FIREWALL ALBERTA

What the spectre of Alberta separatism means for Canada

In October, members of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party (UCP) will elect a new leader who will then become Alberta’s next premier.

Lisa Young, Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary, University of Calgary \and Jared Wesley, Professor, Political Science, University of Alberta - 

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Edmonton demonstrators gather to protest against COVID-19 measures and support the 'freedom convoy' in February 2022. Research suggests Alberta separatist sentiments have as much to do with antipathy about the federal government and Justin Trudeau as actually leaving Confederation.

A defining issue in this leadership race is Alberta’s place in Canadian Confederation, with several contenders openly discussing “sovereignty,” “autonomy” and even “independence.”

Are Albertans really so keen to sever ties with the rest of Canada? Should Canadians pay much attention to the separatist movement in Alberta? To answer these questions, we looked at data from the recent Viewpoint Alberta survey.

© Author provided

An infographic that shows the key findings of the Viewpoint Alberta survey.

Separatism and the economy

Support for separation remains a minority view in the province, with one in five believing Alberta “should separate from Canada and form an independent country.”

This is a small base from which to build a province-wide following. Yet separatists make up one-third of UCP voters — a sizeable constituency for would-be leaders to court.


© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshBrian Jean is among those vying to replace outgoing Premier Jason Kenney. His campaign slogan is ‘Autonomy for Albertans.’

What motivates these Albertans to take such a drastic position?

Unlike sovereigntists in Québec motivated by a desire to protect their culture, we find Alberta separatists are preoccupied with fiscal and economic issues.

According to our research, Alberta’s separatist movement is also grounded more in party politics than it is in nationalism.

Separatists place themselves further to the right than other Albertans. They are more likely to support conservative political parties both federally and provincially. And they strongly dislike the federal government and Justin Trudeau.
How committed are Alberta separatists?

In our analysis, we found two clues that suggest support for separatism is less a heartfelt desire to form a new country and more a tactical expression of grievances.

The first is that most Albertans – including the separatists themselves – think separation is unlikely. Barely one in 10 separatists think Alberta independence is “very likely” or “will happen.”

The second clue is that the majority of the separatists (62 per cent) retain a sense of attachment to Canada. Separatists are simply angrier and more pessimistic about the country’s future.



Related video: 'Free Alberta Strategy' seeks to declare Alberta a sovereign jurisdiction

They haven’t turned their backs entirely on Canada; they feel it’s headed in the wrong direction and in need of radical reform. 

THEY WANT IT TO BE AMERICAN, REPUBLICAN AMERICA

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshPremier Jason Kenney serves pancakes at his last Stampede breakfast in Calgary on July 11. Kenney’s resignation set the stage for a United Conservative Party leadership race and several contenders are already discussing Alberta sovereignty.
Pessimism and mistrust

Most separatists’ worldviews are grounded in a sense of status loss and mistrust for institutions that has fuelled populist movements elsewhere in the world.


They are more likely to feel like they are falling behind others in society, and they have very little confidence in governments and elites. These suspicions drew most separatists into supporting the so-called freedom convoy that occupied Ottawa for weeks in February 2022.

Read more: What the truck? The 'freedom convoy' protesters are heading back to Ottawa

Separatists stood out in their belief that the most recent federal election was unfair. This may be because their favoured party lost despite winning more votes, or a belief in conspiracy theories spread by right-wing news outlets.

Whatever the reason, this low level of trust — combined with a deep sense of pessimism about the future — has sparked movements like Brexit and Trumpism in other parts of the world.

Separatism in Alberta

While support for separation is a minority view in Alberta, it’s not a fringe position. An overwhelming majority of separatists support the UCP provincially and make up a substantial part of its base of support.

EXCEPT THEY HAVE BEEN IN POWER IN ALBERTA FOR 44 YEARS AS THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVES, AND AS RIGHT WING BIBLE BELT SOCIAL CREDIT FOR 75 YEARS BEFORE THAT 


Danielle Smith, Wildrose leader in this 2014 photo, is now a leadership contender to replace Jason Kenney.

Such a large voting bloc is enticing to leadership contenders. Veiled promises to restore Alberta’s “sovereignty” or secure greater “autonomy” can help sell party memberships. They may even lead to victory in the UCP race, creating pressure for the winner to deliver on promises that are politically and constitutionally impossible.

But our research tells us that flirting with separatism is likely to fall flat — if not backfire entirely — during a provincial election.

The broader Alberta electorate is federalist. The majority do not support measures that would further divide the province from Canada.

Eighty per cent of Albertans reject separation, and solid majorities also oppose abandoning the Canada Pension Plan, the RCMP and federal income tax collection. Most opposed the “freedom convoy” and what it stood for, and the majority have confidence in most political institutions.

Candidates running for the UCP leadership have a choice. They can pay lip service to populist and sovereigntist positions to gain internal party support. Or they can resist that temptation with an eye to winning the next provincial election, preserving national unity and strengthening democratic institutions in the process.

Implications for Canada

Canadians outside Alberta should keep a careful eye on this dynamic. Even though they lack the profile of Québec sovereigntists, Alberta separatists are positioned to exert significant political influence on intergovernmental relations in the years to come.

How much influence depends on the commitments made by the eventual winner of the UCP leadership race, and the response from the rest of Canada to their push for a fairer deal in Confederation.

If the next premier is unable to deliver on their promises by securing meaningful concessions from the rest of Canada, separatists would be further alienated from the democratic process. Their disappointment might lead to further civil unrest like what we saw from the “freedom convoy,” adding fuel to the politics of resentment.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:
Protests in Ottawa are a recurring disaster, affecting neighbourhoods and residents
Alberta budget means Albertans are trapped on a relentless fiscal rollercoaster ride

Jared Wesley receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study, and the Killam Trust.

