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Ottawa Citizen
5 days ago
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
MacDougall: New nation-building acts must happen in the national capital
Watching the King of Canada hold court at the temporary home of the Senate this week felt like history being made. And like history coming back to life. Article content Article content Yes, the scenes of King Charles and Queen Camilla harkened back to previous visits by other royals, most notably the late Queen Elizabeth when she opened Parliament in 1977. But the history it evoked in me wasn't regal; it was of events a few years later in the same setting — namely, Pierre Trudeau's negotiations over the patriation of the Canadian Constitution, which took place in the same building when it served as the Government Conference Centre. Article content Article content The world, the King read in the throne speech, is now a 'more dangerous and uncertain place,' a coded message meant for Donald Trump and his dismantling of world order. But the same could have been said when the elder Trudeau convened the premiers in the wake of the FLQ crisis and the then-robust campaign for Quebec sovereignty. The West was upset, too, with the National Energy Program. Like now, bold action was needed to strengthen national unity and identity. Article content Trudeau's answer was the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and 'full' Canadian sovereignty. And while the resulting 'Night of the Long Knives' led to René Lévesque's refusal to agree to reform, then to another round of separatism moves (following the failed constitutional wrangling at Meech Lake), the constitutional gambit was a big, bold move when big bold moves were required. Article content Article content If Canada is truly experiencing a 'hinge' moment, then big, bold action is required. And that action will need the agreement of the provinces, especially on domestic trade barriers. All the more reason, then, for the new prime minister to pull a 1981 and get the premiers around the table — in Ottawa — to hammer out a deal. Article content The location matters. A nation has a national capital for a reason. Big events need to happen on big — and symbolic — stages. Minor players can also come to life, or be exposed, on said stages. If Danielle Smith thinks Alberta separation is a goer, she should meet with all of her colleagues to make the case as part of a broader conversation, as Lévesque did generations ago. Article content Our politics and political figures have gotten so small recently, it's hard to remember how enormous some provincial voices of old were. There was Lévesque. But there was also Bill Davis, Peter Lougheed, Bill Bennett and Brian Peckford. Even the ministerial ranks were stuffed with bright minds and big personalities: Jean Chrétien, Roy Romanow and Roy McMurtry. It took the collective action of their minds and the prime minister's to achieve the restructuring of Canada's constitutional order.
Calgary Herald
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Calgary Herald
Opinion: Deciphering Danielle Smith's bows to separatism
Since becoming UCP leader and Alberta premier, Danielle Smith has subtly and not so subtly pushed for provincial independence. Her stated patriotism for Canada has been late in coming and mostly lukewarm. Article content Article content More telling are her recent moves making it easier for a small but vocal group within Alberta to introduce a referendum on separatism. Article content Smith says she is giving Albertans the opportunity to vent their anger and frustration, much of which she herself has stoked. (One wonders what her response would be if sufficient signatures were obtained to put the idea of nationalizing the oil industry to a referendum.) Article content Article content She hints, too, that a referendum is necessary to prevent a split within the UCP, though this strategy may be too clever by half. Article content Article content Polls suggest that an outright vote on independence would be defeated. Besides the affection most Albertans hold for Canada — especially now when the country faces severe threats from the U.S. — the vast majority would also be swayed in any vote by the significant economic and legal costs of pursuing separation. Article content There are several possible answers. Smith may be responding to political pressures from her UCP base. The party's hardcore right wing anointed her as UCP leader and premier. Smith remembers that the same group brought down former premier Jason Kenney. She is mindful to constantly feed the beast, lest it swallow her. Article content Article content Smith's actions may also just reflect a deep personal grievance against the federal government, the Liberals and even Canada. (She was eight years old when former prime minister Pierre Trudeau brought in the National Energy Program, which she and others continue to blame for the downturn in the price of oil in the early 1980s.) Article content But she also seems to hold the belief that Canada is a collection of provincial fiefdoms, with no role for the federal government. She once opined that Canada does not have a national government. Article content Smith's threats — like those employed by U.S. President Donald Trump — may simply be part of a bargaining strategy, albeit a poor one. She has listed nine demands, many of which are impossible for any federal government to grant. Additionally, several of these also tread on the jurisdiction of other provinces and the treaty rights of Indigenous peoples.
