October 22, 2019
Election day is shaping up to be the most disunifying event in Canada in recent history, but it doesn’t have to be. It could also be the moment where Alberta finally decides to stop acting like a national doormat and take charge of its future.
If Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer does not win a majority government, he will never get a chance to govern as a minority because none of the fringe parties will let him. The NDP, the Greens and the Bloc have all made it clear that the price of their co-operation is sacrificing Alberta and cancelling the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, no matter how punishing it will be to the entire country or how damaging it will be to national unity.
If Premier Jason Kenney wants to stem the tide of Alberta separation, he’s going to have to act quickly. Here are three things he could do right away:
First, Alberta should announce we will hold an immediate referendum on equalization rather than wait until the 2021 municipal elections. If Quebec has no interest in supporting Alberta’s aspirations to grow our economy, they can also do without an equalization program that relies on federal over-taxation of Alberta to fund it.
Second, Alberta must begin pushing our own political agenda. We need to resurrect the “firewall” proposals from a letter authored by academics in 2001. If we are going to become a nation within a nation, as Quebec effectively has done, we need to collect our own money, pay for our own programs, take charge of our own policing and have our own border control.
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