Jeff Rath, a Canadian constitutional lawyer, rancher, and racehorse breeder who lives outside Calgary, wants his home province of Alberta to become independent and join the United States.
The 60-year-old said he will soon lead a delegation of like-minded Albertans to Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior figures in the Trump administration. He calls it a “fact-finding” mission to gauge whether Washington sees value in welcoming the resource-rich, right-leaning province into the fold. Although no date for the visit has been set and the White House did not return a request for comment about whether a meeting would take place, Rath told me he is certain he could make the case.
“Albertans are sick and tired of being overtaxed and overregulated by morons who believe that punitive taxes on working families will change the weather,” said Rath, who is an expert in indigenous rights and environmental law, and has led his own practice, Rath & Company, since 1995. “We’re more similar to people in Montana than people in Toronto and Montreal. Everybody wants to work hard, make their own money. They want to keep the government the hell out.”