Solutions, not separation talk, are needed
Grassroots anger is being spread to promote revolution
About 30 years ago, when Saskatchewan politics was in the throes of the great Crown corporation privatization debate, union leadership likened the battle of public ownership of utilities to the U.S. civil rights movement 30 years earlier.
Rightly, such overheated rhetoric was scoffed at and faded into the sands of time, never to be heard of again … or so we thought, until last week …
Yes, dissatisfaction over “Eastern Canada” voting in a Liberal minority government had some — believe it or not — comparing the plight of western Canadians who will continue paying the carbon tax under a federal Liberal government with the plight of 1960s African-americans. Sadly, that wasn’t even the most over-thetop response.
Almost immediately after a democratic national vote, talk of “western alienation” quickly morphed into talk of western separation … either in the form of an independent Saskatchewan and/or Alberta nation, or joining the U.S. as the 51st and 52nd states. There was even a gathering in Lloydminster on Sunday to “discuss options going forward to deal with the situation Western Canada finds itself in after the election results.”
It is obviously ludicrous and requires an unequivocal response, that we’ve yet to hear from either Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government or certainly from Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney.
But before we go there or before we explain why this response is needed and why separation would be an economic disaster — something that should be self-evident — let us pause to reinforce the message Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Eastern Canada need to hear: Western anger and frustration is real, at least partially justified and far more widespread than you realize.
While it is easy to write off the 200,000 clicks on the #Wexit site as the angry, anonymous blowing off of steam or write off #rednexit as angry and uneducated prairie rednecks, leading political voices from across the spectrum get that the anger is real. And, surely, #Brexit has taught us something about the power of angry voices spread through social media.
Maybe the idea that Trudeau is the source of all Western woes is of mythological proportion, but there’s no denying this grassroots anger. Yes, it’s being fed by a conservative political movement and online conservative media for their own gain, but history tells us this is the exact recipe in any revolution. Those who want Alberta-saskatchewan separation as a separate nation are clearly promoting a revolution.
For that reason, this prairie fire cannot be dismissed by the East and the national government. But it can’t be fuelled by Western politicians, either. Both are as apt to get burned.
The message sent west from Ottawa can no longer be the patronizing nonsense about “hearing your concern”. As suggested by former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall, voters out here are long past that and are demanding action from this minority government — action that will have to go beyond completing the Trans Mountain pipeline or even serious amendments to Bill C-69. Serious amendments of the carbon tax that deal with the real-life problems the carbon tax has created have to be considered.
But if Wall, Moe and other responsible conservatives truly want to do what is right for their voters, it begins by behaving like a federalist — not a “frustrated federalist” using animosity to advance local electoral goals — but a true federalist willing to call out this separation talk for the nonsense it is. That includes calling out ex-reform Party/sask. Party/conservatives passive-aggressively promoting this nonsense.
Leaders also need to call out the stupidity of those advancing the idea of going from a
G-7 country to a country with the GDP of New Zealand or Denmark. They need to state — and state right now — that an independent Alberta-sask. just doesn’t magically negotiate a better trade deal with the U.S. Nor would it have the solution to the current North American-wide downturn in the oil economy.
We do need solutions, and they won’t be found in either overblown rhetoric or dismissive inaction.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post.