Lisa Young does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2019/06/i-am-reposting-this-due-to-fact-old.html

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FIREWALL ALBERTA 

THE PHANTASM OF ALBERTA SEPARATISM RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD WITH UCP 

HOORAY ANOTHER SPLIT ON THE RIGHT

'We can learn from Quebec': Alberta separatists look to the Bloc as Conservative support wanes

Jesse Snyder

© Provided by National Post Western alienation is about as old as the province of Alberta itself.

CAYLEY, ALTA. — Western separatists, dismayed by the current direction of Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Party this election, are drawing inspiration from an unlikely source: the Bloc Québécois.

“We can learn from Quebec,” said Jay Hill, interim leader of the Maverick Party, formerly known as Wexit Canada.

Resentments among some in the West toward Ottawa continue to run high in Western provinces, particularly in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where frustrations are mounting over a perceived lack of appreciation for its oil and gas industry and a federal transfer system that has starved the West of much-needed revenues.

In response, prairie separatists are seeking to establish a party that, similar to the Bloc, would act exclusively in the interests of the West as a way to elevate its profile within the federation and push for policies more supportive of a fossil fuel-based economy. Their bid comes as Liberal leader Justin Trudeau seeks to re-establish a majority government on election day Sept. 20, and as support among right-leaning voters for the Conservative Party of Canada has waned.

To ensure a purely Western orientation, the Maverick Party’s 27 candidates are running solely in prairie provinces and northern territories. Their pitch is simple: for decades, voters in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and mainland B.C. have almost uniformly supported a common vision, only to stand by as Ottawa crafts policies that appease the desires of Quebec and Ontario. The only antidote, they say, is true regional representation.

“Wrapping ourselves in the Maple Leaf Flag only ensures, as patriots, that we will continue to be abused by central and eastern Canada,” said Hill, a former member of Parliament for the Conservatives for 17 years.

Hill, a self-proclaimed “slow learner,” said he has since changed his tune on Canada’s parliamentary system, and is now seeking to consolidate a disgruntled Western voter base that has come to question its place in confederation. That involves proposing a softer version of separation, something like “separation-lite” that favours gradually shaving down Ottawa’s centralized power base and establishing a more distinct Western region.

It could prove a steep climb. Even in Alberta, where separatist sentiment is most prominent, alternative candidates are polling well below mainstream parties. Even so, their numbers are already high enough to influence races at the riding level.

In a recent Leger poll, a measly nine per cent of Alberta respondents said they intended to vote for alternative parties, roughly split between the separatist Maverick Party and Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada (PPC), which offers a more bare-knuckled populism than strict Western-first policy. Conservative support in the province, meanwhile, sits at 47 per cent, followed by the Liberals (24 per cent) and NDP (17 per cent).

© Al Charest/Postmedia/File Maverick Party interim leader Jay Hill: “Wrapping ourselves in the Maple Leaf Flag only ensures, as patriots, that we will continue to be abused by central and eastern Canada.”

Still, Western-oriented parties see opportunities to make major gains this election, as conservative voters’ grudging support for O’Toole remains low. According to the same Leger poll, just 24 per cent of Albertans thought O’Toole would make the best prime minister of all leaders, compared with 16 per cent for Justin Trudeau. That actually marked a substantial improvement from a separate Leger poll two weeks earlier, where just 15 per cent of voters chose O’Toole as best potential prime minister, several points behind both Jagmeet Singh and Trudeau.

“Even though a lot of people are voting for Mr. O’Toole, there’s not necessarily a bunch of enthusiasm for him,” said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president at Leger.

Western separatists, for their part, say O’Toole in particular has gone too far to appeal to the East, causing the Conservatives to adopt policies that they view as directly opposed to their interests or at best represent a watered-down conservatism that is hard to distinguish from the Liberals.

“That’s the difference between the Maverick Party and the Conservative Party of Canada: we have one stakeholder, and that’s Western Canada,” Josh Wylie, the Maverick Party’s candidate in the Foothills riding of southern Alberta, said during a recent rally in Cayley, Alta. “There is no conflict, there is no confusion. We can be very clear about who we represent and how we represent them.”

Around 60 attendees are packed into the small community hall in Cayley, a hamlet south of Calgary situated in the middle of a sea of canola and barley.

The event, which perplexingly begins with the singing of Canada’s national anthem, exhibits a deep distaste for Ottawa’s treatment of other provinces, most notably Quebec. A mix of ranchers, farmers, and other blue-collar workers in attendance audibly groan as the Maverick candidate references Trudeau’s recent decision to transfer $6 billion to Quebec without conditions, ostensibly to cover childcare costs.
John Ivison: Maverick Party stands alone in push for Western independence — for now
Why you're wrong if you think Wexit is just 'an Alberta thing'
The rise of western alienation ... again

Wylie, a square-jawed oilpatch consultant and former Conservative voter, tells his supporters that these sorts of policies have continued even after nearly every seat in Alberta and Saskatchewan went in support of Andrew Scheer following the 2019 election.

“We swept Alberta and Saskatchewan, we did what we were supposed to do at the time,” he says. “And in return for that loyalty that we showed to that party, we got Erin O’Toole and a carbon tax in their policy platform.”

Their frustrations extend beyond the energy sector. One cattle farmer in attendance says severe drought this season has obliterated his hay harvest, reducing his total output from 1,208 bales last year to just 67. While Western farmers in Canada have not been able to access government supports to make up the losses, he says, U.S. officials have offered payouts to farmers in Montana and elsewhere, who have in turn bought up the already-dwindling hay supplies in Canada and in turn caused a further spike in prices.

Among those in attendance, there is a common and repeated sense that a similar neglect would not take place under a more Western-oriented government.

At the root of their broader distaste around how wealth is distributed within the Canadian federation — most notably through transfer programs like equalization — that have remained unchanged even in times of Conservative rule.

