Tory MLAs among Western Canada’s ‘kindred spirits’ invited to join U.S. by Maine politician

Some members of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly have received an “absurd, unsolicited” letter from an American senator inviting provinces in Western Canada to join the U.S.

The four-page invitation, titled A Vision for Welcoming Western Canada into the United States, was sent by Joseph E. Martin, a Republican senator for the 19th district in the eastern state of Maine.

“This would not be an annexation,” the invitation said. “It would be an adoption, welcoming home kindred spirits…”

It described how Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia could seek admission as full American states.

It raised hackles and made headlines after British Columbia Progressive Conservative MLA Brennan Day complained about it on social media last week, calling it “nonsense.”

A spokesman for Manitoba’s PC caucus communications said he canvassed a number of PC MLAs Monday to see if they’d received the letter from Martin.

“A handful acknowledge receiving it — just as they receive correspondence from anyone who wants to send something,” said PC caucus communications spokesperson Jon Lovlin.

“No one responded to such an absurd, unsolicited proposition,” Lovlin said in an email.

The senator’s pitch to join the U.S. touted its constitution and legal system, with roots in the “Christian moral order” and speech that’s “truly free” with without any “tribunals or hate speech commissions,” he noted.

A spokesperson for Manitoba’s NDP caucus said Monday that none of its members received the pitch from the Maine state senator. Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux (Tyndall Park) and independent MLA Mark Wasyliw (Fort Garry) said they weren’t aware of receiving it, either.

In B.C., Day said the letter attacked Canadian institutions, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, parliamentary government, bilingualism and multiculturalism. He said he didn’t know why he received the senator’s letter but suspected it might have to do with “rhetoric” coming out out of Alberta.

There, a group is advocating for Alberta to cease being a Canadian province.

Alberta’s Citizens Initiative Act allows an elector to propose a question to put to a public vote, if they can gather enough signatures in support within a set time frame. On Thursday, an Alberta Court of King’s Bench judge said he’d hear arguments and rule on whether a proposed referendum question on separating from Canada is constitutional.

“The citizens of Alberta deserve to have these arguments made properly and heard in full,” Justice Colin Feasby’s decision said. “Democracy demands nothing less.”

After all of U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk about making Canada the 51st state, University of Manitoba political studies professor Christopher Adams said he isn’t surprised that western separatism is on the radar of a Republican state senator.

“The issue of Alberta separatism is no doubt getting some attention, and so I’m not surprised that somebody’s jumping on this type of an issue,” Adams said Monday.

“I think that there are times when American politicians don’t understand Canadian thinking, and this would be one example.”

Martin, whose senate office is in the state capital of Augusta, did not respond to a request for comment.

— With files from the Canadian Press

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca