Even though she is not the vice president, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin is still trying to influence the administration. She is giving Obama advice on his foreign ties, saying that he should work on obtaining a closer relationship to Canada.

In an interview with CTV’s Canada AM, Palin discusses Alaska’s close ties to Canada, stating that this relationship should include all of the United States: “I know Alaska is doing all we can to grow that relationship and we’ve gotta have faith that the newly elected administration will see the light on that and work very hard to increase and strengthen the relationship between our two countries.”

Back in September Palin, with the major support of Alaskan state Democrats, authorized the awarding of a license to TransCanada Corp. to develop a plan for a pipeline that would carry gas from Alaska to Alberta. While the bill doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the Alaska pipeline will be constructed, what it does mean is that TransCanada can go forward with the federal permit applications. The company was granted $500 million in US funds to develop the plans for the Alaska pipeline, with the construction phase beginning in 2011. The hope is to have the pipeline up and running by September, 2018. Palin also says that the pipeline will increase US domestic energy seven percent, therefore reducing their dependency on foreign oil.

She goes on to state that the vast supply of gas available in Alaska isn’t being used and that the people of Alaska have “hoped for, prayed about, wished for” the development of the TransCanada pipeline.

“It’s time to tap those[gas reserves], throw them into our own hungry markets so we can be less reliant on foreign sources and less beholden to some regimes that control energy that we import. Some of those regimes don’t like America.”