“It didn’t really matter who we voted in for the [Conservative] party, it just seemed like they got mixed up with Eastern elites,” said Murray Williamson, an 83-year-old real estate agent selling farm land in the region. “The biggest thing right now is equalization.”

Angered voters often take particular umbrage with the federal equalization program, established after the Second World War as a way to ensure a more equitable fiscal balance among provinces. The Fiscal Stabilization Program, a much smaller transfer program designed to counteract provincial revenue losses, has also become a target of Western leaders, most notably Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who has made the issue a central piece of his appeal to voters.

Alberta pays an average of about $20 billion into equalization each year, a number regularly cited by frustrated Western voters. According to Fairness Alberta, an activist group, the province has contributed $324 billion more to Ottawa than it received in return during the two decades between 2000 and 2020.

Kenney commissioned a “Fair Deal Panel” that, in its final report last July, recommended Alberta “press strenuously” to reverse recent changes to fiscal stabilization, and push ahead with a referendum on equalization.

Many observers have said the referendum amounts to nothing more than political theatre, while economists, for their part, largely argue that frustrations over equalization are misplaced.

Alberta has a higher proportion of wealthy people than other provinces, so it contributes more under the program’s per-capita formula. Its relative young population also means that it receives a smaller chunk of major transfers like elderly benefits.

Despite all the angst over equalization and carbon taxes, separatist feelings in the West are lower today than they were following the 2019 election, according to Duane Bratt, professor at Mount Royal University.

Western resentments were running high when First Nations groups blockaded a number of major railway crossings in early 2020 in protest of the building of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline through traditional Wet’suwet’en lands. At the same time, Vancouver-based mining giant Teck Resources had shelved its $20-billion Frontier oilsands mine, raising fresh doubts over the Liberals’ updated regulatory regime for oil and gas projects.

But the COVID-19 pandemic, Bratt said, put a damper on those resentments and rearranged voter priorities.

“It’s not as powerful a force as it was then, and it sure hasn’t gained momentum,” he said.

Still, Western alienation is about as old as the province of Alberta itself, and is not about to disappear.

Soon after joining the Canadian federation, Alberta and Saskatchewan were protesting Ottawa’s threats to remove freight subsidies on the Canadian Pacific Railway that would have hiked prices for farmers transporting their crops. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all fought for years for control over their natural resources, which was eventually granted through a series of legislative changes in 1930.

Today, similar sentiments are manifested in an exasperation over Alberta’s battered oil industry. That is often reflected in its inability over the last 20 years to build major export pipelines, which have depressed prices for Canadian crude and sapped the province of tens of billions in foregone revenue. New federal environmental policies only layer on new restrictions, according to some.

The Maverick Party and People’s Party of Canada have been railing against Ottawa’s carbon tax, now set to rise to $170 per tonne by 2030, saying it raises household costs in Canada while failing to curb pollution from some of the world’s largest emitters, like China. Supporters of the tax, meanwhile, say it’s the most efficient way to lower emissions in a world where sea levels are rapidly rising and atmospheric temperatures are gradually ticking upward

.

© Supplied Maverick Party’s candidate Josh Wylie: “That’s the difference between the Maverick Party and the Conservative Party of Canada: we have one stakeholder, and that’s Western Canada. There is no conflict.”

The Liberal government’s Bill C-69, which updated the regulatory review process for major projects, and C-48, which banned oil tankers from docking at ports along the northern half of the B.C. coast, are also viewed as explicit attacks on the West.

O’Toole has also promised to repeal both bills and has voiced support for Canada’s oil and gas industry. He has been decidedly more cautious about his position toward the separatist elements of the Conservative’s Western base.

Just one day after the Maverick Party’s rally in Cayley, O’Toole was in Quebec City presenting voters with a 10-point promise to Quebec nationals, who he said would be fully supported within a Conservative government.

“All Quebec nationalists are welcome in the Conservative party,” he said . “It is your home.”

His promises largely mirrored some of the requests that have been tabled in the west, including a pledge to give Quebec more control over immigration, a single tax return, and a commitment to stay out of provincial policies like its secularism bill, which outlaws government workers from wearing religious symbols.

Western separatists, if given the chance, say they would potentially create a Western-specific police force, similar to the Sûreté du Québec, or push for looser gun restrictions through a provincial Chief Firearms Officer.

It remains unclear whether Albertans, angry as they may be, will be wiling to support a pair of parties currently polling at around five per cent, and who held no seats in the House of Commons during the last Parliamentary session.

Others say they fear vote-splitting — a worry that the Maverick Party has sought to address directly by running candidates only in ridings where the Tories are dominant. In the Foothills riding, for example, Conservative John Barlow won 82 per cent of the vote, while the second-place Liberal candidate won just 5.8 per cent. The People’s Party of Canada, meanwhile, is currently running 249 candidates across the country.

The Mavericks have also sought to distinguish themselves from the PPC by steering away from more sensitive social issues like immigration and abortion, and have proposed a softer approach to separatism than its most hardcore supporters might desire.

All 27 Maverick candidates have signed agreements stating that they would not table private member’s bills on the topic of abortion. They would be free to vote as they like if such a bill was presented by another party.

“We want to be as inclusive as possible,” Hill said.

Rather than outright separation, the party proposes a so-called “two track” system, under which it would first put forward a series of smaller policy positions that would weaken Ottawa’s influence over the region and, according to the party, allow more autonomy for the West.

“Of course, there’s no procedure or mechanism to allow us to leave right now even if the majority supported that. So, somehow we have to bring along the majority of Westerners to the idea that we’ve tried everything possible to convince the rest of Canada to change.”

The Mavericks and PPC could be viewed as two factions of the now-defunct Reform Party, which was folded into the “big umbrella” Conservative Party in 2000. The PPC is more focused on fiscal restraint and social conservatism while the Mavericks are more strictly interested in constitutional issues and equalization.