Vancouver Sun
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Everything you need to know about the threat of Alberta separatism
After the Conservatives' federal election loss, some Albertans frustrated with Liberal government policies are rallying for separation from Canada. Recently, hundreds of separatists held a rally at the Alberta legislature, angered at the province's place within confederation. It's not the first time Albertans have pushed for sovereignty. There were upswings in separatist sentiment during the National Energy Program in the 1980s. More recently, separatist agitators gained steam in the dying years of the 2010s, angered over Liberal legislation that targeted the energy sector and a general downturn in the petro-province's economic fortunes. This culminated with the now-defunct Wexit movement. Now, separatist sentiment is back. And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government has made it easier for separatists to get a referendum on the ballot by reducing the threshold necessary to do so. She said if Albertans want it, her government will hold a referendum on separation. Here's what you need to know about the likelihood of that and the strength of the Alberta separatist movement. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Not much. At least not electorally. Just once was a separatist elected to the Alberta legislature. Gordon Kesler, an oil scout and rodeo rider , won a byelection in 1982. He was elected by voters in Olds, Alta., who didn't like bilingualism, the metric system, gun control and then prime minister Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program. Kesler won, but he sat only for two-and-a-half months, before running in the general election and losing solidly. But it turns out Kesler wasn't a true believer: By 1983, he was vowing to leave the Western Canada Concept party unless it dropped separatism from its platform. Despite the deep admiration that conservative Albertans tend to express for Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister can also be identified as the first prime minister to put the needs of central Canada over the needs of the west. His 1878 National Policy was crafted specifically to force east-west rather than north-south trade, to the outrage of those in what was then the North-West Territories. 'The people of the North-West are allowed but a degree more control of their affairs than the serfs of Siberia,' wrote Frank Oliver, the publisher of Edmonton's first newspaper, in August 1885. Ottawa's rule, he wrote, is 'despotism as absolute, or more so, than that which curses Russia.' This sentiment has ebbed and flowed over the years (and also existed beyond Alberta's borders, in other parts of the Prairies). There was anger in some parts of the west over the 1885 execution of Louis Riel, a Métis leader who is now recognized by many as the founder of Manitoba. Preston Manning, the founder of the federal Reform Party, traces the origins of alienation back to that event, as well as land surveys of the west done in 1869 with insufficient regard for the local populations. Freight rates on the national railways were also a source of grievance. In Alberta, specifically, William Aberhart's Social Credit Party, which was founded in 1935, briefly flirted with separatism. But it wasn't until the energy crises of the 1970s, the election of Trudeau Sr. and the National Energy Program that Alberta separation emerged in its more modern form. Throughout all of this, only the fringes of Alberta's political spectrum have actually wanted the province to leave Canada. But far more Albertans have shared some sense of alienation or anger with Ottawa. In 1975, the Calgary Herald surveyed 221 Calgarians for their views on Alberta separation and alienation. Only eight people expressed support for separation. That's 3.6 per cent of respondents. However, by other metrics, Albertans were alienated, with more than 70 per cent saying Alberta politicians weren't taken seriously in Ottawa. By 1980, things had shifted: Mel Hurtig, the late pro-Canada publisher, commissioned a poll that found 14 per cent of Albertans supported separation. 'God forbid if the separatist movement would be able to find a charismatic leader,' Hurtig told the audience at an Edmonton hotel. It wasn't considered front-page news. It appeared on page D22 of the Herald, above a story about a robot running amok in Florida and the TV listings. Still, the chatter remained, and by 1980, Reform party MPs were telling the media that they were hearing about the issue from constituents. Later that year, Doug Christie, the head of Western Canada Concept, held a fundraiser in Edmonton. It was a flop: He raised so little money that it 'wouldn't keep anyone in cheap cigars,' the Herald reported. Still, separation kept coming up again, though it wasn't always taken seriously. 