Licia Corbella is the owner of Corbella Communications and a former editorial page editor at the Calgary Herald.
Imagine for a moment what would happen if Canada’s federal government announced a production cap on Ontario’s auto sector – something like the proposed federal emissions cap on oil and gas, which industry proponents say will limit production in Alberta.
Close your eyes and picture how things would look if the feds passed a law that specifically targeted the growth of Ontario’s main industry and the high-paying jobs that are driven by that industry.
Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Premier Doug Ford’s hair is on end, media is covering the story 24/7, there are protests in the streets and the prime minister’s likeness is being burned in effigy.
And yet, none of that’s happening, even though a similar scenario is happening right now to Alberta, and has been going on for decades at the hands of successive federal Liberal governments.
Alberta’s grievances, along with those of Saskatchewan, are ignored entirely by the rest of the country or passed off as unjustified whining.
Earlier this month, former Reform Party leader Preston Manning caught the attention of political leaders when he said the West is on the verge of an upswell of separatist sentiment.
“A vote for the Carney Liberals,” warned Mr. Manning, “is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”
There is scant evidence of a surge of separatist fervour in Alberta or the rest of the West right now. However, as a former editorial page editor and columnist in Calgary for the past 25 years, I was frequently called by readers who expressed secessionist sentiments. Those feelings would seemingly rise to a fevered pitch, and then the pressure would be released by the election of a more energy-friendly Conservative government, for instance, and those sentiments would go into hibernation.
My guess is Mr. Manning has been hearing from a rising chorus of people needing to vent after it looked like relief was on the way, with high poll numbers for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives over the past year. With the resignation of Justin Trudeau and the swearing in of Mark Carney as Canada’s Prime Minister, however, the Conservative lead in the polls has evaporated in favour of the Liberals.
So, while I disagree with Mr. Manning’s thesis, I understand why he might believe it to be true, since the most unhappy people tend to be the ones like him.
My fear as a staunch federalist is, and has long been, that if Alberta ever gets a wildly popular and charismatic secessionist leader, such as Lucien Bouchard or René Lévesque, Canadian unity will be in serious trouble. Unlike Quebec, which would be impoverished if it ever left Canada since it receives about $13-billion annually in transfers, Alberta would undoubtedly be better off economically.
Alberta, by contrast, would no longer be contributing billions annually – net payments are in the neighbourhood of $20-billion – to the federal government.
As someone who was born in Montreal, grew up in Vancouver, lived in Toronto and then Calgary, I would venture to argue that if any other region of the country was treated the way Alberta has been, and if it had the resources and wealth Alberta has been blessed with, it would have separated long ago or at least taken real steps to do so. So, in many ways, Albertans are the most patriotic of Canadians.
A recent Leger poll for the Association of Canadian Studies found that 86 per cent of Albertans agreed with the statement: “I am proud to be Canadian,” which is higher than respondents in Ontario (85 per cent), Quebec (79 per cent) and British Columbia (84 per cent).
The Liberal law, Bill C-48, bans tanker traffic on B.C.’s north coast, a law designed to prevent Alberta crude from making its way to Asia while oil tankers from authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia travel freely along Canada’s east coast.
What would happen if this oil was banned from Irving’s marine terminals in New Brunswick?
Bill C-69, dubbed the no more pipelines act, has been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada, and yet Mr. Carney has said he will not repeal it.
Mr. Carney has also said he believed Mr. Trudeau’s vetoing of the Northern Gateway pipeline was “sensible” and “the right decision” even though it had already been approved, shaking investor confidence in Canada to this day. Imagine a new law vetoing already announced battery plants in Ontario.
Imagine any of those scenarios happening in your province. It will help you understand Alberta’s frustrations.