# Alberta, Natural Resources, and the Rest of Canada **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 3, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872 "2025-05-03T00:31:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 46
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/904 "2026-09-18T03:02:42Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > It is if you’re talking about viable transportation routes for goods. Canada wasn’t designed to ship goods around the exterior of Alberta but, in this extreme event of an independent Alberta blockading BC, the rest of Canada won’t just twiddle their thumbs in acceptance of the non-viability of doing just that. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/905 "2026-09-18T03:42:36Z")
I agree. And in 20 years after all the consultation and thumb twiddling is done you might decide to build a single lane road across the top of Alberta rather than collaborate to the mutual benefit of both parties. I see a trend here that explains much. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/906 "2026-09-18T03:45:45Z")
> [@Clipper](#): > > The report states that separation would give Alberta the freedom to set its own environmental laws, which could potentially boost the energy sector. See above, LSL Guy: "A supposedly populist movement whose actual beneficiaries are the moneyed class. How … novel. The bastards. Both the smart rich bastards who fund it, and the stupid ordinary bastards who fall for it." ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/907 "2026-09-18T03:50:44Z")
I give no policy suggestions. I’m only stating the geographic realities of Canada; that the provinces are not disconnected from each other or the northern territories. To be honest, all the western provinces are connected to the USA too. ETA: Also some form of northern railway would be better for shipping than just a single lane road across the top of Alberta. But then again this would become another Northern Development project (for the Great Slave Lake region and such). Just going through the USA would be the quickest route to simply avoiding Alberta altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/908 "2026-09-18T03:55:10Z")
Explain how Albertans have higher wages in general than the roc with engineers and other specialists earning even more? Why is the left not more concerned with why other people in Canada are paid even less? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/909 "2026-09-18T06:04:36Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Explain how Albertans have higher wages in general than the roc Maybe the rapacious profits of the oil industry? Of which, in Alberta, nearly three-quarters is foreign owned, the majority of that by Americans, mostly Texans wearing comically large hats. Alberta independence would be a glorious moment in time, lasting about a microsecond. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/910 "2026-09-18T09:22:29Z")
Already seeing Danielle Smith’s TV ads promoting less immigration, before the October referendums. Fine, but they all seem to boil down to one thing: “Danielle Smith and the UCP, and any _real_ Albertan do not want any brown-skinned person, Mexican, African, or Muslim, to set up permanent residency in Alberta.” Always thought that Smith and the UCP are racists. With their referendum questions this fall, now I know they are. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/911 "2026-09-18T12:28:35Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Maybe the rapacious profits of the oil industry? Of which, in Alberta, nearly three-quarters is foreign owned, the majority of that by Americans, mostly Texans wearing comically large hats. Rapacious profits that benefit the people who work for them? Every oil company I worked for was 100% Canadian owned. Were they rapacious? I remember them wearing comically large hats at Stampede time, so must have been. I also saw many ‘brown’ (including a former PM the left idolized) people wearing comically large head gear as well. Were they rapacious? Sorry, I can’t be bothered to keep up with what is considered bigoted and what isn’t. I’m fine with someone making a profit if my salary reflects it, which it did. Which employees in Alberta benefit from and we get upset when you want us to trade those salaries for ones in the hospitality sector, or other low paying jobs, that Canadians seem to prize. So, you are concerned about the foreign ownership of companies in the oil patch. Who owns GMC, Ford, Toyota, etc? No issue with that I bet. Don’t worry, though. They’ll be leaving soon going south to better environments making way for the socialist utopia of net zero and no industry. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/912 "2026-09-18T13:06:48Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Just going through the USA would be the quickest route to simply avoiding Alberta altogether. This. If somehow Alberta refused through traffic between BC & ROC, using the USA’s northern road network gets real easy. Unless of course the USA’s criminal regime is still hating ROC and loves annexing Alberta. In a very unfunny but highly ironic turn of events, I could imagine a future timeline where the USA goes full bore fascist, Alberta secedes to become an independent country luxuriating in their new-found freedom of action, while ROC is kinda mumbling around trying to figure out what to do next. Then the USA invades the shiny new Albertistan to take the oil and _de facto_ enslave the people. Talk about an own goal. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/913 "2026-09-18T13:17:26Z")
Why would Alberta close traffic and block the $50B of goods coming out of BC? We’ve gone from Canada being petulant and blocking Alberta’s access and Alberta retaliating to this being Alberta’s fault. It is the same Canadian attitude to the US trade negotiation. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Then the USA invades the shiny new Albertistan to take the oil and _de facto_ enslave the people. They don’t need to invade. We’ll sell it to them like we do now. Again, why do people think that Canada is protecting Alberta? With what and how? Explain how Canada is protecting Alberta? While you’re at it, explain how Alberta being in Canada is benefiting Alberta? What does Canada do for Alberta, other than blocking investments and industry, that is a net positive? I don’t know why I ask because it won’t happen, but people can’t say I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/914 "2026-09-19T23:34:52Z")
