{"id":98919,"date":"2026-06-22T18:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/98919\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T18:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T18:34:12","slug":"canadas-texas-threatens-secession-and-could-become-51st-us-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/98919\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Canada’s Texas’ threatens secession and \u2018could become 51st US state\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCanada\u2019s Texas is threatening divorce, and it could eventually become the 51st state<\/a>,\u201d crows the ultraconservative think-tank behind the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The free people of Alberta are about to take a vote.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Canada\u2019s fourth-largest province, both by size (about 411,187 sq mi) and population (5 million).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s home to North America\u2019s iconic Rocky Mountains, where crystal clear glacial lakes are scattered across forested landscape.<\/p>\n

Its dinosaur fossils are a valuable window to the past, while its fossil fuel deposits are \u2026 valuable.<\/p>\n

Lake Moraine in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Paul Kelly \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The fourth-largest oil reserve on the planet gives Albertans high employment, higher-than-average incomes, and a younger population. <\/p>\n

It also means it contributes much more to the federal budget than Canada\u2019s other nine provinces and three territories do.<\/p>\n

Just like Western Australia.<\/p>\n

This is resented by many local politicians, big business lobbyists, media pundits and members of the public.<\/p>\n

They ask: Why should they subsidize their eastern overlords?<\/p>\n

Downtown Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, skyline just after sunset at the blue hour showing Walterdale Bridge across the frozen, snow-covered Saskatchewan River and surrounding skyscrapers. ronniechua \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Just like Western Australia.<\/p>\n

Now, Alberta gets to decide if it really wants out.<\/p>\n

An October referendum will ask: Should we quit Canada?<\/p>\n

Strong and Free<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, many people there have felt that the rest of Canada \u2013 particularly the federal government in Ottawa \u2013 has been drawing disproportionately on Alberta\u2019s prosperity,\u201d write British constitutional academics\u00a0Richard Brant and Professor Nikos Skoutaris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith answers questions at a news conference in Calgary, Alberta, on May 22, 2026. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Some 700,000 Albertans signed petitions in recent years calling for a vote. These were declared invalid in an Alberta court for ignoring indigenous treaty rights.<\/p>\n

But the noise they generated prompted the provincial government to ask the question properly.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been on Albertans\u2019 minds for a while.<\/p>\n

It all started in 1980.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau took control of local oil prices and raised export taxes on the industry.<\/p>\n

So the multinational oil companies took their business to tax havens elsewhere. Alberta\u2019s economy tumbled, unemployment soared, and national revenues collapsed.<\/p>\n

It took just five years for the controls and taxes to be lifted.<\/p>\n

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Many Albertans fear these bad times are back.<\/p>\n

Climate policies. Pollution restrictions. A carbon tax.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s a push to restrict oil pipeline construction across private and public land.<\/p>\n

Some Albertans think they can go it alone. That they can become a landlocked petro-state nestled neatly between North America\u2019s two great nations.<\/p>\n

A petrochemical oil refinery along the Athabasca River near the Oilsands mining area, in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Spotmatik \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Others think the grass really is greener on the other side. Why not become the 51st member of the United States of America?<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump, after all, will welcome them with open arms<\/a> \u2026<\/p>\n

As will the US oil industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Drill baby, drill<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of the rest of Canada, especially in the east, sees Albertans as toothless rednecks since Alberta is by far the most conservative province in Canada,\u201d argue US Heritage Foundation economic analysts<\/a>\u00a0Peter Onge and Erwin Antoni.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly, Alberta is by far the richest province in Canada, thanks to roughly 160 billion barrels of oil, or about three times the reserves of the entire United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump and Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney talk before posing for a family photograph during the G7 summit, in Evian, France, on June 16, 2026. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Heritage Foundation is the think-tank behind the Trump Administration\u2019s policies. It laid out its dreams for a deeply conservative agenda in its Project 2025\u00a0manifesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow imagine all that extra production in the United States, yielding not just energy independence or even energy superiority, but energy supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra<\/a> shared a social media post by President Trump again labeling Canada his \u201c51st State\u201d.<\/p>\n

