Is the tail wagging the dog in Alberta?
Separatists, led by Mitch Sylvestre, who believes that King Charles III has set out to assassinate him, have rallied 300,000 Albertans to sign a petition to secede from Canada over their grievances. (There are, of course, more than 700,000 Albertans who do not wish to separate.)
The problem is the premier, Danielle Smith, who has relied on those 300,000 voters to keep her United Conservative Party (UCP) in power. The separatist movement took its petition to the court to have it included on the ballot on Oct. 19, but Alberta Court of King’s Bench Justice Shaina Leonard quashed the petition, ruling that First Nations were not properly consulted. Smith rejected the court ruling, then put her own question on the ballot, asking Albertans if they would like a vote to have a second vote on the question of separation.
So, she kept some of the separatists happy. And she thought she had protected her party and herself from a confidence vote and being tossed out of power.
This whole referendum is based on emotion, the sense that Albertans are not being treated fairly by the rest of Canada. This movement goes back over 40 years, when the Liberals under Pierre Trudeau passed the National Energy Program to cushion oil-dependent provinces from the high prices of oil.
Albertans should be cautious in this coming referendum. They should study the pitfalls of Brexit, where Britons chose to remove themselves from the European Common Market, believing that they would suffer no consequences. Today, the British people are looking at removing the barriers that were put in place by the Common Market that caused inflation, loss of jobs and barriers to trade with their former partners.
Separating from Canada will have consequences. Nationally funded programs like Medicare, CPP, and OAC will disappear. As a separate country, they will have to negotiate with the provinces on either side to move products to ports.
Becoming a separate country will put them on target to become the 51st US state.
Smith has promised that she will campaign for Alberta to remain as part of Canada. It is a “wink wink” promise, just as the majority of the UCP caucus have said publicly that they support remaining in Canada, but privately they have said that they would vote to separate. They, too, fear the power of the minority.
Even with her announcement that she supports remaining in Canada, her announcements over the weekend included grievances about the Liberal government. So too did Pierre Poilievre’s remarks when he said: “We are facing a referendum in the second year of Mr. Carney’s mandate. We have to ask ourselves: what is he really doing to unite the country?”
It is tough for Albertans and Canadians to counter the voices of Smith and Poilievre, who appear to be whipping up anger for even fence-sitting Albertans to decide to choose to remain part of Canada.
