Should Alberta Become the 51st State?
The Case for Secession, Statehood, and a Freer Western Canada
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by Rod D. Martin
May 10, 2025
Western Canada has had enough. And after the recent federal election, the rage is no longer quiet.
Once again, Alberta voted overwhelmingly conservative. And once again, it made no difference. The Laurentian elite held their grip on power — propped up by Quebec voters, hostile to Western interests, and smug in their belief that Alberta’s wealth is theirs to take, er, “redistribute”. For decades, Alberta — rich in oil, fiercely independent, and proudly conservative — has been treated not as a partner in Confederation, but as a colony of the East.
Punitive environmental decrees. Confiscatory equalization payments. Pipeline bans. A government that seems more interested in appeasing the U.N. than supporting its own people. And an Ottawa establishment that ridicules the very values that built Alberta: faith, work, family, freedom.
This isn’t unity. It’s subjugation.
So maybe it’s time we stop pretending that reform is possible, and ask the question that’s moved from the margins to the mainstream: Should Alberta secede from Canada — and become the 51st state of the United States?
It sounds bold. It is. But so was 1776. And increasingly, it may be Alberta’s only viable path to real freedom, real representation, and real prosperity in a century that will belong not to bureaucrats — but to bold frontiers.
Not a Nation But an Empire — And Alberta is Its Colony
Alberta doesn’t belong in this Canada.
That’s not treason. It’s not even radical. It’s a simple observation of cultural, economic, and political reality — a reality growing starker by the year. Albertans have known for decades that something is deeply broken in the Confederation they were born into. But it’s only recently, as Ottawa’s indifference curdled into hostility, that many have begun asking the inevitable question: What if we left?
Not just to form a new nation. But to join one that already reflects their values. A nation that respects liberty, rewards hard work, and doesn’t treat resource-producing states or provinces like piggy banks and political afterthoughts. A nation that — however imperfect — still believes in the rule of law, in constitutional government, and in the right of free people to govern themselves.
That nation is not Canada. That nation is the United States.
From the moment Alberta entered Confederation in 1905, it was treated as an afterthought — an imperial holding ruled from the East. The so-called “national interest” always seemed to mean Quebec’s interest. And while Alberta built the pipelines, powered the economy, and filled the federal coffers, Ottawa wielded its power like a colonial governor, redistributing wealth and writing laws with no regard for the West’s values or prosperity.
Consider the facts:
Equalization Payments: Alberta pays billions each year into a federal system that redistributes its wealth to other provinces — chiefly Quebec — despite Alberta’s economic struggles. It’s taxation without representation, and with a French accent. It renders Alberta effectively a colony.
Carbon Taxes and Energy Policy: Ottawa has launched a relentless leftwing war against Alberta’s oil sands and energy sector, crippling pipelines, delaying permits, and criminalizing prosperity.
Political Disenfranchisement: The House of Commons is weighted toward Eastern Canada. The Senate is a patronage backwater. And the Prime Minister’s Office governs by decree, often in open contempt of the West.
Albertans noticed.
They noticed when Pierre Trudeau imposed the National Energy Program in 1980, effectively nationalizing Western oil and triggering the greatest economic crisis in Alberta’s history. They noticed when Stephen Harper — a rare Western prime minister — was replaced by Justin Trudeau, who couldn’t name a single Alberta cabinet minister and didn’t seem to care. And they certainly noticed when Trudeau’s government made it a moral crusade to shut down Alberta’s oil sands while buying foreign oil from despots abroad.
They noticed the carbon taxes, the canceled pipelines, the equalization payments flowing east even as Alberta struggled through recession. They noticed when every federal program and regulation seemed custom-built to crush the very industries on which Alberta depends.
And they noticed that there was no way to stop it.
Because under Canada’s political architecture, Alberta pays all the bills but has no meaningful say. The House of Commons is dominated by Ontario and Quebec. The Senate is unelected and stacked with Laurentian cronies. The courts, media, and civil service all lean left and east. A hundred years of democratic betrayal have taught Albertans the same lesson over and over: Ottawa is not your government. It’s your master.
Now imagine a different future.
A future in which Alberta is not ruled, but represented. Where the people of the plains send senators to Washington who actually vote the way they do. Where courts protect property rights and religious liberty, rather than undermining them. Where prosperity is not punished but encouraged. And where liberty is not something you apologize for, but something you defend.
That future begins with a simple but world-shaking idea:
Alberta doesn’t have to stay. It can have its own Brexit.