It just served to stoke the flames of cross-border tensions that have flared since the mercurial 47th President of the United States took office in January last year.<\/p>\n

President Trump speaks with Prime Minister Carney during a work lunch at the G7 summit, attended by other country leaders, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, and ministers from Brazil, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a>, however, insists his provinces are not for sale<\/a>. He\u2019s not going to cave to Trump\u2019s trade-war pressures. And he knows Canada is fairly low on the White House\u2019s list of potential invasion targets.<\/p>\n

President Trump is more interested in annexing neighboring Greenland<\/a>. And Cuba<\/a>. And possibly Mexico.<\/p>\n

But Alberta may take a shortcut.<\/p>\n

And a vote to join the US would solve all of President Trump\u2019s economic problems at once.<\/p>\n

So MAGA\u2019s lobbyists are actively stirring the pot.<\/p>\n

Oil refineries like this one in Alberta contribute to the province\u2019s position as the fourth-largest oil reserve on the planet. jutawat \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Cord Cutting<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100% certain that they\u2019d become a state,\u201d President Trump declares.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot in it for him.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s already sniping at Prime Minister Carney over that nation\u2019s \u201ctechnical recession\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he knows the economic powerhouse of Alberta could single-handedly save his own flailing economy. And he\u2019s keen on that idea.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Carney, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer, and President Trump at a meeting with the President of Ukraine during the G7 Summit. Dominique Jacovides-Pool\/SIPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Carney calls the referendum a \u201cvery dangerous bluff.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s already fielding President Trump\u2019s threats of annexing the whole country.<\/p>\n

So, will the Albertan vote decide the fate of two of the Western World\u2019s greatest democracies?<\/p>\n

Canada has no constitutional law addressing secession. It doesn\u2019t allow it. It doesn\u2019t prohibit it.<\/p>\n

But the Canadian Supreme Court was spurred into action by a similar 1995 move by the province of Quebec. (Its controversial secession vote failed to reach a majority by just 1%).<\/p>\n

The court ruled that a province could not decide to leave on its own.<\/p>\n

The rest of Canada must also get a say.<\/p>\n

Decisions, decisions<\/p>\n

Other disgruntled populations are watching with interest.<\/p>\n

Scotland has a strong independence movement. As does Wales. Then there\u2019s Spain\u2019s Catalonia region. And the United States\u2019 own California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even Western Australia has the Westralian Secession Movement (founded by the late mining magnate Lang Hancock).<\/p>\n

\u201cEach faces its own version of the same tension: the democratic impulse to let people decide, and the legal and political reality that separating from a larger state is never as straightforward as a ballot paper makes it look,\u201d the constitutional experts assess.<\/p>\n

Many Albertans appear to foresee this.<\/p>\n

While advocates are loudly enthusiastic, the idea is not yet catching on.<\/p>\n

President Trump has expressed his interest in adding Alberta as the 51st state, while Prime Minister Carney refuses to cave to pressure and insists that the provinces are not for sale. POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A June poll suggests that pragmatism is kicking in.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Supreme Court requires a \u201cclear majority\u201d for any secession to be accepted. It also established a referendum process for making this decision.<\/p>\n

Only one in five voters indicates they want to initiate that process.<\/p>\n

After that, Albertans would also have to decide: Go it alone? Or join the United States?<\/p>\n

Due to climate policies, pollution restrictions and carbon tax, Albertans believe it would be beneficial to join the United States. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Canadians would have to decide: Do they really want Alberta?<\/p>\n

And how?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like the more that people contemplate this being real \u2014 the act of voting \u2014 we see the support for separatism softening,\u201d Ipsos told local media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it shows is that people who really want Alberta to stay in Canada are really strongly motivated to vote for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCanada\u2019s Texas is threatening divorce, and it could eventually become the 51st state,\u201d crows the ultraconservative think-tank behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[17,162,26806,111,1631,113,15715,30,14569,218],"class_list":["post-98919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-mark-carney","tag-oil","tag-politics","tag-secession","tag-united-states","tag-voting","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}