Orange and Blue

Have you looked at the political landscape across North America lately? If you haven’t, then you must be living under a rock. We’re in some serious trouble up here in the Great White North. Of course, Alberta could be free of much of that trouble, but we’ll save that for later.

President Trump has been musing about “Canada, the 51st state” since before he was sworn in on January 20th. Since then, he hasn’t stopped talking about it, and it seems this wasn’t just a passing fancy or an epic trolling of Trudeau. Trump wants Canada. Most of the USA wants Canada. Why wouldn’t they? For those of you who enjoyed history, you may remember the term “Manifest Destiny,” referring to what the USA believed was their rightful territory. “54-40 or fight” was the slogan. The USA has always had its eye on Canada.

Lately, things have shifted, and what was once a pipe dream is now within reach. Canada has a weak leader—perhaps the weakest we’ve ever had. He is the polar opposite of a good negotiator, and Trump knows it. The world knows it. Our governments here in “Chinada” have decimated Canadian prosperity for decades through insane taxation and, more notably, an unprecedented trampling (literally) of our civil liberties. The fruit of Manifest Destiny is ripe for the picking, and our southern neighbor knows it.

In recent months, I’ve become much more vocal in my advocacy for MAJOR change in Alberta. As I see it, there are four different options for Alberta’s future:

1. Hold a referendum on Alberta independence, negotiate a better deal with Canada and the other provinces, and move forward in prosperity as a sovereign province of Alberta—free of interference from ideological bureaucrats who never have, nor ever will have, Alberta’s best interests in mind.
2. Hold a referendum on Alberta independence, watch the federal government fail to negotiate in good faith, which would result in Alberta unilaterally declaring independence and moving into the future on our own, able to forge relationships with our neighbors as we see fit.
3. Hold a referendum on Alberta independence, become a sovereign nation free to chart our own course, and then, after another referendum, join the USA as the 51st state.

I am not opposed to any of these options, although my first choice is Option 1: fix everything and remain within Canada, free to make our own choices and unshackled from ideologically motivated federal governments.

1. Do nothing. You’ve heard the saying, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.” It’s very true. In this case, the worst thing we can do is nothing. We are on a collision course with failure in both the economy and society. All trajectories regarding the metrics of our prosperity are plummeting, and they show no signs of change.

Consider this:

• We have a housing crisis like we’ve never seen before.
• Homelessness is rampant in every major city across the country.
• Our dollar is weak and weakening by the day.
• People are dying in hospital waiting rooms; rural hospitals and health centers face rolling staff shortages.
• Crime is through the roof.
• Our veterans are frequently seen on the streets, some freezing to death because “they are asking for more than we can give.”
• Our borders are not secure.
• We do not meet our NATO defense spending commitments.
• Our once well-respected military has been reduced to a DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) joke on the global stage.

While our leadership claims we don’t have enough resources to care for our veterans, we send millions—billions—of dollars to fund conflicts we have nothing to do with. We recently spent $12 million for “gender-affirming mine removal operations” abroad and gave a $40 million grant to an LGBTQ organization to promote “inclusiveness.”

Our people are taxed nearly 60% of their wages to support a bloated, corrupt, wasteful ideological government and bureaucracy that does little to benefit those footing the bill. Yet, it doesn’t stop at taxation. The government doesn’t just take our money—they try to take control of our very thoughts and actions. Through the Canadian Behavioral Sciences department—what can only be described as a modern “Ministry of Truth”—we are systematically “nudged” into compliance. Instead of serving the people, our government manipulates us to align with their agendas. It should be the other way around: the government exists to reflect the will of the people, not to engineer it.

To make matters worse, organizations like DOGE have uncovered mind-boggling examples of government waste. In the U.S., reports have highlighted spending on projects like studying the social habits of shrimp on treadmills, funding “hipster parties” in foreign countries, and researching the gambling habits of monkeys. If these are the types of expenditures happening in the U.S., you can bet similar, if not more absurd, cases exist within our own Canadian government. It is another glaring reason why we desperately need major reforms to take back control of our futures in Canada. Every dollar wasted on frivolous projects is a dollar stolen from hardworking Canadians who struggle under the burden of oppressive taxation.

Our so-called leaders shame us and sow division among us over trivial issues like vaccination status. This culminated in one of the most egregious attacks on Canadian values during February 2022, when the government declared WAR on its own citizens—for PROTESTING! Our bank accounts were frozen. Our rights trampled.

We have trade barriers between regions within our own country. Some of our most productive provinces can’t get their products to the world market due to our own government’s policies locking us down. We’re being taxed, over-regulated, and isolated into oblivion. And we can’t even vote our way out of it because we are not adequately represented in Parliament. Everything is a complete mess.

Now we’re going to pay the price for our blunders—or for failing to speak up as we watched these blunders unfold before our very eyes.

The ironic part about all this is that we’ve seen, even in modern history, how policy can transform a prosperous, wealthy, and classy country into a communist nightmare faster than you can say “socialism.”

One of the most striking examples is Venezuela. Once the richest country in South America, Venezuela had vast oil reserves and a thriving economy. Government mismanagement, nationalization of industries, hyperinflation, and authoritarian rule under leaders like Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro turned it into an economic disaster with widespread poverty, food shortages, and mass emigration.

Cuba is another example. Once a vibrant, economically diverse nation, it became a communist state under Fidel Castro. The nationalization of businesses, suppression of dissent, and dependency on Soviet subsidies led to decades of stagnation, repression, and poverty.

Zimbabwe was once considered the breadbasket of Africa, with a strong agricultural sector. Under Robert Mugabe’s leadership, disastrous land reform policies, hyperinflation, and human rights abuses turned it into an economic basket case.

East Germany before reunification was a stark contrast to West Germany, despite sharing the same people and geography. Communist economic policies led to inefficiency, shortages, and oppression.

Argentina, once one of the world’s wealthiest countries, has suffered repeated economic crises due to populist and socialist policies, currency devaluation, and massive debt.

History is clear: bad government policies can destroy prosperity faster than anyone expects. Alberta stands at a crossroads. The question is, will we act before it’s too late?

I’ve said many times that Alberta is at a crossroads. I never thought it would be such a significant crossroads as what we see now. The future of our province and this country is certainly uncertain. Where will we be in a year? I don’t know. I DO know, however, that these hamburgers are not going to make themselves.

Chris