Tiny Bowden, with a population of roughly 1,300, has become the unwilling poster child for a fringe group of separatists who are buying President Trump’s bluster and want Alberta to become America’s 51st state.
A giant billboard next to Highway 2 features a photo of Premier Danielle Smith and Trump at the billionaire’s Mar-a-Lago estate and the words “Tell Danielle! Let’s Join The USA!”
Most Bowden residents, including Mayor Robb Stuart, are appalled.
Mayor Not Happy
According to Stuart, he first heard about the billboard in an email from an unhappy resident.
“It just said that they were disgusted, that they thought they’d never have to email anybody about having a sign that promotes joining the United States,” Stuart told CBC. “And a few other odds and ends in there. Most of it’s not for public hearing.” The emails haven’t stopped since.
“The billboard has absolutely nothing to do with the town of Bowden. We weren’t even aware of it until after the fact, ” Stuart said. “The community is not happy about it in any way shape, or form.”
“Flush It” Says Bowden Resident
A Bowden resident, Cam Morrison, told Global News that the people behind the billboard can express their pro-US, anti-Canada opinions. That’s freedom of speech and expression.
“But you may as well flush it down the toilet,” he said.
That’s one of the more polite comments.
Reddit is lighting up with people unleashing on the billboard and the company Spot Ads that sold the high profile ad space to the wannabe Americans.
“If they like the States, they should move to the states,” said one commenter.
American PR Company Fueling Anti-Canadian Movement
The billboard, which features the website address AmericaFund.ca, sits on a property home to a business called Tracker Sales Ltd.
Paul McGregor and Peter Downing are the Alberta Faces for America Fund, and their website claims to be about “Canadians helping Canadians become American.”
However, America Fund is being promoted by American interests, specifically by the Virginia-based Pathfinder Consulting Group, a guerilla marketing company that works for industry and governments.
TheRockies.Life contacted Pathfinder Consulting to ask who was paying for the campaign but did not get a response by press time.
McGregor and Downing are both committed separatists. McGregor launched the Alberta 51 Project to promote becoming a US state.
Downing is an ex-Armed Forces and RCMP member who got a conditional discharge in 2009 for uttering threats against his ex-wife.
He founded Wexit in 2019, a political party pushing Western Canada to split from Canada. Downing also launched the Alberta USA Foundation in 2020 with billboards in Edmonton and Ottawa, bearing the image of Donald Trump and asking, “Should Alberta Join the USA?”
Downing told Global News that the Bowden billboard is just the beginning.
“We’re contracting with folks in America to tell our story, that this whole Canadian political narrative that Canadians don’t want to be the 51st state is just not true,” Downing said.
Albertans Lead the Nation in Support of Joining the USA
An Angus Reid Institute poll conducted in early January found that nearly 90 percent of Canadians would vote against joining the USA if a referendum was held.
Notably, Alberta led the country to support annexation, with 18 percent of Albertan respondents saying they would vote in favour of swearing allegiance to the Stars and Stripes.
More recent polls by Angus Reid have seen a surge in Canadian pride, with 85 percent planning to stop buying US-made products and one in four now viewing America as an enemy.
Shady American Undermining
Though still a fringe movement, Alberta is the most fertile province for stoking pro-America, anti-Canadian sentiment.
A Facebook group called Alberta, USA Statehood Movement claims 12,800 members and has been around since 2020. However, like America Fund, it has murky ties with US players. One of the group’s two administrators is Benjamin Elbe, a former restaurateur from Casa Grande, Arizona, who lives in Tulum, Mexico and currently owns a Caribbean Blue Realty company.
In a recent Facebook post, this American living in Mexico wrote, “Alberta WILL BECOME the 51st state. And we, the people of Alberta, WILL force a separation referendum & lead OUR province out of this failed confederation & back to hope & freedom.”
The Bowden billboard controversy has brought unwelcome attention to a small town of hardworking Albertans.
Mayor Robb Stuart said Bowden doesn’t “deserve the negative feedback we’ve been subject to.”
When recently asked about the billboard, Premier Danielle Smith didn’t come out swinging against the separatists. She carefully avoided expressing a personal opinion on this controversial issue but said the idea of Alberta joining the USA is not on the table.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for what the billboard says or what the president has been talking about,” she told media.
