Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cautioned against the prospect of Alberta separation in a column Friday, writing that even voting just to “send a message” would represent a fraught approach.
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper cautioned against the prospect of Alberta separation in a column Friday, writing that even voting just to “send a message” would represent a fraught approach.
You have to do a lot more gymnastics to put the blame of the current state of Alberta separatism on those two things than Stephen Harper’s actions and effect on conservatives across the country.
No gymnastics required. There’s been a separatist thread running through Alberta since it joined confederation. Literally they were complaining about Canada controlling what Alberta could do with Alberta’s resources in 1905. They’ve just never had actual government support. Quebec is exactly the opposite - most of the last 50 years was a PQ government, including the 1995 referendum, and it went about as you’d expect it to.
That isn’t explaining how there’s no gymnastics required. Besides that, the point was that there’s a mod direct throughline with Harper’s actions.
There’s no gymnastics required because every time Ottawa oversteps (their words, not mine), they get pissed off. And they usually think Ottawa is overstepping when Ottawa starts telling Alberta what it can do or not do with its resources. It happened in the 80’s (NEP), it happened in the 90’s (Kyoto Accord), and it happened in 2016 (no business case). The difference is in the80’s and 90’s the Alberta government itself wasn’t advocating for separation. Smith, today, is doing exactly that, and all of the changes made to the original 2021 law that enabled this referendum were made by Smith’s government.
Now connect the dots between Smith’s UCP government and Harper’s effect on conservative parties around the country, and then the dots with those other situations. Which path has less dots?
How does “Alberta should have more autonomy” translate to “Alberta should leave Canada”? That’s the dot your line’s missing.
This entire conversation is all about the current separatist sentiment. It always was.