VICTORIA — A British Columbia legislator says he went from "disappointed" to "enraged" after receiving a pitch from a Republican state senator for Canada's four western provinces to join the United States.
Brennan Day, with the Opposition B.C. Conservative Party, says his office had to first confirm the authenticity of the "nonsense" letter from Maine Sen. Joseph Martin after receiving it last week.
He says the most shocking part of the letter was its attack on Canadian institutions, like the Charter of Rights, federalism, multiculturalism, and the dismissal of those cornerstones as "political baggage."
Day says Martin needs to look at "how heavy his luggage" is, and his party is "hauling around wheeled trunks" of baggage in the United States where the Constitution is “being torn up by Republicans.”
Day says it's not clear why Martin wrote him, but suspects it might be "some of the rhetoric" coming out of Alberta that led him to believe British Columbians would also be interested.
Martin’s pitch says if B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were to seek admission to the United States, it must be as full American states.
He says entry would not be in the form of annexation, but adoption, and the welcoming home of "kindred spirits who were born under a different flag.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