'Alberta, alas, is over-generously supplied with chronic complainers whose lung capacity dangerously exceeds their IQs,' wrote Herald columnist William Gold in 1995. Separatists, Gold wrote, were a 'miniscule dishwasher copycat' of Jacques Parizeau's Quebec aspirations 'with no such claim on the respect of decent people.' In 1997, two years after Quebec's last, failed attempt to separate, Social Credit leader Randy Thorsteinson said he thought it was inevitable that Alberta would separate. By 2002, when Jean Chrétien's government was signing the Kyoto Accords on climate change, then Alberta premier Ralph Klein warned that it could lead to separation. Naomi Lakritz, a Calgary Herald columnist, shellacked Klein. 'If the rest of Canada sees Alberta as greedy, uncaring, money-grubbing and self-centred in its negative reaction to the Kyoto accord, then Ralph Klein's use of the word 'separatism' and his petulant warning not to 'push us too hard,' has just reinforced that view,' Lakritz wrote. Even in 2018-20, when the Wexit movement — which advocated for the separation of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba — was ascendant and aggrieved westerners formed the Maverick Party, the movement never got that far. The Maverick Party never managed to win any seats and none of the provincial separatist parties had a meaningful showing in the 2019 or 2023 elections. In 2019, the Angus Reid Institute found that 60 per cent of Albertans were open to the idea of the province joining a western separatist movement. This, however, is a bit of a vague question. ThinkHQ did polling that year , and found that when presented with a clear question — would you vote to stay or go? — only 23 per cent of Albertans said they'd opt to go it alone. More recent polling, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute prior to the 2025 federal election, pegged separatist support at 25 per cent, and that jumped to 30 per cent when Albertans were asked if they would vote to leave if the Liberals formed government again. The Association for Canadian Studies found in recent polling that 52 per cent of Canadians believe the threat of Alberta separating should be taken seriously. In Alberta itself, that's a view held by 63 per cent of those polled. A Postmedia-Leger poll , found that 35 per cent of Albertans would support an independent western bloc, comprised of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Support for Alberta and Saskatchewan forming an independent state lies at 30 per cent, while 29 per cent of Albertans think the province should go it alone. But, put another way, the most attractive option to Albertans, at least according to Leger's polling, is still rejected by 65 per cent of Albertans. This is, however, uncharted territory. It could be a different situation altogether if a question actually makes it to the referendum stage. There have been a handful of separatist parties in Alberta, such as the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta and the Independence Party of Alberta. Ideologically speaking, separatists are largely conservatives and the parties are, too. For example, while separatism flowered in the 1970s and '80s, the defeat of the Trudeau Liberals by Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives stanched the enthusiasm at the time. And in 2001, when the Alberta Independence Party was founded in Red Deer, the inspiration for it, National Post reported, was the rejection of Stockwell Day's Canadian Alliance party by voters in central and eastern Canada. The latest iteration of a separatist party in Alberta is the Republican Party of Alberta, and it's another conservative party. The current leader is Cameron Davies, a long-time Alberta conservative. The vice-president of policy is former conservative parliamentarian Art Hanger. Other conservatives are involved, too. The polling also bears this out. In 2023, Environics research found that 83 per cent of United Conservative Party voters felt like Alberta didn't get the respect it deserves. In contrast, just 37 per cent of New Democrats felt that way. That same survey found that 67 per cent of UCP supporters agreed that Alberta got so few benefits from being a part of Canada, it may as well go it alone, compared to 24 per cent of NDP supporters. The first step would be to get to a referendum. This could happen if the provincial government chooses to hold one, or under the Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act, which allows any Albertan to put their concerns to a provincial referendum if they garner enough support. Smith has said that the government would hold such a referendum, if it had enough support. In order for citizens to force a referendum on the issue, they must gather the signatures of 10 per cent of all Albertans who voted in the last provincial election. Just shy of 1.8 million Albertans voted in the 2023 general election, so those wanting a separation referendum must gather around 180,000 signatures. Then, everything would follow per the federal Clarity Act. This legislation sets out that a province — whether Quebec, Alberta or anywhere else — may not unilaterally secede from Canada. They must negotiate secession with the federal government and the rest of the provinces, settling on some sort of constitutional amendment and agreement. The preamble also sets out a few guideposts