Together they represent a conservative movement that has thus far struggled to establish itself in Canada’s parliamentary system. And seeing its own shortcomings, Hill said, they are now trying to model themselves after their sworn enemy: the Bloc Québécois and the province of Quebec.

“Who can realistically argue that the Bloc hasn’t been successful for the last 30 years?”

• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder

From now until the bitter end of Election 44, the National Post is publishing a special daily edition of First Reading, our politics newsletter, to keep you posted on the ins and outs (and way outs) of the campaign. All curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper and published Monday to Friday at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m. Sign up here.

Alberta NDP says premier's rejection of federal authority lays separation groundwork

Yesterday 5:00 p.m.

EDMONTON — Alberta’s NDP Opposition leader says Premier Danielle Smith's comments rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government betray her unspoken plan to lay the groundwork for eventual separation.


Alberta NDP says premier's rejection of federal authority lays separation groundwork© Provided by The Canadian Press

Rachel Notley cited Smith’s comments to the house just before members passed her sovereignty bill earlier Thursday, in which Smith rejected the federal government’s overarching authority.

“It's not like Ottawa is a national government,'' Smith told the house at 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

UH YES IT IS

"The way our country works is that we are a federation of sovereign, independent jurisdictions.  WRONG THIS IS THE AMERICAN STATES CONFEDERACY IDEOLOGY

ALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN WERE GRANTED PROVINCIAL POWERS FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

They are one of those signatories to the Constitution and the rest of us, as signatories to the Constitution, have a right to exercise our sovereign powers in our own areas of jurisdiction.”

Notley, speaking to reporters, said, “At 12:30 last night when she thought nobody was listening, the veil was lifted and Danielle Smith’s interest in genuinely pursuing initial steps toward separation were revealed.

“(They) demonstrate that her view is actually that which is aligned with these fringe separatist wannabes like folks who drafted the Free Alberta Strategy.

“Those comments are utterly chaos-inducing.”

Free Alberta Strategy was a 2021 policy paper drafted in part by Smith’s current top adviser Rob Anderson.

The authors of the paper argue that federal laws, policies and overreach are mortally wounding Alberta's development.

They urge a two-track strategy to assert greater autonomy for Alberta within Confederation, while simultaneously laying the policy and administrative groundwork to transition Alberta to separation and sovereignty should negotiations fail. 

AND OF COURSE WITH MANY AMERICANS IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA WE KNOW WHERE A SEPERATE ALBERTA WILL GO

The strategy was the genesis for Smith’s controversial sovereignty bill that stipulates the Alberta legislature, rather than the courts, can pass judgment on what is constitutional when it comes to provincial jurisdiction.

The bill also grants cabinet the power to direct municipalities, city police forces, health regions and schools to resist implementing federal laws.

During question period, Smith rejected accusations the bill is a separatist Trojan Horse, noting its intent is contained in the title.

“The name of the bill is Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act,” said Smith.

“The (act) has nothing to do with leaving the country. It has everything to do with resetting the relationship (with the federal government).”

Related video: Alberta passes Sovereignty Act, strips out sweeping powers for cabinet (cbc.ca)

Duration 3:54 View on Watch

Political scientist Jared Wesley said it appears constitutional chaos and baiting the federal government are the actual aims.

“When you start to deny the legitimacy of the federal government, that is part of the worrying trend that ties all of this to the convoy movement and the separatists,” said Wesley, with the University of Alberta.

“Albertans need to know those comments are inappropriate and misleading at best and sparking a national unity crisis at worst. Sooner or later, someone’s going to believe her.”

Wesley added that there is a sentiment among a small group of people in Alberta, including the premier, who "are just tired of losing and don’t want to play the game anymore," he said.

“The sad thing is that that game is democracy and the rule book is the Constitution, and they’re just ignoring all of it now."

Political scientist Duane Bratt said Smith was not describing Canadian federalism.

“She is confusing the European Union with Canada,” said Bratt, with Mount Royal University in Calgary. “Canada is not made up of sovereign provinces. We share sovereignty between orders of government.”

Political scientist Lori William, also with Mount Royal University, said the comment “betrays a profound lack of understanding of Canada, of federalism, of what powers belong to the federal and provincial governments.”

During question period, Smith waved away Opposition demands that she refer the bill to Alberta’s Court of Appeal to determine if it is onside with the Constitution.

Smith told the house that Justice Minister Tyler Shandro, a lawyer, wrote the bill and that the government received independent advice from constitutional lawyers to ensure it was not offside.

“The constitutionality of this bill is not in question,” Smith said.

The bill was introduced by Smith a week ago as centrepiece legislation to pursue a more confrontational approach with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government on a range of issues deemed to be overreach in provincial areas of responsibility.

It was a short, brutish ride for the bill.

Smith’s government, due to a public outcry, had to bring in an amendment just days after introducing the bill to reverse a provision that gave it ongoing emergency-type powers to unilaterally rewrite laws while bypassing the legislature.

Alberta’s First Nations chiefs have condemned the bill as trampling their treaty rights and Smith’s Indigenous relations minister has said more consultation should have been done.

Smith told the house she met with Indigenous leaders just hours earlier to discuss concerns and shared goals. She rejected the assertion the bill doesn’t respect treaty rights.

“There is no impact on treaty and First Nations’ rights. That’s the truth,” she said.

Law professor Martin Olszynski said the bill remains problematic because it must be clear the courts have the final say on interpreting the Constitution in order to stabilize the checks and balances of a democratic system.

He said Smith’s bill threatens that, perhaps putting judges in the awkward position of having to decide whether they are the ones to make those decisions.

“Can that judge exercise their judicial function without being affected by that very politicized context?” said Olszynski, with the University of Calgary.

“It essentially politicizes the judicial process.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

Rebel Yell

THE PHANTASM OF ALBERTA SEPARATISM RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD WITH UCP 


RECENTLY GLOBAL TV INTERVIEWED BARRY COOPER A PROFESSOR EMERITUS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY. 

