A Petition Urges Minnesota Leaders to Work Toward Changing “Minnesota, USA” to “Minnesota, Canada”
St. Paul, MN – A petition for the secession of Minnesota from the United States and to join Canada has gained more than 7,000 signatures on the popular petition site Change.org.
Titled, “Minnesota to secede from the United States of America and join the nation of Canada,” the petition has received 7,510 signatures toward the 10,000 signature goal. It was posted on Nov. 9, 2016 by Zachary Zaboj, who, according to his public Facebook profile, is a 2012 graduate of Rosemount High School and current Winona State University film student.
The petition states:
With the recent election of Donald Trump for President of the United States, we, the people of the State of Minnesota, feel it is against our state’s better interests to remain in the Union of the United States under such leadership. It is the people’s opinion that this State now has more in common with the Nation of Canada than the United States when the President-Elect is sworn in.
President-Elect Trump has a history of comments and potential policies that will openly discriminate against a large portion of Minnesotans that are of minority decent (sic). This could include thousands of unlawful deportations or severe bullying and harassment of Minnesota citizens, families, and children.
The petition ends with an appeal to the state’s leaders to consider leaving the United States:
We, the people of Minnesota, urge our State’s leaders to consider the possibility of leaving the United States and join Canada. This would allow us to better maintain a way of life for all Minnesotans in terms of society, environment, and equality.
According to the petition, it will be sent to Governor Mark Dayton (D), Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Al Franken (D-MN).
The Minnesota secession effort is not the only one in the United States. People in California are also urging their leaders to consider seceding from the Union.
Video: Fortune.com
The “Calexit” movement gained steam since the election of President Donald Trump in November. Created by Louis J. Marinelli and Marcus Ruiz Evans, the “Yes California Exit” movement is pushing for a 2018 ballot measure that would “give the people of California the chance to vote to remain a part of the Union, or to separate from it to become its own independent country.”
According to the Calexit group’s founders, they understand there is no clause in the Constitution that allows for a state to legally leave the Union; however, according to the group’s website, they believe they have two paths to secession that would avoid an actual war like the Civil War of the 1860s when the southern states attempted to leave the United States.
Those two paths include:
A member of the California federal delegation to Washington would propose an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing the State of California to withdraw from the Union. The Amendment would have to be approved by 2/3 of the House of Representatives and 2/3 of the Senate. If the Amendment passed it would be sent to the fifty state legislatures to be considered (to satisfy the “consent of the states” requirement in Texas v. White). It would need to be accepted by at least 38 of the 50 state legislatures to be adopted.
California could call for a convention of the states (which is currently being organized to tackle other constitutional amendments as we speak) and the Amendment granting California its independence would have to be approved by 2/3 of the delegates to this convention. If it passed, the Amendment would be sent to the fifty state legislatures to be considered and 38 of the 50 states would have to approve the measure in order for it to be adopted.
Marinelli and the Calexit group also believe there is a third path: the UN. Fox40 reported:
Rather than making their case to the people of the United States and their elected representatives in Congress, they want to make their case to the United Nations. True way they see it, if California is recognized by the UN as an independent country, it will force the U.S.’s hand to let the state go.
The Minnesota petition is gaining attention: in the time that it took to write this article, twenty more people signed the petition. Exactly how the Zaboj plans to have Minnesota leave the US and join Canada is not outlined on the petition’s page.
Andrea Mayer-Bruestle
Andrea Mayer-Bruestle is a former writer for Alpha News.