on what happens. First, the outcome of a referendum would need to demonstrate a ' clear majority in favour of secession,' which would then 'create an obligation to negotiate secession.' The Clarity Act does not set a specific percentage that counts as a 'clear majority,' although 51 per cent is often cited as a clear majority. (The House of Commons could determine that that wasn't clear enough , and that means that secession could not go ahead.) Second, the question asked on the referendum itself must be 'free of ambiguity.' Third, for any province to legally leave would require negotiations between all the provinces and opening up and amending the Constitution. If all that was satisfied — plus any other aspects of the Clarity Act — and if an agreement was reached, then Alberta could separate. Eric Adams, a University of Alberta law professor, has said it 'seems next to impossible.' 'If you look to the Supreme Court of Canada's statement on separation, it looks exceptionally difficult but may be feasible, if … those negotiations produce some workable separation arrangement,' Adams said in 2019 . All of Alberta is covered by treaties, the majority of it by Treaties 6, 7 and 8. And there are 813,000 hectares of specific reserve land. After Smith said she would be willing to hold a referendum, a coalition of First Nation chiefs met for an emergency meeting and denounced the talk of separation. 'We're not going anywhere and if you feel that you have problems with First Nations you could leave,' said Chief Troy Knowlton of Piikani Nation . While the Alberta government is making it easier for citizens to push for a referendum, in the face of concern from Indigenous people in Alberta, the government introduced 11th-hour amendments to the legislation changing up the referendum process. The amendments were in the legislation passed as the spring session of the Alberta legislature drew to a close. 'In response to feedback from First Nations and Indigenous partners and to reassert our commitment to protecting Treaty rights, the bill now includes a clause stating that nothing in a referendum under the Act is to deviate from existing Treaty rights,' said Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery in a statement. 'Alberta's government will always recognize, protect, and honour Treaty rights as recognized by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.' It remains to be seen whether this would affect the ability of Albertans to even get a separation referendum on the ballot in the first place. An analysis of First Nations rights vis-à-vis separation, written by University of Calgary law professors Robert Hamilton and David Wright, says that Indigenous people in the province would likely have a significant role to play in any future negotiations over separation. 'It is reasonable to think that Indigenous peoples would expect to be full negotiating partners in any movement toward Albertan or Western secession,' wrote Hamilton and Wright. They also said that it would be more complicated for both Ottawa and Edmonton than to simply hand over treaty obligations to a hypothetical future independent state government. 'The only way Canada would be able to legally agree to secession, then, would be if there were guarantees in place ensuring that Alberta would respect the rights of Indigenous peoples to the same extent as they are at Canadian law (we set aside for the moment critiques on the adequacy of such) and if Indigenous peoples agreed to this modification in the relationship,' they wrote. 'The Crown cannot unilaterally decide to divest itself of its obligations or transfer them to another government.' Still, this perhaps would not amount to an Indigenous veto. 'It would seem plausible that there could be a state succession to a treaty…. People generally haven't suggested that Quebec would be incapable of separating due to treaties,' said University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman. 'At a broad level, Alberta could likely take on the obligations associated with the treaties to ensure that they continue on. I do see it as appropriate that Indigenous peoples are part of the conversations.' Bruce Pardy, a Queen's University law professor, wrote in an email that there would be no Indigenous veto in the case of a separation vote, but that opponents of separation might use Indigenous rights to 'discredit the process.' 'Canadian constitutional rights will not automatically be carried over to a newly independent Alberta. At the outset, everything will be an open question. That includes the status of Aboriginal people,' wrote Pardy. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Edmonton Journal
Everything you need to know about the threat of Alberta separatism
