51st State May Come From a Place You Might Not Expect
According to a February 2019 poll from Angus Reid,
approximately 50% of Albertans would support secession from Canada. This number is up 30% from a generation ago and the conditions which have created these views are projected to only worsen.
In Alberta, the Canadian Province located just north of Montana, there is a strong feeling that the national government “back east” in Ottawa is using them much like the British Crown used distant colonies two centuries ago. Rich in farmland and natural resources, the Alberta economy has become increasingly reliant upon its natural reserves and oil and gas production, putting it at odds with a committed “green nation” such as Canada.
Bordered to its left is the Province of British Columbia, Canada’s bastion of Pacific liberalism. Residents of Alberta say that the government of British Columbia refuses to cooperate with Alberta’s natural resources industry and is blocking all pipeline production; a move they say is hindering the Alberta economy and driving the costs of getting oil to the market by about $6 per barrel.
Industry experts also say back in the east, where the overwhelming majority of Canadians live, the federation government’s stringent environmental regulations also prohibits the province from reaching its full potential.
A much larger issue, however, is the subject of demographics and numbers.
The dirty secret that few people are talking about is that Canadians simply aren’t having children like they used to and the nation is aging at an alarming rate.
According to Peter Zeihan, who authored the book, Accidental Superpower, Canada has a massive population in their late-50s and early 60s. These individuals are nearing retirement and the workforce is shifting from having a lot of tax payers to a lot of tax takers.
In Alberta, however, this story is quite different. The province has a much younger population and while Canada’s demographic numbers as a whole more closely resemble Japan or Germany, Alberta’s age is more reminiscent to the United States.
Due to this factor alone, Zeihan argues that Alberta is subsidizing the national government at about $27 billion annually and that in the next few years this could climb to $80 billion; according to the author’s figures, by 2020 the number will exceed $20,000 per person, $40,000 per tax payer.
“The core issue is pretty simple. While the Québécois – and to a slightly lesser degree the rest of Canada – now need Alberta to maintain their standard of living, the Albertans now need not to be a part of Canada in order to maintain theirs,” he writes.
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According to Zeihan, the United States would welcome the Province of Alberta with open arms and upon its admission into the Union,
Alberta would become the per capita richest state in the country [because of the relatively small population compared to the large oil revenues].
The influx of taxable capital and GDP would boost the United States’ already unquestioned place of being the world’s greatest economy.
In exchange,
access to America’s 327 million person strong market would provide investors and business owners in Alberta with a market that is nearly ten times the size of Canada’s 37 million residents.
Heavily rural, the protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights greatly appeals to many in Alberta who pride themselves on having an independent spirit.
Alberta 51 Movement
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