It's offical: Alberta is the 51st state.
Alberta invades U.S. Capital in major push to showcase black oil
CP
There will be lots of cowboy hats and buffalo burgers. Fly fishing demonstrations and dinosauer digs.
Most telling, though, is the giant dump truck like the ones used at the oil sands parked on the National Mall for Alberta's 10-day stint at the renowned Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The province is invading the U.S. capital next week in the latest sign of its growing profile in an increasingly energy-hungry country.
Barely a week goes by without mention of Alberta's vast oil sands potential on Capitol Hill from legislators worried about U.S. dependence on unstable countries and high prices at the pumps.
Major U.S. media organizations are frequently taking stock of Canada's resource and debating the environmental costs of mining all that black gold.
For Murray Smith, Alberta's representative in Washington, it doesn't get any better than this, even though some are dismayed by what they view as a "one-sided focus" on a project as contentious as the oil sands.
"There's a love affair breaking out between Alberta and the United States," says Smith, a former energy minister tabbed last year by Premier Ralph Klein to promote the province's interests among key U.S. politicians and administration officials.
"We've been preparing for this for a long time. Alberta's always been an aggressive free trade entrepreneur. It's what we do."
Indeed, Alberta's reign in Washington is a carefully crafted agenda packed with receptions and forums on energy, agriculture and technology before the Smithsonian festival starts next Friday (June 30).
Alberta snagged the coveted event while the former Liberal government dithered over an invitation last year. The province is putting up $3.8 million Cdn for the chance to impress more than one million visitors.
Klein is coming down to schmooze, make a speech, flip pancakes at the Canadian Embassy on Canada Day. He'll meet with U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, whom he's known for years.
Federal cabinet ministers from Alberta, like Environment Minister Ambrose and Northern Development Minister Jim Prentice, will be on hand.
And it doesn't hurt that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is visiting U.S. President George W. Bush on July 6 in the middle of the festivities.
"We're softening up the community for the prime minister," Smith says.
"It's lining up pretty good," says Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council.
"You have a province that's chosen to focus on Washington. They're developing relationships and getting their message out. And they're talking to a receptive audience."
It was a small but significant sign of Alberta's reach when Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson appeared at a congressional committee recently and the only question from California Democrat Grace Napolitano was about how Smith was doing.
U.S. Energy Minister Samuel Bodman is planning to take his first tour of the oil sands next month during the Calgary Stampede.
And there are hopes of getting Cheney up in the fall. He was supposed to visit last year but got waylaid by hurricane Katrina.
"We are much better known there than we used to be," says Alberta Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Gary Mar.
Environmentalists, though, say they're unhappy that Alberta is using the 40-year Smithsonian festival to promote the oil sands. They say there's been little thought given to considering the industry's major impact on wildlife, indigenous people and greenhouse gas emissions.
"This one-sided focus detracts from the complicated debate about the tar sands and the environment," says Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, at the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington.
"Not a single environmental group from Canada or the United States has been invited," she says.
"We strongly feel that the way to go is renewables and energy efficiency, rather than looking for new sources of oil."
Casey-Lefkowtiz plans to attend a panel on energy and the environment that will now include two Alberta naturalists from the province.
"But it's really too little too late. The Smithsonian should ensure that everything is balanced. I think people put a lot of faith in what the Smithsonian tells them."
Smith defends industry environmental practices, saying oil companies are reclaiming mined areas as they go, with one supporting a buffalo herd.
Within 15 to 20 years, he says, it's conceivable that greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands could be placed underground and carbon dioxide used to help revive old, dead oil fields.
"You get a respect for the environment," he says. "It's the old axiom - we don't want to destroy the very gift that gives us our income."
Nancy Groce is the curator for the Alberta portion of the exhibit at the Smithsonian, which is also featuring Native American basketry and the importance of music in Latino culture.
"This is an ethnographic festival, not a trade show," says Groce, who visited the province seven or eight times and helped arrange the participation of more than 160 Albertans - everyone from ranchers, oil workers and saddle makers to paleontologists, architects, cops and musicians like Ian Tyson.
"They'll each tell part of the story of what it means to be Albertan," she says, including two women who drive the monster dump trucks.
"The decision on what we feature is entirely up to the Smithsonian so we aren't pressured by companies or governments. I like the truck as a prop, it will draw people in. We were looking for something that was showy."
The festival, says Groce, can't help but improve a "profound" American ignorance about Canada.
"We're hoping that hundreds of thousands of Americans walk away at least knowing where Alberta is. On our maps, north of the Montana border, there's nothing but white space."
Mar says the festival is about much more than the oil sands. Still, he says, they're an "undeniable" part of Alberta, which is keen to further boost trade with the United States that hit $71.9 billion Cdn in 2005 despite all the problems with the cattle industry.
And the Conservatives in Ottawa are happy to reassure Americans in their increasing confidence about a consistent future oil supply from Canada, where the oil sands are expected to double production to two million barrels of oil a day by 2012.
"You need not worry about dealing with a despot or an unstable regime to access that energy," Wilson said recently.
Says Mar: "We recognize our best customer is the United States. There are no language barriers or transportation problems."
David Biette, director of the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, says the timing of Alberta's big push couldn't be better.
"We have major price problems at the pump. Alberta knows it has something Americans want. People can say: 'Look, there's Canadians who look just like us supplying us with oil,' instead of people who don't look like us."
But Biette says he hopes that other provinces don't take Alberta's lead and start major individual lobbying campaigns on Capitol Hill.
"As much as I love Canada, I don't want to see 10 provinces running around Washington trying to get attention."
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