Article content After the Conservatives' federal election loss, some Albertans frustrated with Liberal government policies are rallying for separation from Canada. Recently, hundreds of separatists held a rally at the Alberta legislature, angered at the province's place within confederation. Article content Article content It's not the first time Albertans have pushed for sovereignty. There were upswings in separatist sentiment during the National Energy Program in the 1980s. More recently, separatist agitators gained steam in the dying years of the 2010s, angered over Liberal legislation that targeted the energy sector and a general downturn in the petro-province's economic fortunes. This culminated with the now-defunct Wexit movement. Article content Now, separatist sentiment is back. And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's government has made it easier for separatists to get a referendum on the ballot by reducing the threshold necessary to do so. She said if Albertans want it, her government will hold a referendum on separation. Here's what you need to know about the likelihood of that and the strength of the Alberta separatist movement. Have separatists ever had any success in Alberta? Not much. At least not electorally. Just once was a separatist elected to the Alberta legislature. Gordon Kesler, an oil scout and rodeo rider, won a byelection in 1982. He was elected by voters in Olds, Alta., who didn't like bilingualism, the metric system, gun control and then prime minister Pierre Trudeau's National Energy Program. Kesler won, but he sat only for two-and-a-half months, before running in the general election and losing solidly. Article content But it turns out Kesler wasn't a true believer: By 1983, he was vowing to leave the Western Canada Concept party unless it dropped separatism from its platform. When did the Alberta separatism movement begin? Despite the deep admiration that conservative Albertans tend to express for Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister can also be identified as the first prime minister to put the needs of central Canada over the needs of the west. His 1878 National Policy was crafted specifically to force east-west rather than north-south trade, to the outrage of those in what was then the North-West Territories. 'The people of the North-West are allowed but a degree more control of their affairs than the serfs of Siberia,' wrote Frank Oliver, the publisher of Edmonton's first newspaper, in August 1885. Ottawa's rule, he wrote, is 'despotism as absolute, or more so, than that which curses Russia.' Article content Article content This sentiment has ebbed and flowed over the years (and also existed beyond Alberta's borders, in other parts of the Prairies). There was anger in some parts of the west over the 1885 execution of Louis Riel, a Métis leader who is now recognized by many as the founder of Manitoba. Preston Manning, the founder of the federal Reform Party, traces the origins of alienation back to that event, as well as land surveys of the west done in 1869 with insufficient regard for the local populations. Freight rates on the national railways were also a source of grievance. In Alberta, specifically, William Aberhart's Social Credit Party, which was founded in 1935, briefly flirted with separatism. But it wasn't until the energy crises of the 1970s, the election of Trudeau Sr. and the National Energy Program that Alberta separation emerged in its more modern form. Article content Throughout all of this, only the fringes of Alberta's political spectrum have actually wanted the province to leave Canada. But far more Albertans have shared some sense of alienation or anger with Ottawa. What's the history of the Alberta separatism movement? In 1975, the Calgary Herald surveyed 221 Calgarians for their views on Alberta separation and alienation. Only eight people expressed support for separation. That's 3.6 per cent of respondents. However, by other metrics, Albertans were alienated, with more than 70 per cent saying Alberta politicians weren't taken seriously in Ottawa. By 1980, things had shifted: Mel Hurtig, the late pro-Canada publisher, commissioned a poll that found 14 per cent of Albertans supported separation. 'God forbid if the separatist movement would be able to find a charismatic leader,' Hurtig told the audience at an Edmonton hotel. Article content It wasn't considered front-page news. It appeared on page D22 of the Herald, above a story about a robot running amok in Florida and the TV listings. Still, the chatter remained, and by 1980, Reform party MPs were telling the media that they were hearing about the issue from constituents. Later that year, Doug Christie, the head of Western Canada Concept, held a fundraiser in Edmonton. It was a flop: He raised so little money that it 'wouldn't keep anyone in cheap cigars,' the Herald reported. Still, separation kept coming up again, though it wasn't always taken seriously. 'Alberta, alas, is over-generously supplied with chronic complainers whose lung capacity dangerously exceeds their IQs,' wrote Herald columnist William Gold in 1995. Separatists, Gold wrote, were a 'miniscule dishwasher copycat' of Jacques Parizeau's Quebec aspirations 'with no such claim on the respect of decent people.' Article content In 1997, two years after Quebec's last, failed attempt to separate, Social Credit leader Randy Thorsteinson said he thought it was inevitable that Alberta would separate. By 2002, when Jean Chrétien's government was signing the Kyoto Accords on climate change, then Alberta premier Ralph Klein warned that it could lead to separation. Naomi Lakritz, a Calgary Herald columnist, shellacked Klein. 