THE GHOSTS OF POLITICS PAST HAVE RETURNED TO ALBERTA, WITH INDEPENDENCE BACK ON THE LIPS OF POLITICIANS AND THE NEW DEMOCRATS BRINGING FORWARD A MOTION MONDAY SEEKING CONDEMNATION OF ALBERTA SEPARATISM.
MLA’S motion set for legislature on Monday
ED MON TON • Alber ta’s New Democrats will be calling on members of the provincial legislature on Monday to condemn Western separatism.
Albertans deserve to know where their representatives stand on independence, says Rod Loyola, the NDP MLA for Edmonton-ellerslie, who is behind the motion. The NDP, he says, firmly opposes separation.
“Any move towards separatism is actually going to hurt Alberta’s economy,” said Loyola. “Albertans, constituents of ours, need to know for a fact where the UCP stands on this issue.”
Premier Jason Kenney has, repeatedly, condemned separatism, though within the ranks of the UCP — and from other right- wing parties — there have been both shouts and whispers about Alberta independence. A variety of polls show nebulous support for the idea of separation.
Polling from Angus Reid in February 2019 suggested 52 per cent of Albertans thought the province would be better off if it left Canada; 60 per cent of Albertans were in favour of joining a “Western separatist” movement. In September, further polling showed that UCP support was bleeding toward the Alberta Party ( another centre- right party) and towards independence parties.
Western alienation and the attendant possibility of Alberta independence dominated some spheres of political conversation in Alberta prior to the pandemic, especially as new political parties espousing Albertan or Western independence were formed ( though as yet have had little electoral opportunity or success). As with much else in politics, it had been relegated, somewhat, to the back-burner, along with such other issues as pipeline construction and the carbon tax.
Yet, the issue of independence hasn’t gone away.
In Saskatchewan, which saw Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party returned to power, the vote was the first electoral test of the Buffalo Party, a party that believes Saskatchewan has the right to seek independence. It nabbed fewer votes than the Saskatchewan Party and the provincial New Democrats, but got a couple thousand more than the fourth- place Greens.
Alberta, too, has a new independence party, the Wildrose Independence Party, which joins the Independence Party of Alberta (which netted some 13,000 votes in the 2019 election) on the secessionist wing of provincial politics.
“We know that the movement is growing here in Alberta,” said Loyola. “Albertans want to know, we want to make sure that everybody is clear on where the UCP stands.”
Meanwhile, one United
Conservative Party MLA, Drew Barnes, who represents Cypress- Medicine Hat, has become one of the more outspoken UCP caucus members when it comes to being, at least, willing to ponder separatism as a stick in the carrot- stick battle for more Alberta power within confederation.
Barnes has found himself a target of the Alberta NDP; its attempts to seek condemnation of independence in the legislature are tied, at least partly, to comments by the MLA. When the Fair Deal Panel — struck to study how to increase Alberta’s power within confederation — released its report, Barnes, who was a member of the panel, caused controversy by saying “independence should be on the table.”
Asked Friday by the National Post if he intended to be in Edmonton for the discussion Monday, Barnes said he was planning to be there and would talk about the “hope and potential” Alberta has.
“There are differences of opinion out there and there are certainly differences of opinion on how Alberta should go about getting a fair deal,” Barnes said. “Albertans, Canadians, so many people came here to build a future for their families, their communities, and where we’re at now is the federal government is not allowing that to happen.”