Will Alberta become the 51st US state? No, but an even dumber idea is for Alberta to become an independent country.

That referendum is being voted on Oct 19 and it isn't expected to pass. If Alberta was to leave the great nation of Canada, it would be North America's only landlocked country; something like Mongolia, which is stuck between Russia and China.

Part of this referendum is probably for political leverage as that landlocked province wishes to push more oil and gas out through pipelines to the BC coast. This helps to avoid depenency on the now more unfriendly US, for bringing product to market.

Oil and gas consumption is still a reality around the world. Transition to greener energy is happening too slowly as demand and populations continue to grow around the world.

Much of the world's fossil fuel supply comes from authoritarian, places in the troubled Middle East as well as Russia. There is the opportunity for Canada, a more democratic society that respects human and gay rights, to cash in on supplying more of that continued world demand.

Some Canadians say it is better to produce the oil and gas in Canada where there are more environmental controls. Much of the consuming world is in crisis with cutoffs of supply from the war torn and troubled parts of the world.

Living in Bellingham, WA. I listen to lots of Canadian news on the radio.