Mike Harcourt: Alberta's getting tiresome. A call for unity and collaboration in Canada
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and former Reform party leader Preston Manning, along with other Alberta commentators, are getting tiresome about threatening to separate from Canada.
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Not to mention arrogantly lumping B.C. into a so-called 'West.'
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Alberta cannot, will not, separate. Indigenous leaders in Alberta have made that clear.
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Over 70 per cent of Albertans don't want to separate.
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Also, Alberta is landlocked and needs access across Canada for its oil and gas, agricultural products and pipelines.
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Alberta has seen LNG pipelines built or soon to be built in northern B.C. The expansion of Trans Mountain's oil pipeline through southern B.C. has increased its capacity to transfer Alberta oil from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000.
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As well, an oil pipeline from Alberta through Quebec to St. John, New Brunswick's Irving refinery would allow Alberta oil to be sent to Europe and elsewhere.
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U.S. President Donald Trump is resurrecting the Keystone pipeline project to send more Alberta oil to the Koch Industries refineries in the central U.S.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed Tim Hodgson as minister of energy and natural resources, with a mandate to deliver on major pipelines and other national energy and economic infrastructure. The prime minister has also committed to streamlining approval processes, combining federal and provincial approaches at the same time.
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So, Alberta, quit your whining.
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Also, stop talking about the alienated West. The 'West' doesn't exist. Canada is divided into five regions: Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta), plus B.C., Canada's front door to the Pacific and Asia.
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B.C.'s premiers, from W.A.C. Bennett to David Eby, have consistently and persistently tried to make B.C.'s status clear.
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Listen to us in B.C. We don't want to separate.
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Instead, we want to help Carney and provincial premiers build a prosperous, strong and independent Canada — plus minimize Trump's tariff threats, his erratic and bullying ways, including taunts about Canada being a 51st state.
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So, Alberta, stop you whining and posturing. Join Team Canada.
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