The Texas of the North doesn’t have to remain shackled to a confederation that resents its existence. It doesn’t have to accept its role as a cash cow and a cultural punching bag for Laurentian elites. And it doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel of sovereignty from scratch.
Instead, it can join a union that was built explicitly to welcome those “yearning to breathe free.” A constitutional republic that believes in energy independence, freedom of speech, and local self-government. A nation that still understands what a frontier means.
In short, Alberta can join America. And if it does, it will thrive.
A Shared American Soul
Alberta isn’t Quebec. It’s not even Vancouver. Alberta is culturally and economically tied to the American West. Drive from Calgary to Montana, and the only thing that changes is the gas prices and the gun laws.
Albertans hunt, ranch, drill, and pray like their counterparts in Texas, Wyoming, or North Dakota. They believe in private property, free enterprise, and the God who made both. If Alberta were already a U.S. state, it would fit right in — and be far better governed than it is now.
In many ways, Alberta already acts like an American state. Its largest trading partner is the United States. Its pipelines, railroads, and highways run south. Its energy exports fuel American cities. Its people watch the same shows, shop at the same stores, and cheer for the same teams.
The accident of a dotted line on a map is the only thing keeping this natural union apart.
What Alberta Gains from Statehood
If Alberta became the 51st state of the Union, it would gain far more than stars and stripes. It would gain sovereignty, in the classical sense of self-government. It would gain:
Two U.S. Senators and full representation in the House of Representatives — real seats at a real table.
Constitutional guarantees of free speech, religious liberty, gun rights, and property rights — enshrined, not eroded.
Energy freedom under a federal government that sees oil not as a sin, but as a strength.
Access to American capital markets, military protection, and unimpeded participation in the largest economy on Earth.
An end to the plunder. Whatever Washington’s faults, it does not and cannot place disproportionate burdens on a singled-out state in the way that Ottawa does as a matter of course.
None of the costs of independence. An Alberta that goes it alone would quickly discover that independence alone is a very expensive prospect: militaries, embassies in 197 countries (just the cost in prime real estate is vast), intelligence services, dues to international organizations like the UN — which might not even admit Alberta in the first place, out of deference to Canada: certainly the USMCA (formerly NAFTA) would not, just as the EU will not admit Scotland or Catalonia. Statehood solves all of this.
In short, through statehood, Alberta would go from colony to sovereign. From punished to empowered. And enter the largest, richest genuine free trade zone — the United States — on Earth.
What America Gains from Alberta
But this isn’t a one-way street. The United States stands to benefit immensely from Alberta’s inclusion.
Energy Security: Alberta’s oil, gas, and uranium would strengthen North American independence from hostile regimes.
Resource Wealth: Access to Alberta’s natural resources, including timber, minerals, and agricultural land, would strengthen U.S. supply chains.
Agricultural Output: Alberta’s fertile prairies would bolster U.S. food production, particularly in beef, wheat, and canola.
Infrastructure Integration: Alberta’s existing trade ties with the U.S. would facilitate seamless integration into U.S. transportation and energy networks.
Tourism and Recreation: Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, national parks, and outdoor attractions — including the world’s largest rodeo, the Calgary Stampede — would draw U.S. tourists, boosting local economies.
Strategic Geography: Alberta sits at the gateway to the Arctic — an increasingly contested frontier — and is already home to NORAD installations vital to continental defense.
Cultural Alignment: Alberta is conservative, family-oriented, and patriotic. It would bolster the electoral balance of the Senate and help provide a firewall against leftist overreach.
Economic Strength, Not Dependency: From agriculture to high tech, Alberta punches above its weight. It would be even stronger if fully integrated with the United States. It would be a net contributor, not a welfare case.
In a century of global uncertainty, Alberta is the kind of partner America needs — not just an ally, but a potential state with backbone, resources, and shared values.
But Is It Even Legal? Actually, Yes.
Every time Alberta’s independence is raised, critics rush to say the same thing: “You can’t do that—it’s illegal.” Which is odd, considering the country’s history of kowtowing to Quebec.
Bottom line: they’re wrong. And not just in theory. The process is already in motion.
In 2021, under then-Premier Jason Kenney, Alberta passed Bill 51, the Citizen Initiative Act, granting ordinary citizens the power to force a referendum by collecting petition signatures—an unprecedented step in Canadian provincial politics. Originally, the law required signatures from 10% of eligible voters in each of Alberta’s 87 ridings within 90 days — a nearly impossible hurdle.
