Last week that Albertans’ desire to go their own way and separate from the rest of Canada has never been higher.
That’s a strange thing to proclaim when only two days before the separatist party got a shellacking in three by-elections, one of them in the heartland of what used to be the independence movement.
The rural constituency of Olds-Didsbury is where Albertans elected their first separatist — Gordon Kesler — in a rowdy federal byelection in 1982. Kesler got 40 per cent of the vote but lost in the next general election. This time around the Republican Party candidate, Cam Davies, got only 18 per cent. He was even beaten by the NDP who got 20 per cent. The UCP candidate won handily. In the two Edmonton seats the separatists barely registered.
But Smith continues to beat the drum for the separatists, all the while saying that she prefers to stay in Canada. She is holding it out as a threat to Prime Minister Mark Carney so she can get what she wants — more pipelines, less regulation and less climate change legislation, which she sees as inhibiting investment in Alberta.
Carney should scoff at the threat of separation given that the separatists got only 18 per cent of the vote in a seat where they were expected to do well. But Smith is not about to give up.
The day after the by-elections Smith , which will be chaired by her and include 15 notable citizens. It is due to start in two weeks and will travel across the province to hear what Albertans have to say about topics picked by the provincial government: an Alberta pension plan, an Alberta police force, more control over immigration and tax collection, reform of the equalization programs and seeking constitutional change by working with other provinces. Good luck with that since she’ll need the consent of all the other provinces for constitutional change.
Proposals that come out of those discussions could be put to a vote in a referendum next year.
If all this sounds familiar, it is. Former premier Jason Kenney set up a similar panel and put Preston Manning in charge of it. But at least he didn’t name himself chair. We ended up with a referendum on reforming the equalization program, which passed. But nothing came of it.
Albertans can also . But it is heavily loaded with government propaganda featured in six videos, which participants must watch before they can complete it. And most of the questions are skewed in the government’s favour.
The Alberta Pension Plan . A province-wide government survey that took almost two years to be released via freedom of information (FOI) showed that 63 per cent were opposed and only 10 per cent supported. So why are we still hammering on it?
Ranting against the federal government is getting tiresome and distracts from the issues and problems inside Alberta:
• The federal government didn’t hobble the renewable energy industry, the Alberta government did.
• The federal government didn’t order Alberta to dismantle its public health care system, the Alberta government did.
• The federal government didn’t order Alberta to deny trans-teens the medical help they need.
• And the federal government didn’t order the wildfires that are rampaging through the province with the help of climate change.
And where are we going in the next few years? now of over $8 billion. But what about next year and the year after? The price of oil will dictate that and yet we are still so dependent on it.
As long as Alberta focuses on issues with the federal government it is wasting time and energy that would be better used to figure out a plan to make the province more secure and prosperous. Instead, Smith whips up separatist support in hopes it will force the prime minister to her way of thinking. Good luck with that.
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