Don’t write off Western anger as ‘alienation’ — it runs a whole lot deeper: Calgary professor
It's not alienation, its abuse towards Western Canada: Cooper | Watch News Videos Online
Barry Cooper from the University of Calgary joins Mercedes Stephenson to discuss why, if the concerns of Alberta separatists aren't addressed, there will be a ...

Barry Cooper: Separation has become a real possibility, thanks to Ottawa’s abuses
The Canada option: Is it still viable for AlbertaSeparation has become a real possibility thanks to the abuses and injustices imposed by Ottawa, writes University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper. Updated: December 17, 2018

Dr. Cooper as he is known sometimes, is the highest paid academic in Alberta, his salary dwarves his colleagues at the U of C, because he is the leading light of the Right Wing in Canada, he gets grants and foundation funding. 

He was interviewed giving succour to the so called Separatist streak in right wing Alberta politics. Now along with being a founding member of the Calgary School of Right Wing Politics he is also a Pro Oil Climate Change Denier with his foundation the Friends of Science. 

Cooper is also an advocate for private schools, charter and vouchers schools developed under the Klein government. This was aimed locally at the Calgary education market more than it was for the rest of the province, where the dominant board the CBE was not quick to adapt to the reform change movement in Education, unlike the Edmonton Public School Board, so the right wing push for Charter schools was big in Calgary.

The so called separatism is also known as Firewall Alberta which Cooper, Flanagan and the Calgary School sold Harper on prior to his becoming PM.

To understand the so called Separatist politics of the right in Canada I thought I would share this with you, some blasts from the past about authentic Alberta History not right wing wishful thinking.

Alberta Separatism Not Quite Stamped Out

It originates in Alberta not in the dirty thirties but the early 1980's in the last days of the Lougheed government, with the Western Canada Concept (WCC) of rightwhingnut lawyer and defender of fascists Doug Christie. The WCC won a seat in a red neck rural riding, and had an MLA in the Alberta Legislature giving them some political credibility, some, enough for Lougheed to use them as a whipping boy against Ottawa. Which Ralph Klein continues to do today. Any time things got a little outta hand between the Liberals in Ottawa and the Alberta Government the bugaboo of Alberta Separatism would be raised. Clever ploy that.The reality is that during the 1980's two major right wing populist parties began in Alberta, both anti-semitic, white power, anti-biligualism, pro religious fundamentalist, pro Celtic Saxon peoples (code for White Power) anti immigrant anti multiculturalism, today add anti-gay. These were the WCC and Elmer Knutsens Confederation of Regions Party. The CRP did not win seats in Alberta but in New Brunswick, as a right wing backlash to that provinces French majority.Ironic eh.

See: 

Social Credit And Western Canadian Radicalism

The history of Alberta Alienation and the autonomous farmer worker resistance to Ottawa, the seat of political and economic power of the mercantilist state, dates back to the founding of the province one hundred years ago.

Rebel Yell

Populism and Producerism

Historical Memory on the Eve of the Election

Calgary Herald Remembers RB Bennett

Canada's First Internment Camps

MAKE ALBERTA GREAT AGAIN

Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney has no choice but to listen to Danielle Smith

Opinion by Tasha Kheiriddin


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on Monday May 5, 2025. Gavin Young/Postmedia

On the eve of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s critical trip to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith stole the spotlight and turned it firmly on herself. In a twenty-minute “address to Albertans,” she aired grievances against the federal Liberal government, from carbon taxes to Justin Trudeau’s infamous “no more pipelines bill,” C-69. Smith also presented a list of demands, from resource corridor development to greater provincial control over energy and immigration. And she pledged to hold a referendum on Alberta independence should “enough” citizens demand one — while insisting multiple times that she doesn’t support secession herself

The timing was no accident. Smith wanted to be a topic of conversation in the White House. Perhaps she’s angling for another interview on Fox News. Or perhaps she is trying to stay in power, pacifying the same angry base that ousted her predecessor, Jason Kenney, in 2022 after he won only 51.4 per cent in a leadership review.

Whatever the reason, Smith is seizing the moment to make Alberta’s case, to the detriment of Canada’s. If Carney has trouble at home, it will be harder for him to stand strong abroad. And it’s hard to see how that helps Alberta — unless Smith has another agenda in mind. And for that, she has a model: Quebec.

Albertans often point to the success of Quebec in dominating the national conversation — and extracting concessions from Ottawa — by threatening separation. But Quebec’s grievance is cultural, not economic — rooted in preserving a French-speaking enclave in an English continent. Alberta’s complaint by contrast, is financial. The province sees itself as the country’s cash cow, milked for equalization payments and dismissed by Laurentian elites for decades — and on this, Smith is not wrong.


Related video: Graham Thomson joins CBC to unpack the strategy behind Danielle Smith’s sovereignty talk (cbc.ca)


Alberta was created as a province in 1905, but the federal government retained Crown lands until the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement and directly controlled its resources until 1930. The province has a particularly bitter history with Liberal governments: Pierre Elliott Trudeau enacted the National Energy Policy in the 1980’s, while son Justin brought in carbon taxes, emissions caps, and the aforementioned Bill C-69 in the 2010’s.

So what could satisfy Alberta? Smith has a list: an LNG corridor, approval of new oil pipelines, and repeal or serious amendment of C-69, also known as the Impact Assessment Act. Carney has already said he would amend — but not repeal — the law, and during the campaign , he promised to cut wait times for the approval of major resource projects from five years to two. He also pledged to create trade and energy corridors for transport, energy, critical minerals and digital connectivity.

But will that be enough in the current climate? Protesters who took to the legislature on the weekend are disappointed in the election result – and don’t trust Liberals to have their back. Polls show that 15 per cent of the province would vote to join the US, while 29 per cent would vote for independence.

