A land of the free - There's only one good reason to justify Alberta's separation from Canada...

The Western Standard - Canada ^ | November 14, 2005 | Pierre Lemieux

[Arkinsaw]

There would be dangers, which we already see among Canadian and American conservatives. It is tempting to increase the power of the state in the name of law and order, but this encourages the state to create more crimes and paper criminals. A related danger--call it "the American danger"--consists in glorifying the state as the sacred, iconic defender of liberty. In a free society, the state should be viewed instead as a humble agency that tries, more or less well, to do what nobody else does and which appears, for the moment, indispensable to social co-ordination.

Wow, this writer has clear vision. A rarity.

[rellimpank]

--great idea--and if non-existent global warming turns on, they'll have a longer growing season---

[Paladin2]

"There's only one good reason to justify Alberta's separation from Canada"

Alberta has great lift serviced and heli-skiing?

[XJarhead]

I met with some attorneys from a very large Canadian firm a few weeks ago. They were headquartered in Toronto, but did have a smaller presence in Alberta. They made a number of joking references to Alberta in the very complimentary sense that Alberta was in another league from the rest of Canada in terms of economic development.

If Alberta were to secede, remaining independent would be its best option rather than joining the U.S.

[Paladin2]

Actually, Vancouver and VI should be stripped from BC, and BC and Alberta merged and developed as outlined above. Then when Hitlery is elected, there will be someplace to go.

[Red Boots]

With more--much more--of the same, Alberta could become the richest country in the world, and a beacon of liberty. The recipe is more economic freedom, tighter constraints on the state, liberalization of financial markets, protection of private property, unilateral free trade (let any Albertan export or import as he wants), and the liberty of adults to consume what they choose--in two words: individual liberty.

If they do this, I'm going; for I fear our own country has gone too far down the road to tyranny to return.

[bill1952]

Yeah. Like Hitler had.

The man's a kook, and most of the posters here are right on the way.

American tyranny my azz.
Waste the bandwidth in reply, but I'm not wasting the time to read them.

[Alberta's Child]

Alberta ping.

[MARKUSPRIME]

"Should Alberta join the United States? This is a dangerous mirage. It is sad to say, but the American state is becoming the model of soft tyrannies in the western world. Joining the U.S. would be like going out of the frying pan into the fire."

What a load of horsesh*t.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

Neat, but I have to wonder if those nice folks up in Alberta are quite prepared for life in the jungle without a Big Bro' to keep away the things that go bump in the night.

I wonder sometimes how the rest of the world would react if the US announced that we were totally closing our borders, cancelling all debts and treaties and putting our entire military on a hair-trigger alert status?

[newgal]

Yeah, right on, didn't George Washington do the same thing?

[frankiep]

but the American state is becoming the model of soft tyrannies in the western world.

After reading this idiotic line, I stopped reading...not that the dumbass writer was making much sense anyway.

[Lancer_N3502A]

Ping for later.

[ClaireSolt]

After 200 years, we would do well to have a movement to codify law and simplify taxes.

[Alberta's Child]

I think the author's general point is right on target. Most intelligent Albertans will tell you that being governed by a centralized Federal government in the U.S. is no better than being governed by a centralized Federal government in Canada. Having lived on both sides of the border, I can certainly support his point.

When given a choice between Ottawa and Washington, I'd choose Calgary.

[Skywalk]

Some of the posters who replied are way too defensive about the US.

The writer isn't some leftist bashing the US in the way you think. He's saying what many conservatives and libertarians have been saying for decades--that our committment to TRUE freedom has waned and we move ever closer to a tyrannical national government and European-style socialism.

The only idiots in the thread are those reacting to the lines about the US. What he says is true, I don't know if Alberta would avoid it either, but it's true that the US is on a slide to Euro-socialism. The one hope we have is our guns and our still-independent spirit that burns in SOME of us.

[Snowyman]

I wonder sometimes how the rest of the world would react if the US announced that we were totally closing our borders, cancelling all debts and treaties and putting our entire military on a hair-trigger alert status?

I'd be more interested in how the American people would react.

[arthurus]

BC would be a drag on Alberta as it has become like California of the north.

[Paladin2]

That's why I suggested cutting off Vancouver and the Island. I'd like all the interior to be put with Alberta's half of the CDN Rockies. It may even have to come to a Interior Empire including MT, WY, ID UT and eastern WA & OR.