A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted May 2nd, 2025 on Niagara At Large
One of the billboards gracing the landscape of Alberta these days
A few days from now, this coming Tuesday, May 6th, Prime Minister Mark Carney will be flying down to the White House to begin negotiating with Trump to end his threats against Canada’s economy and sovereignty.
It will no doubt be tough going for our prime minister but he does have at least one big card to play – Alberta – and here is what I mean by that.
When you are negotiating with an adversary like Trump you often have to toss him a bone, just so that he can say he came out “a winner.”
The question is, what could that bone be.
Trump has talked about drawing more than his country’s fair share of water from the Great Lakes and he has also talked about forcing Canada to remove the French from the packages of products made here and sold on both sides of the border. But giving in on those would most certainly not go down well with the majority of people in Ontario and Quebec.
Trump has also rants about Canada being stiff on the sale of American dairy and poultry on our side of the border. But with all of the avian flu on the American side of the border, combined with screwballs in Trump’s administration, particularly his lead health man Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., firing food inspectors and frowning on homogenizing milk, do we really want to take a chance ingesting any of that?
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith down at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago palace this past January, with Canadian businessman and Trump friend Kevin L’Leary this past January, charming the newly elected U.S. president for breaks for Alberta
However, there is still one bone that Carney can toss that could be a win-win for both countries – offer to give Trump Alberta so that the orange man can go out in the rose garden of the White House and say that he has fulfilled his “making Canada a “51st state” dream then, hopefully, he will leave the rest of Canada alone.
After all, we have got a Premier in Alberta – Danielle Smith- who is continually talking about separating from Canada and she sure seems to be getting along well with Trump, travelling down to Washington for Trump’s inauguration and down to his Mar-a-Lago palace in Florida to talk about getting a special exemption from U.S. tariffs for her coveted tar sands oil
There also appear to be a good number of people in her province who like Trump and don’t mind separating from Canada and joining the United States.
And if that’s the way Smith and so many of her Albertan supporters feel, good riddance. The rest of Canada would be better off without them.
Oh, by the way. Perhaps our prime minister could talk about trading Alberta for California, if California is willing to separate from Trumpland of course. Trump hates that left-leaning state and its governor so much, that they might just want to do it.
Welcoming California to our country?! What a great thing that would be.
For a related commentary by Doug Draper, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2025/03/25/to-president-trump-from-one-proud-canadian-can-we-trade-alberta-for-california/ .
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