Smith may indeed be playing with fire. While Trump denies interest in a military invasion of Canada, Trump’s interest in making us the “51 st State” is not idle conversation. He has mused about annexing the west first: could he twist history to make it Canada’s “Donbas”? Americans played a key role in Alberta’s early development: by 1916, nearly 19 per cent of its population hailed from the US, though it has been diluted by waves of immigration since then.

Carney must tread carefully — and act quickly. A referendum in 2026, as Smith threatens to hold, would weaken Canada’s position during crucial negotiations with the United States. To stave this off, Carney will have to shed some of his green mantle and expedite resource development projects that benefit the west — projects that will also benefit the rest of the country through job creation and economic activity. A fair deal for Alberta is now essential for Canada, in more ways than one.

Postmedia News IS A CONSERVATIVE NEWS PAPER

Tasha Kheiriddin is Postmedia’s national politics columnist.

Parti Québécois leader stands with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her ‘strong hand’

LES SEPERATISTE; BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Story by Antoine Trépanier


Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon during question period Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City.

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has an ally in Quebec and his name is Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, the Parti Québécois leader.

A day after Smith threatened the federal government of including a referendum question on separation in 2026 if her province didn’t have the Accord, she thinks it deserves with Ottawa, St-Pierre Plamondon said Smith made a “striking gesture” for the “autonomy and defence of her own province.”

“It doesn’t matter what referendum they hold, because obviously it’s under construction. But I totally agree with provinces that stand up, that are loyal to their own Parliament, that are capable of showing a strong hand. And that’s the key word, strong hand,” said St-Pierre Plamondon, who is often called PSPP in Quebec.

In a in a livestreamed address Monday , Premier Smith called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to negotiate a new deal between Ottawa and Alberta guaranteeing more pipelines and changes to equalization.

“We hope this will result in a binding agreement that Albertans can have confidence in. Call it an ‘Alberta accord’,” said Smith who then called Alberta’s separation “the elephant in the room.”

“The vast majority of (separatists) are not fringe voices… They are loyal Albertans,” she said. “They’re … our friends and neighbours who’ve just had enough of having their livelihoods and prosperity attacked by a hostile federal government.”

Related video: Alta. premier says she'll work with Carney 'in good faith' to repair relations (Global News)  Duration 1:53

At a press conference at Quebec’s National Assembly, St-Pierre Plamondon said it was a “good thing” if other provinces are able to “stand up to the federal government”.

He added that “other provinces are showing” that Canada has issues that affect all provinces in terms of “abuse of power”.

St-Pierre Plamondon then went on the offensive against the province’s journalists for not covering the rebound in support of Quebec secession .

A recent Postmedia-Leger poll revealed that support for Quebec independence, which had fallen below 30 per cent in recent month, sits back at nearly 40 per cent.

Even though Canada is engaged in a tariff war with its closest ally, support for Quebec independence has reached 36 per cent according to new data.

“The most recent and most precise information is the independence of Quebec at 40 per cent, it is the increase in independence in Alberta,” he said.

Léger also polled Canadians from all provinces about their opinion about their province’s independence. The result was that 29 per cent of Albertans supported Alberta sovereignty while an overwhelming majority of the 2,309 respondents (71 per cent) were opposed.


National Post

atrepanier@postmedia.com

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ALBERTA 51ST STATE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FIREWALL ALBERTA 

THE PHANTASM OF ALBERTA SEPARATISM RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD WITH UCP 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SOCRED 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Rebel Yell

FIRST READING: Is Alberta the new Quebec?

Tristin Hopper - NATIONAL POST

Danielle Smith celebrates at the BMO Centre in Calgary following the UCP leadership vote on Thursday, October 6, 2022.© Provided by National Post

The joke has been made quite often in recent weeks that Alberta and Quebec politics appear to have switched places.

Quebec – whose politics were once a decades-long struggle between sovereigntists and federalists – has now transitioned seamlessly into voting for an all-powerful, centre-right monolith.

And Alberta – which spent 44 straight years under the rule of the monolithic Progressive Conservatives – now has the most sovereigntist premier in its history.

On Monday, Quebec delivered an absolutely crushing re-election victory to Coalition Avenir Quebec, the big tent conservative-for-Quebec party headed by disaffected former separatist Francois Legault. The election also utterly demolished the Parti Quebecois, the province’s tradition standard-bearer for sovereigntist sentiment; they only got three seats.

Four days later, a leadership vote by the Alberta United Conservative Party confirmed Danielle Smith as the province’s premier-designate. The one-time leader of Alberta’s upstart Wildrose Party, Smith’s political comeback was due in part to her promise to champion an Alberta Sovereignty Act that would empower the province to govern itself “as a nation within a nation.”

But the wild rose and the fleur-de-lys aren’t so much trading places as they’re becoming mirror images of one another. Both Legault and Smith now share a common mission of aggressively seizing as much power as possible from Ottawa, but without all the red tape of literally trying to separate.

The Alberta Sovereignty Act was modelled to mimic Quebec’s unique level of control over its own affairs, something that Smith said specifically in an August National Post op-ed. “It would essentially give Alberta the same power within confederation that Quebec has,” she wrote.

Among other things, Quebec has control over its immigration, including the power to select the criteria and rate at which immigrants move to the province. Quebec also collects its own income taxes, rather than having the Canada Revenue Agency do it by proxy.

Quebec is also the most enthusiastic user of the Notwithstanding Clause, the section of the Constitution that allows provincial governments to ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This has been used most recently by the Legault government to head off Constitutional challenges against Bill 21, which bans religious garb for anyone in the civil service, and Bill 96, which polices mandatory use of French in the private sector.

Legault’s Coalition Avenir Quebec was founded in 2011 with the stated mission of pursuing unapologetic Quebec nationalism without advocating for outright separation. The pitch has resonated, and the explosive CAQ victory this week was due in part to the fact that so many former separatists have flocked to the CAQ banner.

