Mixed reactions for Colbert fan’s website calling Alberta to join ‘Colbert Nation’

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THREAT DOWN Some Albertans don’t find Zinman’s joke to be in good taste.

Dan Zinman wants Stephen Colbert to become the supreme leader of the province of Alberta, and to rename it Colberta.

In Colberta, all use of French and Canadian English would be abolished, swift military action would be taken against Saskatchewan, and all university school mascots would be renamed the Colbeagle Eagles. These propositions and more can be found on the Citizens for Colberta Coalition website www.colberta.com, which was created by Zinman, a 23 year-old Torontonian.

A fan of The Colbert Report, Zinman stated that the site began as a funny idea but was unused for several years until he graduated from university and had time to develop it further.

“I actually launched the site on Canada Day, which I thought was appropriate for an American takeover,” Zinman said.

Zinman has received a wide variety of reactions from Albertans. There have been some particularly negative reactions from the group Albertans for Alberta, who formed with the purpose of shutting down the Zinman’s website.

“Maybe they feel that other campaigns like this have worked in the past for Colbert, so they thought that this one might actually work too,” Zinman said.

The leader of Albertans for Alberta, Joseph Reimenschneider, declined an interview but said by email correspondence that "this needs to end."

"[The Colberta website] is only working to spread hate speech and anti-Alberta sentiment," Reimenschneider wrote.

Zinman maintains that the sole reason he chose to develop the site for the province of Alberta was because it fit with Colbert’s comedy.

“This is a little closer to home and it’s a very conservative province, which ties in with his fake punditry,” Zinman said.

Zinman did say that the site is all in fun, and the only underlying political message is directed at all of Canada.

“There was this whole debate on whether or not they were going to have the 19th election in five years. Canadian politics is like a big joke, so why not spoof it a little further? If there were to be an underlying message, it would be that,” Zinman said.

The site is not affiliated in any way with the Comedy Central or The Colbert Report. Zinman has attempted to contact Stephen Colbert himself, but has not yet received a response. Regardless, part of the Zinman’s goal is to lobby to have additional things, other than the province, named after Colbert.

“They’re making a new bridge in Calgary and they’re looking for someone to name it after," Zinman said. "There’s just different opportunities that present themselves and I’ll try to jump on them.”

He has put a lot of effort into making colberta.com interesting and funny. There are sections on why Colbert should be the Albertan leader — “Why Stephen?” — and a large section on “Better Know A-Lberta,” which contains funny facts about every riding in the province.

“I think there’s a lot of hidden gems throughout there, and even for a lot of people visiting [the site] from Alberta, you might see something near your hometown that you never really noticed before because you only looked at the main page,” Zinman said.

He said that he has received positive support from some Albertans, and hopes that people continue the battle.

“There’s a push to mention Stephen Colbert in the new Bible passages for the updated King James Version, so I mean, if they can do that, they can certainly give him a province here.”