Sorry, not that.

A short history of looking south and shaking our heads

Faced with polling data that suggests that many Albertans have no desire to remain in an independent Alberta, apologists for the separatists have started to shout that “wacko” opponents of separation have no right to threaten to leave. (Let’s pause for a moment and appreciate the irony.)

Rather, they insist that federalists make “clear, well thought out arguments for Alberta staying in Canada.” If only the federalists could possibly match the clear, fact-based case the separatists make! Like this document on the Alberta Prosperity Project webpage that makes the dubious promise that there would be no sales, income or corporate income taxes in a free Alberta. It’s magical thinking for the win!

Happily, Alberta federalists have been making the positive case for some time, without having to resort to magical thinking. Senator Paula Simons has written a beautiful piece in Alberta Views magazine: “The Case for Sticking Around.” A couple of paragraphs worth quoting:

We are privileged to live in a country that values peace and inclusion and the rule of law. A country that encourages entrepreneurship and economic opportunity. A country that strives to balance individual rights and freedoms with the good of the collective community. A country where healthcare and public education are rights and gun ownership is not. A country where women control their own bodies and choose their own clothing, whether that’s a niqab or a bikini.

We’re not a country of polarization, but a country that values creative compromise, because we were born out of creative compromise.

Today Duane Bratt rose to the challenge and made his case. I was making the case way back in 2021! And the list goes on.

Having said all that, I want to disagree with the idea that it’s up to federalists to make a positive case for staying in Canada. It is a perfectly reasonable — and very Canadian — approach to argue simply that the status quo is preferable to the alternative.

If we look back to the years leading up to Canadian confederation, the impetus for joining together into the Canadian federation can be summed up as: “sorry, not that.” Having fought its (first?) civil war, the United States was well armed and feeling a bit expansionist. This was one of the motivators for the fathers of confederation to come together and make a deal.

The leaders of the contemporary separatist movement have made it quite clear through their words and actions that they see separation as a way to ally Alberta closely with the United States, if not to join it altogether. A “free” Alberta, they claim, would be able to build a pipeline through Montana, Idaho and Washington. It would benefit from loans from the Americans. Its sovereignty would be guaranteed by the United States.

Just as the fathers of confederation back in the 1860s looked south of the border, shook their heads and got busy confederating, a majority of Albertans today look at the spectacle that is Trump’s America and echo the sentiment: ‘sorry, no, not that.’ Whether it’s the shorter life expectancy, lower level of life satisfaction, less functional democracy, or higher rate of economic inequality in the US, or the state-sponsored violence in the streets, or the utter dysfunction of the political system, most of we “wackos” are prepared to give that a hard pass.