In 2021, the CAQ even passed a bill proposing to unilaterally change the Canadian constitution to mention “la nation québécoise” and to state that said nation had only one official language.

And for Smith – and the United Conservative Party faction who voted for her – it’s this view of nationalism that has proved most attractive.

“Quebec has asserted it is a nation within a nation … Under my leadership, Alberta will too,” Smith wrote in August.

Despite any emerging political similarities between the two, Quebec and Alberta continue to harbour a raging mutual dislike, usually over the issue of money.

In a Leger poll from just last month, Albertans were found to lead the pack among Canadians who harboured the most resentment towards Quebec.

In 2019, Quebecers were asked by the Angus Reid Institute to rank the provinces that they deemed to be most “unfriendly.” Alberta was the clear winner, with 81 per cent classifying it as an enemy.

This sometimes manifests itself in a very public airing of grievances between the two provinces. In 2018, Legault declared his opposition to Alberta’s “dirty energy,” sparking backlash from then Premier Rachel Notley.

“(Legault) needs to understand that not only is our product not dirty, but that it actually funds the schools, the hospitals and potentially even some of the hydro-electricity infrastructure in Quebec,” said Notley at the time.

Three years later, a clear majority of Albertans voted “yes” in a referendum calling for the abolition of Canada’s equalization program – a program that disproportionately functions to transfer wealth from Alberta to Quebec. (NOT JUST QUEBEC)

THIS IS BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA, VERY LOW VOTER TURN OUT ON THE VOTE, EDMONTON OVERWHELMING MAJORITY VOTED NO, 

SOUTHERN ALBERTA HISTORICALLY AMERICANIZED POPULATION 

VOTED YES.

'Hockey and nostalgia' won't keep us together: SOME Albertans say they're serious about separation after Liberal win

THE MAJORITY OF ALBERTANS OPPOSE THE SMITH/MANNING SEPARATISTS

Polls show as many as three in 10 Albertans would vote to leave the federation if the Liberals continue to hold power in Ottawa.


Alberta Premier Danielle Smith takes part in a panel on Canada-U.S. relations at a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday April 3, 2025.

'BETTER TOETHER' IS NOT NATIONAL UNITY 

BUT AS THE 51ST STATE, SMITHS WET DREAM

OTTAWA — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith didn’t immediately issue a statement when the networks called the federal election for Mark Carney’s Liberals at 10:15 PM EST, but it’s safe to say that not all is calm on the western front.

The Liberals’ fourth straight federal election win keeps Alberta and Ottawa on a collision course, raising the once unthinkable prospect of a referendum on the Prairie province’s separation from Canada

At the time of the election call, the Liberals were leading in just two of Alberta’s 37 ridings .

Cameron Davies, an ex-UCP organizer who supports Alberta independence, said he was disgusted by the Liberal campaign’s use of tired national cliches, which he said made light of the serious issues facing the federation.

“Hockey and nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills… that hockey and nostalgia, it’s not going to keep Canada together,” said Davies.

“Without a reimagined confederation, there will be a strong separatist movement in Alberta,” said Davies.

Davies, who tendered his resignation to the UCP on Thursday, says he plans to spend the next few weeks having “honest, difficult conversations” with likeminded Albertans.


Related video: Premier Danielle Smith reacts to federal election results (cbc.ca)


Smith had warned heading into the election that a Liberal win could lead to an “unprecedented national unity crisis,” if Carney didn’t, within his first six months, undo a handful of Liberal policies that she said unfairly hampered Alberta’s oil and gas sector.

“ Albertans will no longer tolerate the way we’ve been treated by the federal Liberals over the past 10 years,” Smith said in a social media post.

Reform Party founder Preston Manning soon upped the ante, calling Carney himself a “ threat to national unity ” in a widely circulated op-ed.

Manning wrote that “large numbers of Westerners simply will not stand for another four years of Liberal government, no matter who leads it.”

He predicted that, if Carney were to emerge victorious from Monday’s election, he “would then be identified in the history books, tragically and needlessly, as the last prime minister of a united Canada.”

Smith has already announced she’ll launch a post-mortem election panel to give Albertans the chance to weigh in on issues they might want put to a referendum.

Polls show as many as three in 10 Albertans would vote to leave the federation if the Liberals continue to hold power in Ottawa.

Carney needs to seize the chance to reset relations with Alberta, said Martha Hall Findlay, the director of the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.

“I think the opportunity to move forward is absolutely there… I have every confidence that the prime minister of Canada and premier of Alberta will realize they can accomplish a lot more working together than by being at each other’s throats,” said Findlay.

Hall Findlay said that Carney could build immediate goodwill by dropping the existing targets for the federal emissions cap, set by Trudeau-era environment minister Steven Guilbeault.

“My hope is that (Carney) shows a pragmatism with respect to the West. Perfect example: he stops being coy about an emissions cap, even if he says we still believe in a cap on emissions but the time frames need to be revisited,” said Hall Findlay.

Hall Findlay was a Liberal MP from 2008 to 2011, holding a Toronto-area seat, before moving to Alberta to work in the oil and gas sector.

Rachel Parker, an independent journalist who travels in independentist circles, said she wasn’t as sanguine about the election’s outcome.

“You know, frustrations in Western Canada have grown quite high. They’ve always sort of been there bubbling underneath the surface, this put things into overdrive,” said Parker.


Parker said that Alberta’s independence movement had been organizing in the weeks leading up to Monday’s federal election and she expected to see this activity pick up in the weeks to come.

She added she doesn’t think much will come out of Smith’s post-election panel.

“Panels are really a government’s way of saying ‘we’re doing something, we’re doing something,’ when it’s really just kicking an issue down the road.”

Smith’s predecessor Jason Kenney launched the Alberta Fair Deal Panel shortly after becoming premier in 2019, citing the province’s growing frustration with Ottawa.