A question just occurred to be about this going the other direction. I am a Canadian citizen living in British Columbia, but my grandparents lived in Alberta for most of their lives and are buried there. Could I apply for heritage citizenship? Or would it be the sort of thing where Albertan-ness (Albertanity?) begins anew the way Canadian citizenship itself did, and all Canadians resident in Alberta on date X change their Canadian citizenship to Albertan, with the clear understanding that in September of 2026 there weren’t any Albertan citizens? What about born-and-raised Albertans away from the province for school or work? Or has there been no thought whatsoever about these issues? ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/915 "2026-09-20T00:54:15Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Again, why do people think that Canada is protecting Alberta? With what and how? Explain how Canada is protecting Alberta? The Canadian Armed Forces are sufficiently power to deter the United States from biting off the richest piece of Canada. > [@Uzi](#): > > They don’t need to invade. We’ll sell it to them like we do now. As an American, I don’t think we need to. Then, I’m not among those who feel a need to make the United States a greater/bigger country than it already is. As to what Alberta gains from being in Canada, well, first I would hope there were emotional ties. To quote our Abraham Lincoln when faced with calls for disunion: > [@](#): > > The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. Beyond that, I think Albertan independence is high risk, especially if Quebec is still part of Canada. It would be in Canada’s interest for Albertan independence to be seen as a failure. Am I sure? Of course not, because Albertan independence could only happen in some future situation where hostility between Canada and Alberta had been ramped up, and from our vantage point today, we do not know what did that. I can only say for sure that Alberta independence would be risky for Albertans. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/916 "2026-09-20T01:06:49Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I am a Canadian citizen living in British Columbia, but my grandparents lived in Alberta for most of their lives and are buried there. Could I apply for heritage citizenship? I think citizenship rules would be a subject for negotiations between Canada and Alberta over the terms of dissolution. So the answer to your question is a big maybe. Another consideration is wolfpup’s prediction that Albertan independence would be a “microsecond,” after which Alberta would likely be taken over by my country. I’m thinking more like five or ten years than a a microsecond, but, well, next time a right-wing U.S. government got in power, your possible heritage citizenship might be replaced with some second-class U.S. nationality. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/917 "2026-09-20T01:29:41Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > > [@Uzi](#): > > > > They don’t need to invade. We’ll sell it to them like we do now. > > As an American, I don’t think we need to. Then, I’m not among those who feel a need to make the United States a greater/bigger country than it already is. Why would a Fascist USA choose to buy what they could simply take? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/918 "2026-09-20T01:44:04Z")
So, the Republicans will take over Alberta and give us some form of secondary citizenship in the US? Why would they block a right leaning province like Alberta from voting when it would benefit them to allow it? > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Why would a Fascist USA choose to buy what they could simply take? Again, what is stopping them now? A country with 50 year old tech that they could eliminate in hours? Fearmongering. There is nothing stopping them now, nothing at all. Compare Iraq’s military that fell in a month to Canada’s currently. We’re still using the same tech as then. Canada’s military isn’t a threat and isn’t capable of being massed to where it could be even marginally effective. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/919 "2026-09-20T01:46:08Z")
And the USA isn’t actually Fascist. Yet. Be very careful what you wish for in a suddenly dangerous neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/920 "2026-09-20T01:49:13Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Canadian citizenship itself did, and all Canadians resident in Alberta on date X change their Canadian citizenship to Albertan I don’t think there is a way to remove your Canadian citizenship if you don’t agree to give it up. I also doubt an independent Alberta would force you to do so. > [@Dr.Drake](#): > > What about born-and-raised Albertans away from the province for school or work? My situation. But the last place I lived was Alberta and if I return I’d be going back there. More than half the time I’ve lived in Canada was in Alberta and I moved there because that was where the army stationed me. I also vote federally in the Alberta riding I last resided in. So, I hope they make provisions, if it happens. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/921 "2026-09-20T02:08:10Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > So, the Republicans will take over Alberta and give us some form of secondary citizenship in the US? Why would they block a right leaning province like Alberta from voting when it would benefit them to allow it? The U.S. is not a stable country like Canada, where, if things get really bad, Stephen Harper and Mark Carney stand side by side. In twenty years (hard to see Alberta going much before that), maybe Alberta would have nothing to fear from the U.S. I hope that! But in twenty years, the U.S. could be the kind of country where the ruling party gets 95 percent of the vote. Then they would mistrust Albertans because they had been so recently free. It would be crazy to risk the future of your children and grandchildren, living in one of the best countries on earth, on the hope that the colossus to your south stays on the straight and narrow. > [@Uzi](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > Why would a Fascist USA choose to buy what they could simply take? > > Canada’s military isn’t a threat and isn’t capable of being massed to where it could be even marginally effective. This is defeatism. If the outcome of warfare was so easy to predict, there would be far fewer. All I can tell you is that the Canadian Armed Forces is a bigger deterrent than the Albertan Armed Forces would be. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/922 "2026-09-20T02:09:29Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > the outcome of warfare was so easy to predict, there would be far fewer. All I can tell you is that the Canadian Armed Forces is is bigger deterrent than the Albertan Armed Forces would be. This. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2026, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872/923 "2026-09-20T03:01:31Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > This is defeatism. > If the outcome of warfare was so easy to predict, there would be far fewer. All I can tell you is that the Canadian Armed Forces is a bigger deterrent than the Albertan Armed Forces would be. Neither would be a threat or a deterrent. In Alberta there are a couple of bases that the US could easily occupy. Then what? How are eastern forces from Ontario and Manitoba going to get through the single railroad? The very few roads? All monitored by the US during a war. Don’t be ridiculous and think that we’d last longer than Saddam. It would be over in a few days. > [@PhillyGuy](#): > > living in one of the best countries on earth Which country would that be? The one where the government violates the rights of its citizens with no consequence? Where the media is bought. The one that achieves majorities without earning them at the ballot box? The one where the leader would rather attend UN sessions than answer to what remains of parliament? Where projects take decades for approvals, investment flees, the leader of the government has most of his investments in a foreign country? As no one will answer what benefit Alberta derives from remaining in Canada (insane conjectures about US invasion aside), then maybe they can answer what is so good about Canada that Alberta, if it were currently independent, would want to join it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872.md?page=45) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alberta-natural-resources-and-the-rest-of-canada/1017872.md?page=47)