But on April 29, 2025 — just one day after the recent Canadian election — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith introduced Bill 54, reducing the signature requirement. The bill lowered the threshold from approximately 600,000 signatures (10% of registered voters) to 177,000 signatures (10% of the votes cast in the last election). It also extended the time to collect signatures from 90 days to 120 days.
The legislation was passed in a matter of days, and more than the required number of signatures for a separation initiative were collected on the first day under the new law (in case you were wondering about sentiment in Alberta).
The appetite is there. The legal pathway is open. For the first time since Confederation, Albertans are no longer forced to ask Ottawa’s permission to chart their own future — they can vote on it themselves.
From the point of view of Canadian law, the matter is even clearer.
In 1998, Canada’s Supreme Court issued its landmark Secession Reference. The Court ruled that if a province were to vote clearly and decisively for independence, the federal government would be constitutionally obligated to enter into negotiations.
The union, in other words, rests on consent — and consent can be withdrawn. No different from Brexit.
This precedent was written with Quebec in mind, of course. But it applies equally to Alberta. Or at least, if it doesn’t, Alberta should leave with even greater haste.
Alberta’s use of a lawful, democratic referendum process — as now enabled by Bill 51 and Smith’s reform — would check every box laid out by the Court: clear question, clear process, democratic legitimacy. It would be an ironclad assertion of political will.
And if that political will led to a formal application for U.S. statehood, American law is equally clear. Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution provides:
“New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union…”
No mention is made of where those states must come from. The U.S. has previously admitted independent nations (Vermont, Texas, Hawaii), U.S. territories (most of the present-day states), and even parts of other states (West Virginia).
Alberta is better prepared than most of those were: it already operates under common law, has a functioning, longstanding democracy, and would enter the Union with a fully developed economy.
If the people of Alberta freely vote for statehood, and the U.S. Congress approves, there is no legal barrier whatsoever.
The only requirement is mutual agreement — consent — and the courage on both sides to say yes.
One Province Leads, But Others May Follow
Alberta may be the first to openly consider leaving Canada. But it won’t be the last.
Western alienation is not confined to Edmonton or Calgary. It stretches across the prairie like a weather front, from the Peace Country to the Red River, from the foothills of the Rockies to the flat expanse of the Saskatchewan plain. The grievances are shared, the injuries are the same, and the values — faith, family, freedom, work — remain strikingly consistent across provincial borders.
If Alberta makes the move toward secession and statehood, others are likely to follow. And they should.
No province is more ideologically aligned with Alberta than Saskatchewan. It’s similarly rural, energy-rich, Christian, and fed up. Its economy is driven by oil, gas, potash, and wheat — industries targeted by Ottawa’s green mandates and central planning. The Trudeau/Carney government has treated Saskatchewan with every bit as much contempt as Alberta, while stripping it of the means to push back.
Saskatchewan also has something else: a memory.
In 2020, the Saskatchewan government, alongside Alberta, launched a constitutional challenge to Ottawa’s carbon tax — and lost. The Supreme Court, packed with Laurentian appointees, ruled that the federal government could override provincial sovereignty in the name of climate change. That ruling wasn’t just about carbon. It was a declaration of subordination. And Saskatchewanians understood it for what it was.
If Alberta goes, Saskatchewan may not be far behind. It has every reason to chart the same course. And if Alberta is the 51st state, perhaps Saskatchewan can be the 52nd.
Manitoba is more complicated. Winnipeg leans left, and federal subsidies have long sedated the political will of the provincial elite. But outside the capital — on the farms, in the small towns, among the Mennonite and Métis communities — there is a different mood, a mood that echoes Alberta’s frustrations and Saskatchewan’s values.
Manitoba is a borderland. But in a breakup scenario, the gravitational pull westward — and southward — might grow, especially if its neighbors are choosing freedom and prosperity over stagnation and subservience.
British Columbia is often seen as too left-wing to join any such movement. But that’s only true of Vancouver and the coastal cities. The Interior of British Columbia, from Kamloops to Kelowna to Fort St. John, is a different country — politically, culturally, and economically. These regions vote conservative, drill for oil, and send their cattle and lumber south.
In any realignment, a partition of B.C. is not unthinkable. The Interior could align with Alberta and the U.S., while the Lower Mainland charts its own progressive course.
Even the Territories — Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut—might eventually follow. Though sparsely populated, they are rich in resources and increasingly strategic, especially as Arctic shipping lanes open. A U.S.-aligned Arctic corridor, stretching from Alaska to Hudson Bay, would present a formidable counterweight to Russian and Chinese ambitions in the far north.
