as Albertans, especially, we're very much more compatible with the American perspectives than the current Canadian perspective,' he said. 'For me and a lot of my social groups, it's a hopeful moment and an exciting time in history.' Nationwide, that's clearly a minority view. Backlash to Trump, who was set to arrive here Sunday night, helped fuel Prime Minister Mark Carney's victory in late April — a stunning comeback by his Liberal Party over the Conservatives, who had a healthy lead before Trump's taunts. About 15 percent of all Canadians supported joining the United States as of a January poll by YouGov. That percentage was slightly larger in the prairie provinces, including Alberta — 'Canada's Texas' — where some say they have more in common with Republicans in the U.S. than with their compatriots in the rest of the country. Albertans who support joining the U.S. are a faction of a broader group of western Canadians who are alienated by Canada's government. They have made their presence visible with billboards and blue-rubber bracelets that say 'AB USA.' Shawn Harvey, a 52-year-old oil-field-tanker driver who lives in Edmonton, flaunted his support for joining the U.S. with a red, white and blue hockey jersey emblazoned with the number 51 and Trump's slogan 'Drill Baby Drill.' He has talked to immigration attorneys about attempting to seek political asylum in the U.S., and he is ready to make a deal with any liberal Americans who are considering a move to Canada to seek refuge from the second Trump administration. 'I'll trade places with them any day,' Harvey said during an interview in Edmonton at Montana's, a Canadian barbecue restaurant chain with antlers hanging on the walls. 'I'll burn my Canadian passport right in front of them, and I'll go there. No problem.' Feelings of discontent and alienation have long ebbed and flowed in the western prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, home to natural resources such as crude oil, natural gas, potash and uranium. They rose after the 2019 federal elections, in which then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals were shut out here but won enough seats in the rest of the country to form the government. In this year's elections, the Liberals won just 28 percent of the vote in Alberta. Whether Carney, who was raised in Edmonton, can placate prairie voters will pose an early test for the new prime minister. He has tried to mollify the disquiet, promising to make Canada 'the world's leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy.' Alberta could hold a referendum as soon as next year to ask voters whether they support separating from Canada. Polls show limited support for separatism, but the provincial government recently passed a law that makes it much easier for citizens to initiate a referendum on constitutional matters. Such a separation would be 'very unlikely,' said Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. And even if separation was approved, it would not necessarily lead to becoming part of the United States. Even many of the Canadians who support an independent Alberta are skeptical of attempting to join the U.S. 'Why go from one master to another master?' said Art Matsui, a 68-year-old resident of Calgary, who began to support Alberta independence in 2020 because he disagreed with the Canadian government's pandemic policies. Chances of the U.S. annexing Canada or one of its provinces are small. Both countries have constitutional barriers to such a move and limited political appetite to overcome those obstacles. Other provinces would be likely to block Alberta from leaving Canada, and in the U.S., Congress would have to pass a law to admit any new state. Ardent supporters of secession insist, however, that a split between Alberta and the rest of Canada is inevitable. They see joining the U.S. as the best step to address the economic and security challenges that a split could create. 'So why don't we just join the United States now?' said Peter Downing, an Edmonton-area separatist who previously led a political party called Wexit, a portmanteau of 'western' and 'exit.' More than four years before Trump told Trudeau that he wanted to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, Downing bought a giant billboard on the road to the province's legislative assembly that asked, 'Should Alberta join the U.S.?' The billboard featured a giant image of Trump's face. After Trump lost his reelection bid in 2020, Downing began to make inroads with conservatives in the U.S., even paying a visit to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he said he missed a run-in with Trump by only a few minutes. How Trump became fixated on annexing Canada remains unclear. A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail the president's thinking, told The Washington Post in March that the 51st-state concept sprang spontaneously into Trump's mind, that it is a serious proposal, and that it is motivated by his belief that annexation would benefit Americans and Canadians alike. After Trump floated the idea, Downing put up another huge billboard that pictured Trump visiting with Alberta's Conservative Premier Danielle Smith at Mar-a-Lago. 'Tell Danielle! Let's Join the United States,' it said. The billboard featured a link for a website that laid out arguments for Alberta to join the U.S., which included lower taxes as well as national security. Smith ultimately said she opposed any effort to join the U.S. — or to separate from Canada. Trump's visit is likely to intensify the debate, even as it strengthens the backlash among most Canadians to his policies. Protests of Trump's visit have been planned, and some of his critics say he should not be allowed to enter the country because felons are often inadmissible to Canada. In grocery stores, stickers on products note that they were made in Canada, a sign of how some Canadians are boycotting U.S. goods and travel. Sales of T-shirts that say 'Canadian' and other products have surged at Local Laundry, a Calgary clothing store that manufactures its products domestically. The business has grown 100 percent year over year and is on track to do its best year ever, said Connor Curran, the company's founder. 'It hit us a like a tsunami,' Curran said. 'People coming from all over the country wanting to support Canadian-made.' Calgary-based Process Color Print, which manufactures flags, has experienced the growing polarization of debate. The company saw a surge in sales of Canadian flags in February following Trump's comments. Many people in the city are just hanging the flags in their windows or directly on their houses because they don't have flagpoles, said Candice Mauro, the company's president. 'Our business is so booming,' Mauro said. She said it has been difficult to keep up with customer demand, and employees in the flag division are working overtime. In the weeks since April's elections, Mauro said, she has seen a 30 percent jump in flag sales. But this time, the demand is for the ultramarine Alberta provincial flag.
