Alberta

"[N]o one outside this in-group of "real Albertans" should get any say in daily life here. Alberta belongs to the True Albertan (presumably, a white dude riding a horse around a farm or a giant truck around the oil sands) and everybody else—Eastern Bastards, First Nations, immigrants, leftists, and Muslims—can get fucked. What can we say? Here in God's Country, the right leans white... Albertans are deeply emotionally attached to Canada—even the ones convinced that Justin Trudeau is a secret Muslim with a boner for Sharia Law and climate change is a hoax fabricated by the UN as an excuse to throw Christians in the gulag."

"Come to me. I want to plow you like a Calgary driveway at Christmas."

"Today I am excited to announce that I am going to make Alberta the fifty first state, I really am."

"It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction."

"The testing of cruise missiles in Canada proved very contentious. The government explained its decision in both political and technical terms. Politically, testing demonstrated alliance solidarity over the modernization of NATO's nuclear deterrent. Technically, testing the missile over terrain similar to that of the northern Soviet Union would improve its effectiveness, and allow the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) to develop an anti-cruise capability. The tests would take place in a 2,200-kilometre test corridor that included parts of the Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Tests could involve either releasing the missile in a "free flight" to its target, or allowing its guidance system to direct both the missile and the launch aircraft to the target in a "captive carry" test. The tests take several hours, and involve a number of aircraft in both Canada and the United States, from tankers to fighters to Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes. After the first few years of tests, attention shifted from monitoring the missile itself to attempting to track and intercept it. In order to simulate the climate of the northern Soviet Union, most cruise missile tests in Canada have taken place in the winter months."

"We use history to understand ourselves, and we ought to use it to understand others. If we find out that an acquaintance has suffered a catastrophe, that knowledge helps us to avoid causing him or her pain. (If we find that they have enjoyed great good luck, that may affect how we treat them in another way!) We can never assume that we are all the same, and that is as true in business and politics as it is in personal relations. How can we understand the often passionate feelings of French nationalists in Quebec if we do not know something about the past that has shaped and continues to shape them? Or the mixture of resentment and pride that formerly poor provinces such as Alberta and Newfoundland feel toward central Canada now that they have struck oil? In international affairs, how can we understand the deep hostility between Palestinians and Israelis without knowing something of their tragic conflicts?"

"I've been thinking that Alberta ought to be its own nation for many many years. Well over a decade, and the main reason for that is simply because of the concept that the people should have as much sovereign democratic control over the law of government as possible. Alberta has a vote, but that vote is practically meaningless and, as a result of that, is that truly democracy? No, it's not democracy. People in Alberta don't have any direct democratic control over the laws of government. That's not right."

"Independence doesn't solve anything, the only way that this turns out well for Alberta economically, in the long run, is union with the United States, and that's a very different political decision than simply secession."

"Canada’s demographic situation is similar to the rest of the developed world — a large population moving toward retirement and hardly any young people in the replacement generation coming up. However, Alberta does not fit that mould. It is the youngest province, and is becoming younger, better paid and more highly skilled as the rest of Canada becomes older and less skilled, and a ward of the state financially."

"Alberta as an independent country doesn’t solve a huge number of problems. If it left Canada, its currency goes through the roof because all it has is oil exports, and that would drive agriculture out of business. It would be a one-horse economy in a very short time. Seceding to the U.S. becomes the only political and economic option. If you do that, the inflation issue goes away, the tax problem goes away, the security problem goes away. Alberta gets everything it says it wants out of Canada within the first year of joining the U.S. Seceding to the U.S. becomes the only political and economic option."