The panel generated 25 recommendations, paving the way for a fall 2021 referendum on Alberta’s participation in the federal equalization program .

Kenney’s panel came with a steep price tag of $650,000

Jack Jedwab, the head of the Association for Canadian Studies, says that Alberta sovereigntism differs from the more well-known Quebec variant in several important ways.

“I’d describe it as a form of economic nationalism which is driven by a sense of grievance wherein many Albertans feel they give more than they receive from the federal government,” said Jedwab.

“Albertans strongly identify as Canadian and do not feel emotionally detached from Canada which is something that more likely characterizes Quebec’s expression of nationalism,” he said.

With files from the Canadian Press

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

SEE

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SOCIAL CREDIT 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914. 

Jamie Sarkonak: Alberta's separation threats weaken hand against Liberals

Opinion by Jamie Sarkonak
• 1d •
National Post


A rally and counterprotest for the Alberta separatist movement drew hundreds of people to the Alberta Legislature on Saturday, May 3, 2025.

In a livestreamed address Monday, Premier Danielle Smith indicated that, though she doesn’t support Alberta’s separatist movement, she will certainly use it as leverage in negotiating a new deal for the province. It’s a bold strategy, but it’s hard to see it playing out.

What the premier wants is not independence, but a new “binding agreement” between the feds and the province that makes a number of guarantees — land corridor and seaport access for energy exports, an end to net-zero constraints (including plastics regulations, EV mandates and corporate climate disclosure requirements), the repeal of the Impact Assessment Act, and boosted per-capita equalization payments equivalent to those received by B.C, Ontario and Quebec.

She also demanded that the feds promise to never place export taxes on Alberta resources without the province’s consent — a demand no doubt in response to the trade war. In January, polling showed that 82 per cent of Canadians supported slapping export taxes onto oil exports to the U.S., and 72 per cent support in the Prairies; Smith has strongly opposed export taxes on oil throughout the trade war.

That’s all fine and good; provinces demand things all the time. But in Alberta’s case, the premier is inflating the expectations of her followers by making a few unmeetable demands, and preparing to channel the resulting anger and disappointment into doomed dealmaking efforts that, at worst, will harm the country’s conservative movement overall.

Take the first insurmountable obstacle: equalization reform. Since 1957 , the federal government has used the taxes it’s constitutionally empowered to collect to support the budgets of less-prosperous provinces. Currently, the formula is designed to excuse Quebec’s refusal to be a team player in Canada’s broader energy economy (Quebec’s hydro revenues don’t count towards the province’s revenues, which results in the province receiving far more federal welfare than it should). With a federal Liberal minority government, we shouldn’t expect that to change.


Related video: Doug Ford dispels talk of feud with Danielle Smith, maintains he's against Alberta separation (Global News)
Duration 2:37

Albertans make more money, pay more in federal taxes and thus contribute more per head to the federal pool of funds than the rest of the country. The provincial government can’t do anything about it any more than the feds can direct the province’s funding of individual school boards within its borders. That’s why Alberta’s first run at changing equalization by former Alberta premier Jason Kenney didn’t go anywhere, and why subsequent province-level chest-thumping won’t help; for reform to work, it will take a reform-friendly government in Ottawa — say, a Conservative majority willing to wean anti-energy Quebec from the federal welfare teat.

Smith runs into similar jurisdictional hiccups in demanding port access and cross-country corridors. These are ultimately matters of federal jurisdiction. Now, if this country had competent people running it, it would be aggressively working to get more interior products out to the coast, ideally opening new ports in the process. But alas, that’s not what Canadians voted for. Asking for it is one thing, but Canada’s highest “binding agreement,” the Constitution, says that ports and interjurisdictional transport are the federal government’s business.


It’s not all bad — the premier is absolutely right to fight potentially unconstitutional laws, which she has done vigorously. The challenges to the Impact Assessment Act and Clean Electricity Regulations are underway, and the fight on federal plastics regulation has already been won. Threatening more challenges and then backing those words up with court filings is what should be done. But there are other fronts on which she has no chance in winning — and that’s where separatist flirtation comes in.

It was an obvious tactic by Smith to advance legislation that eases the way of citizen-driven referendums onto the ballot. Doing so transfers the thorny decision of whether to put independence on the ballot from the premier to a political process over which she has no direct control but which she designed knowing full well that a certain group would be using it. Responsibility is diffused, and “democracy” can always be invoked to defend it.

The best a referendum can do is start up the Alberta independence process, which, if successful — and that’s unlikely — would be a disaster for the ensuing nation. Any qualms about tidewater access would be dwarfed in the post-separation scenario (separatists would point to a United Nations treaty that in theory opens the way to port access for landlocked states, but that’s no guarantee for favourable port access). Threatening to secede when independence gets you even farther from your current demands is simply unserious.

The same goes for arguments for U.S. statehood, by the way. Alberta’s frustrations with its confederation deal — too few MPs in the House of Commons; too few senators — trace back to its late addition to the federation and the lesser leverage that came with. It’s delusional to expect that the U.S. in 2025 would offer a better entrance bonus to this majority-Democrat-leaning province.

Alberta should be treated better, but Quebec-style fight-picking with Ottawa isn’t a winning route. Yes, Quebec throws separatist-tinged tantrums to get what it wants, but it comes across as bratty and spoiled. Yes, the federal government, in turn, comes across as a bad parent, giving the province the equivalent of candy for its bad behaviour. But the separatist movement doesn’t offer a fix; that’s going to take electing a federal Conservative government with the guts to put Quebec in its place.

Alberta’s tantrums, led by its minority of secessionists, will only cultivate an eyeroll-inducing victim complex that sours the entire country towards our province. Taken further, it will potentially threaten both the United Conservative Party’s unity in Alberta and the prospects of a Tory victory in a future federal election.