Alberta separatists rally outside the offices of Elections Alberta in Edmonton, on May 4.Todd Korol/Reuters
Peter Donolo served as director of communications to Jean Chrétien.
The night before the 1968 federal election, prime minister Pierre Trudeau attended the annual St. Jean Baptiste Parade in Montreal. A mob of enraged Quebec separatists began hurling bottles and rocks at him. As most of the other dignitaries scurried for cover, security tried to hustle the PM off to safety. Mr. Trudeau brushed them off, shot the rioters a defiant death stare, and didn’t budge an inch.
During the 1990 Liberal leadership race, at an all-candidates forum in Montreal, pandemonium erupted as dozens of attendees screamed epithets of “vendu” and “Judas” at front-runner Jean Chrétien.
Throughout his long political career, Jean Charest was repeatedly vilified as not being a “true Quebecker” because he had Anglo-Saxon blood and the name “John” on his birth certificate.
When Stéphane Dion left the confines of Quebec academia to join the federal cabinet, the province’s cartoonists began portraying him as a rat. In one memorable drawing by Serge Chapleau, a rat-like Mr. Dion, lying on a psychiatrist’s couch, is told by the shrink: “The good news is you’re not paranoid. People really do hate you.”
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What made these four men targets of this kind of venom and loathing from their fellow Quebeckers? They dared to speak up loud and clear for Canada. Unapologetically. Consistently. Without qualifications. Through the years, they accumulated the scars that went along with it. But they wore them as badges of honour.
What’s more, they weren’t alone. Over the course of the half-century of the brutal fight within Quebec, hundreds of MPs from that province – on both sides of the House – refused to be cowed by the threats and attacks of separatists. These men and women put their careers and reputations on the line to defend Canada and to fight those who wanted to destroy it.
Fast forward to 2026. Separatists in Alberta are now the ones stirring up hate and division. There are 37 Alberta MPs in the House of Commons. Thirty-three of them are Conservatives.
Who among them is defending Canada? Who pushes back against the separatists who want to destroy our country? Who dares incur the wrath of the extremists fuelling this movement? Who has called out the pandering of a Premier that has only emboldened and empowered the separatists? A few have offered tepid defences of Canada. The vast majority have been silent. And their silence has been deafening.
Pierre Poilievre is clearly no separatist. But rather than championing Canada – and risking his own political support within Alberta – his mantra is “Canada is broken.” Contrast that with Mr. Chrétien, who in virtually every speech, over 40 years in public life (and still to this day), called Canada “the best country in the world.” He did it so often that even federalists would roll their eyes. He said this when he was in opposition as well as in office. When things were going his way politically – and when they weren’t. He never pretended we didn’t have problems. But he also refused to feed the nihilism that fuels secessionists.
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As it is, it’s retired politicians, most notably former premier Jason Kenney, who are the most prominent among Alberta Conservatives in having had the courage and clear sightedness to speak out most strongly against separatism.
The ones currently in office seem to prefer winking at the separatists over confronting them. History shows how misguided – and dangerous – that can be. Brian Mulroney brought avowed Quebec separatists into the federal cabinet. In time, they betrayed him – and the country.
Even more relevant is the example of former British prime minister David Cameron. He launched the Brexit referendum to mollify extremists within his own party. His country has never recovered. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, though she hasn’t called a referendum, has lent the separatists a helping hand.
Luckily, Canada has the emergency brake of the Clarity Act, born out of the very close call of the 1995 Quebec referendum, and of the doggedness of Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Dion.
But prudent, principled leadership would mean we would never have to use it. Then again, prudent, principled leaders would see the folly of stoking separatism at the very moment our country is being attacked by a U.S. President who, in the words of our Prime Minister, “wants to break us so America can own us.”
Will more MPs find their voices? They might be surprised to learn that when leaders lead, people will follow. The long string of political successes of Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Charest prove that. Moral clarity and political courage can be assets, not the liabilities that the calculating and timid assume.