It’s not just about Alberta. It’s about the future of the entire region — the future of Western Canada as a free civilization. Could it succeed as an independent country in its own right? Certainly. But statehood is definitely the better option.
The Birth of a Freer West
What’s taking shape is not merely a protest or a populist tantrum. It’s the beginning of a geopolitical realignment. A rebirth. A new American frontier — this time not westward, but north.
Alberta and its allies are discovering what the Founders of the United States knew instinctively: that freedom requires more than flags and parades. It requires self-government. It requires constitutional limits. It requires a political structure that rewards hard work, respects conscience, and restrains Leviathan.
Canada no longer offers that. It is a place where farmers are told from on high what fertilizer they can use, oilmen are fined for working, pastors are jailed for preaching, and speech is “regulated” for the greater good.
America is built differently. Its Constitution enshrines the rights Ottawa buries. Its system was designed to divide power, not centralize it. It recognizes that the individual is prior to the state. That property is not a privilege. That sovereignty flows upward, from the people.
This is the future the Western provinces must claim, not because it is convenient, but because it is just. Because it is consistent with who they are. Because it will allow them, finally, to build without shackles, to govern without interference, and to prosper without apology.
Albertans — and those who join them — can become not merely freer, but founders of a new moment in history, a renewed American experiment stretching across the northern plains and into the heart of the continent. A movement of energy, agriculture, faith, family, and freedom.
And all it will take is one province with the courage to go first.
What are the pros and cons about Alberta becoming a US Territory instead of a state? Would that be an option to consider?
Rod, thank you for this. As an Albertan, I think your proposal is not just a good one, but an essential outcome for future Alberta prosperity, as well as incredibly timely for reasons I’ll explain below.
While you are correct that the Quebec Secession Reference and the subsequent Clarity Act provide a path to independence, they are actually a poison pill on liberation. The reason being that they also require a successful “negotiation” out of Confederation. And not just with the Feds. Or with the Feds and the provinces. But with EVERY STAKEHOLDER. This means, to use an absurd but plausible example, the negotiation could fail because a First Nation band in Newfoundland believes they were not adequately consulted. The idea that Canada would in good faith negotiate Alberta’s exit is a fantasy. And what is so frustrating is that the current crop of Alberta secession leaders point to the Clarity Act as the roadmap to our exit, when in reality it is our Constitutional prison. That said, there is another route. But time is of the essence.
As you note, the U.S. Constitution allows for accession to your Union as a new state. This comes into conflict with the Clarity Act and the Canadian Constitution. In normal times, before the U.S. would even entertain Alberta statehood it would require Alberta to jump through the Canadian constitutional hoops - which as I said are an impossibility. However, the current President is less interested in international norms, and more interested into Manifest Destiny. The path I see is as follows: (1) Alberta holds a citizen referendum to engage with the U.S. on joining as the 51st state, (2) Alberta and the U.S. negotiate the terms, (3) Alberta holds a second referendum on those terms, (4) assuming success, Alberta formally submits its proposal, and the U.S. admits Alberta as a state with a brief interim period, and (5) the combination of Alberta becoming sovereign territory under the U.S. Constitution, plus the moral suasion of the U.S. backed by the democratic process of multiple referendums, forces a negotiated exit for Alberta (similar to how Brexit played out). I have spent a great deal of time thinking about Alberta secession, and this is the only way I see to create the leverage we need to escape.
But for this to come to fruition, Alberta needs engagement by the U.S. And that leads to my question for you as a thought leader and well-connected American: How do we get the U.S., and particularly the Trump Administration, to engage directly with Alberta? You lay out most of the key reasons why the U.S. ought to be interested in Alberta, though I will add a few more. First, it eliminates the trade deficit with Canada overnight (something that seems to be of particular interest to Trump). Second, Alberta has significant rare earth mineral potential (proven and potential). Third, if you believe in the strategic importance of data centres, our combination of cool climate and prolific natural gas reserves make us an ideal place for massive investment in this sector. As for Alberta, one of the key points you missed is the mobility rights to work in the U.S. - particularly for our talented young people who are already flocking south. And while you touched on it, I think a major part of the sales pitch to Albertans is the strong protection of state autonomy in the U.S. Constitution.
I ask you the above question not in a general sense, but very specifically: how do you see us getting this ball rolling on your side of the border? Who can we advocate to who will listen? I and many of my friends and colleagues are willing to get to work on this, but we need some help getting pointed in the right direction. Your views would be invaluable.