Highway 2 is the main arterial road connecting north and south Alberta, but now along its shoulder stands a billboard that is dividing Albertans.
The advertisement encourages Albertans to let Premier Danielle Smith know they want to become the 51st state of America.
“Tell Danielle! Let’s join the USA!” the billboard says alongside a photo of the Alberta premier posing with U.S. President Donald Trump at his golf resort in Florida last month.
The sign across the highway from the town of Bowden in central Alberta has the Town’s office fielding calls, including some serious threats of violence.
“The town phones and the email went off the charts,” said Robb Stuart, who grew up in Bowden and has been the mayor for the past 14 years.
He said the community has nothing to do with the sign along the QEII, but is now bearing the brunt of the anger being directed towards it.
“It’s on private property and it is just a disaster that the Town of Bowden is getting the flack for this.”
The mayor said those complaining are mostly angry about the unpatriotic message and his community agrees.
“This does not reflect who we are,” Stuart said, adding the town founded in 1904 is very proud to be Canadian.
“The community is not happy about it in any way, shape or form, and it does not reflect our preferences.”
The billboard was paid for by an Alberta-based group called “America Fund,” founded by members of the 2019-2020 Wexit Alberta separatist movement.
It is being hosted on a billboard owned by Calgary-based company Spot Ads, whose website says it’s been dedicated to supporting small and medium-sized businesses since 2015.
“I was surprised because I looked at, Spot Ads, who owns it, and one of their key things is ‘Proudly and fiercely Canadian.’ So they sold advertisement — but kind of a contradiction of there,” Stuart said.
A billboard in Bowden calling on Alberta to join the United States was paid for by a group called America Fund, which was founded by members of the former Wexit separatist movement.
Global News
Spot Ads said it stands for free speech and freedom of expression as protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A memo posted to its website, and also shared in a statement to Global News, said Spot Ads understands Canadians may not always agree on sensitive issues but the company respects diverse perspectives. The company said it accepts ads from anyone as long as the message doesn’t violate the Charter.
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“As part of Canada’s media landscape. Spot Ads does not take a stance on political or other divisive matters,” the website message concluded.
Global News reached out to Spot Ads and was told before putting up the billboard, the company sought assurances from the buyer that the funding for the ad came from private individual supporters in Alberta, not unions or corporate support, or foreign donors.
“This is important as it relates to Canadians participating in the liberty of freedom of speech,” Spot Ad said in its statement.
The billboard was purchased by the newly formed America Fund. Peter Downing is behind the movement and has a history of calling on the province to separate from Canada.
“The federal government is talking about export tariffs on Alberta oil and gas, or export bans on Alberta oil and gas,” Downing said in an interview with Global News.
“They’re the ones who say nothing’s off the table, so we’re the ones who are saying, ‘If that’s not off the table, then the 51st State is not off the table.’”
Downing is a former RCMP officer who ran for the Christian Heritage Party in the 2015 federal provincial election.
During the 2018 provincial election, Downing was the executive director of a third-party group calling on Alberta to separate from confederation, and put up billboards in Calgary and Edmonton saying, “Should Alberta ditch Canada?”
The western separatist movement gained traction following the October 2019 federal election, which saw Justin Trudeau’s Liberal’s win a minority government, despite a near-sweep by the Conservative Party of Canada in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
That’s when Downing founded the Wexit Alberta western separatist movement and pushing for a referendum on separation.
(Wexit then became the Maverick Party and ran candidates in the 2021 federal election but only pulled 1.3 per cent of the votes cast in Alberta.)
Downing said the America Fund has received support from Western Canadians ever since U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Canada join America and in the ensuing months as tensions between the two countries has grown.
“When it comes to staring down the barrel of what we’re looking at right now geopolitically and geo-economically, this is looking better and better to Canadians every single day.”
Downing said his group wants American First Amendment freedom of speech protection and Second Amendment firearms rights, along with paying 60 per cent less income tax and Alberta stopping all equalization payments.
“President Trump’s offering that. Conservative and Liberal politicians in Canada at the federal level or the provincial level cannot offer that,” Downing said.
Downing said the billboard is only the beginning, and more ads are planned as America Fund raises money to have its voice heard.
“We’re contracting with folks in America to tell our story, that this whole political narrative that Canadians don’t want to be the 51st state just isn’t true.”
One political scientist says the billboard is a flashy way in a high traffic area to get a message out — but believes it’s unlikely to have any lasting, widespread impact.
“It’s something that plays well, visually,” said Mount Royal University’s Lori Williams. “I think there’ll be a fair bit of attention paid to it and it may generate some more support for some Canadians, but certainly we’re seeing much more on the other side of Canadians who treasure their country.”
Williams said our nation is experiencing a swell of nationalism that is bringing Canadians together, and that sentiment likely overrides any push to join America.
“I think that sense of who we are as a country is really, becoming much stronger and much more heartfelt currently.”
“Somebody paid the money — and they have perfect right to do so — but you might as well flush it down the toilet,” Bowden resident Cam Morrison said. “The feeling in town is that it’s completely outrageous.”
Both Morrison and fellow resident Danika Coldwell both said they think the billboard is a joke.
“It’s just humorous, but no,” Coldwell said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of things going on in the United States that I don’t want in Canada.”
The mayor of Bowden had a message to to those behind the billboard:
“If they’re raising money to join the U.S., then they should move.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