'If the rest of Canada sees Alberta as greedy, uncaring, money-grubbing and self-centred in its negative reaction to the Kyoto accord, then Ralph Klein's use of the word 'separatism' and his petulant warning not to 'push us too hard,' has just reinforced that view,' Lakritz wrote. Even in 2018-20, when the Wexit movement — which advocated for the separation of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba — was ascendant and aggrieved westerners formed the Maverick Party, the movement never got that far. The Maverick Party never managed to win any seats and none of the provincial separatist parties had a meaningful showing in the 2019 or 2023 elections. Article content How much support is there for Alberta separatism? In 2019, the Angus Reid Institute found that 60 per cent of Albertans were open to the idea of the province joining a western separatist movement. This, however, is a bit of a vague question. ThinkHQ did polling that year, and found that when presented with a clear question — would you vote to stay or go? — only 23 per cent of Albertans said they'd opt to go it alone. More recent polling, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute prior to the 2025 federal election, pegged separatist support at 25 per cent, and that jumped to 30 per cent when Albertans were asked if they would vote to leave if the Liberals formed government again. The Association for Canadian Studies found in recent polling that 52 per cent of Canadians believe the threat of Alberta separating should be taken seriously. In Alberta itself, that's a view held by 63 per cent of those polled. Article content A Postmedia-Leger poll, found that 35 per cent of Albertans would support an independent western bloc, comprised of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Support for Alberta and Saskatchewan forming an independent state lies at 30 per cent, while 29 per cent of Albertans think the province should go it alone. But, put another way, the most attractive option to Albertans, at least according to Leger's polling, is still rejected by 65 per cent of Albertans. This is, however, uncharted territory. It could be a different situation altogether if a question actually makes it to the referendum stage. Who are the separatists and alienated Albertans? There have been a handful of separatist parties in Alberta, such as the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta and the Independence Party of Alberta. Ideologically speaking, separatists are largely conservatives and the parties are, too. For example, while separatism flowered in the 1970s and '80s, the defeat of the Trudeau Liberals by Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives stanched the enthusiasm at the time. Article content And in 2001, when the Alberta Independence Party was founded in Red Deer, the inspiration for it, National Post reported, was the rejection of Stockwell Day's Canadian Alliance party by voters in central and eastern Canada. The latest iteration of a separatist party in Alberta is the Republican Party of Alberta, and it's another conservative party. The current leader is Cameron Davies, a long-time Alberta conservative. The vice-president of policy is former conservative parliamentarian Art Hanger. Other conservatives are involved, too. The polling also bears this out. In 2023, Environics research found that 83 per cent of United Conservative Party voters felt like Alberta didn't get the respect it deserves. In contrast, just 37 per cent of New Democrats felt that way. That same survey found that 67 per cent of UCP supporters agreed that Alberta got so few benefits from being a part of Canada, it may as well go it alone, compared to 24 per cent of NDP supporters. Article content Could Alberta really separate? The first step would be to get to a referendum. This could happen if the provincial government chooses to hold one, or under the Alberta's Citizen Initiative Act, which allows any Albertan to put their concerns to a provincial referendum if they garner enough support. Smith has said that the government would hold such a referendum, if it had enough support. In order for citizens to force a referendum on the issue, they must gather the signatures of 10 per cent of all Albertans who voted in the last provincial election. Just shy of 1.8 million Albertans voted in the 2023 general election, so those wanting a separation referendum must gather around 180,000 signatures. Then, everything would follow per the federal Clarity Act. This legislation sets out that a province — whether Quebec, Alberta or anywhere else — may not unilaterally secede from Canada. They must negotiate secession with the federal government and the rest of the provinces, settling on some sort of constitutional amendment and agreement. Article content The preamble also sets out a few guideposts on what happens. First, the outcome of a referendum would need to demonstrate a 'clear majority in favour of secession,' which would then 'create an obligation to negotiate secession.' The Clarity Act does not set a specific percentage that counts as a 'clear majority,' although 51 per cent is often cited as a clear majority. (The House of Commons could determine that that wasn't clear enough, and that means that secession could not go ahead.) Second, the question asked on the referendum itself must be 'free of ambiguity.' Third, for any province to legally leave would require negotiations between all the provinces and opening up and amending the Constitution. If all that was satisfied — plus any other aspects of the Clarity Act — and if an agreement was reached, then Alberta could separate. Eric Adams, a University of Alberta law professor, has said it 'seems next to impossible.' Article content 'If you look to the Supreme Court of Canada's statement on separation, it looks exceptionally difficult but may be feasible, if … those negotiations produce some workable separation arrangement,' Adams said in 2019. What role could Indigenous people play? All of Alberta is covered by treaties, the majority of it by Treaties 6, 7 and 8. And there are 813,000 hectares of specific reserve land. After Smith said she would be willing to hold a referendum, a coalition of First Nation chiefs met for an emergency meeting and denounced the talk of separation. 'We're not going anywhere and if you feel that you have problems with First Nations you could leave,' said Chief Troy Knowlton of Piikani Nation. While the Alberta government is making it easier for citizens to push for a referendum, in the face of concern from Indigenous people in Alberta, the government introduced 11th-hour amendments to the legislation changing up the referendum process. The amendments were in the legislation passed as the spring session of the Alberta legislature drew to a close. Article content 'In response to feedback from First Nations and Indigenous partners and to reassert our commitment to protecting Treaty rights, the bill now includes a clause stating that nothing in a referendum under the Act is to deviate from existing Treaty rights,' said Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery in a statement. 'Alberta's government will always recognize, protect, and honour Treaty rights as recognized by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.' It remains to be seen whether this would affect the ability of Albertans to even get a separation referendum on the ballot in the first place. An analysis of First Nations rights vis-à-vis separation, written by University of Calgary law professors Robert Hamilton and David Wright, says that Indigenous people in the province would likely have a significant role to play in any future negotiations over separation. Article content 'It is reasonable to think that Indigenous peoples would expect to be full negotiating partners in any movement toward Albertan or Western secession,' wrote Hamilton and Wright. They also said that it would be more complicated for both Ottawa and Edmonton than to simply hand over treaty obligations to a hypothetical future independent state government. 'The only way Canada would be able to legally agree to secession, then, would be if there were guarantees in place ensuring that Alberta would respect the rights of Indigenous peoples to the same extent as they are at Canadian law (we set aside for the moment critiques on the adequacy of such) and if Indigenous peoples agreed to this modification in the relationship,' they wrote. 'The Crown cannot unilaterally decide to divest itself of its obligations or transfer them to another government.' Article content Latest National Stories
Canada Standard
09-05-2025
- Business
- Canada Standard
Alberta has long accused Ottawa of trying to destroy its oil industry. Here's why that's a dangerous myth
"Alberta is a place soaked in self-deception." Those words began Alberta-based journalist Mark Lisac's 2004 book aimed at shattering the myths that have unhelpfully animated too much of Alberta's politics over the past few decades. Current and former Alberta politicians are once again embracing and treating separatist grievances seriously. That means it's time once again to highlight and challenge political misconceptions that have the potential to destroy Canada. Oil is the root of one such myth. The misconception? That Ottawa perenially opposes the oil and gas sector and is determined to stop its continued growth. The National Energy Program (1980), the Northern Gateway pipeline project (2016), the Energy East Pipeline (2017) and the proposed greenhouse gas pollution cap allegedly prove Ottawa's hostility. Notably missing from these grievances is the Keystone XL pipeline and the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. Ottawa supported these projects aimed at transporting Alberta oilsands crude to foreign markets. The federal government even purchased the Trans Mountain project from Kinder Morgan in 2018 - not to kill it, but to build it. Read more: Justin Trudeau's risky gamble on the Trans Mountain pipeline As for Keystone XL, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for supporting the project. This doesn't fit the separatist narrative, so it's largely ignored. No one should dispute the National Energy Program's devastating impact on Alberta's conventional oil and gas sector 40 years ago. But the oilsands, not conventional oil, propelled Canada to its position as the world's fourth largest oil producer. Has Ottawa facilitated or obstructed the spectacular post-1990 growth of oilsands production? The record shows that, since the mid-1970s, Ottawa has facilitated and supported the oilsands sector. The federal government helped keep the Syncrude project alive in 1975 when it took a 15 per cent interest in Canada's second oilsands operation. Ironically, Ottawa's enthusiasm for more, not less, petroleum from the oilsands also appeared in 1980 via the National Energy Program (NEP), the devil in Alberta's conservative catechism. What most accounts of the NEP don't mention is that Ottawa offered tax benefits to oilsands companies while stripping them from conventional oil producers. Furthermore, the NEP's "made-in-Canada" pricing effectively guaranteed Syncrude would receive the world price for its production. At $38 per barrel, Syncrude received more than double what conventional producers received. If the NEP was harsh on conventional oil producers, it helped create a golden future for the oil sands. In the mid-1990s, Ottawa helped propel the post-1995 oilsands boom. The industry-dominated National Task Force on Oil Sands Strategies sought federal tax concessions to promote oilsands growth. The federal government delivered them in its 1996 budget, despite Prime Minister Jean Chretien's general concern with cutting the deficit. Again, these measures clearly contradict the myth of federal opposition to the oil industry. Ottawa's policy favouritism towards the oilsands didn't end there. It has consistently animated the federal government's treatment of the oilsands in its climate change policies. The federal Climate Change Plan for Canada (2002) treated oil and gas leniently. Its measures for large industrial emitters bore a striking resemblance to the climate change policy preferences of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Suncor and Syncrude, the two leading oilsands producers, estimated these federal proposals would add a pittance, between 20 and 30 cents, to their per barrel production costs. Justin Trudeau's response to Alberta's 2015 oilsands emissions cap also underlined Ottawa's favouritism, not hostility, to the dominant player in Canada's oil patch. Rachel Notley's NDP government set this cap at 100 million tonnes of GHG per year, plus another 10 million tonnes allowed to new upgrading and co-generation facilities. This cap was a whopping 39 million tonnes or 55 per cent higher than what the oilsands emitted in 2014. This generous cap contributed to a tremendous increase in oilsands production. Healthy profits became record profits in 2022. Ottawa embraced Alberta's largesse, incorporating the province's cap into its post-2015 climate policies. Furthermore, Ottawa increased its leniency towards the oilsands by exempting new in-situ (non-mining) oilsands projects in Alberta from the federal Impact Assessment Act. This exemption applies until Alberta's emissions cap is reached. Canada's latest National Inventory Report on greenhouse gas emissions reported record oilsands GHG emissions of 89 million tonnes in 2023, still 11 million tonnes shy of the 100 million tonne threshold. Finally, we have today's proposed national cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Alberta is apoplectic about the cap. But whether or not it's intentional, Premier Danielle Smith's outrage feeds into secessionist sentiment by seemingly misrepresenting the cap's impact on oil and gas production. Smith and her environment minister use the work of the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer (PBO) to nurture their "Ottawa hates oil" narrative. They claim the officer's analysis of the cap's economic impact showed it "will cut oil and gas production by five per cent, or more than 245,000 barrels per day." This is simply not true. In fact, the PBO concluded that, with the cap, oilsands production "is projected to remain well above current levels" - 15 per cent higher than in 2022. The proposed federal emissions cap, like the Alberta NDP's cap of a decade ago, is higher than current oilsands emissions levels. The PBO concluded the proposed ceiling for oilsands emissions would be six per cent higher than 2022 emissions. Ottawa's proposed cap, in fact, continues its decades-long support of the oilsands. Myths are central to our being. When I tell my grandsons about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I hope to inspire curiosity, imagination and interest in their grandmother's Irish heritage. But in politics, fanciful stories can be dangerous. Some weaponize myths, using the fictions at their core to encourage followers to let falsehoods rule their behaviour. That seems to be playing out yet again in Alberta. We must demand better from the political class.
