It's been 21 years since the 'Firewall Letter' was published calling for Alberta to build a constitutional redoubt against Ottawa. Little if anything of substance came from it during most of that time, but the political fuel behind it has only ramped up production. .Twenty-one years later, the Firewall Letter appears to be a relatively moderate compromise with the 'Alberta first' movement of 2022. This is most on display in the Alberta UCP leadership race, which is shaping into an anti-Ottawa arms race..When Stephen Harper and a number of other Alberta luminaries signed the Firewall Letter (properly known as the 'Alberta Agenda'), it was met with derision and incredulity by most of the media, and even by much of the Alberta conservative establishment. The letter called for Alberta to replace the federal RCMP with its own police force, replacing the Canada Pension Plan with an Alberta Pension Plan, collecting its own taxes separately from the CRA, and asserting provincial jurisdiction over healthcare. .Precisely none of this was done at the time or has been done since, but the ideas would make a comeback. .Following the 2015 Alberta election, the Wildrose began to turn up the temperature on equalization and asserting control over provincial jurisdiction. By the time of the first UCP leadership race, Jason Kenney and Brian Jean were duking it out for the role of Captain Alberta. .The UCP formed government in 2019 with a promise to hold a referendum on equalization and force a better deal. It would stand up to Ottawa's incursions into provincial jurisdiction, and repeal the carbon tax. .Soon after, Trudeau was re-elected over Andrew Scheer's Tories sparking the Wexit movement quite literally overnight. Big rallies of people around Alberta who had just months earlier voted UCP — but now calling for independence — scared the government. To firewall this threat on his flank, Kenney announced the creation of the 'Fair Deal Panel'. It provided what Preston Manning used to call a "populist relief well' to blow off steam before it exploded. In fact, it would be Manning himself who would chair the panel. .The panel reported back with recommendations that included the Firewall Letter's greatest hits, affirmation that Alberta should hold a referendum on equalization, and several other weapons, like appointing a chief firearms officer independent of Ottawa's control. .Since then, little has been acted on. The equalization referendum was held in October of 2021, but Kenney didn't lift a finger to act on it. Alberta held a vote in a forest, but nobody heard it. It was a massive missed opportunity that is now seemingly lost. Studies have been commissioned on an Alberta Provincial Police force, but no action. Trudeau has regularly stomped over Alberta — like his killing of the massive Teck Frontier oilsands mine — that elicited nothing more than huffy news releases from the UCP. .In the meantime, the Wildrose Independence Party has seen regular flare ups in support at the direct expense of the UCP. .Kenney's failure to act on his rhetoric was one of the major contributing factors to the successful revolt against his leadership. .Which brings us to now. With the UCP crown up for grabs, many of the candidates are trying to position themselves as the biggest, baddest foe of Ottawa. And I say 'Ottawa.' Whereas last time, Kenney mostly just used 'Trudeau' as the Central Canadian bull's eye — the pretenders are seeing the bigger picture. Prime ministers with the name 'Trudeau' are particularly villainous raiders of the West, but Alberta fares only mildly better under Tory governments. .Of the 'Big Three' candidates most likely to be the top finalists in the race — Jean, Smith, Toews — the race is on for who can most out-'Berta the other. .Brian Jean's campaign slogan is "Autonomy of Albertans." He hasn't fleshed out much in the way of details yet, but all indications are that he will try to seize the mantle of Captain Alberta that Kenney won on the last go around. .Should Danielle Smith win, she would be the most brazenly anti-Ottawa head of government in Canada since Pauline Marois, the last Parti Québécois premier. Her slogan, "Alberta First" is perhaps less explicit than Jean's, but her platform is thus far downright radical (in the positive sense of the word). She proposes as her governing centrepiece an Alberta Sovereignty Act. In short, the act would codify Alberta's right to not enforce federal legislation and regulation that the legislature believes harms the interests of Albertans. .What would this mean? As a practical example, the Alberta government — armed with its own provincial police force in place of the RCMP — could refuse to charge citizens for violations of certain sections of the federal Firearms Act. Without the police to place charges, and without prosecutors to prosecute, federal laws could be effectively nullified. .It's been done before. Quebec did it with federal prohibitions on abortion in the 1970s. Northern states did it in antebellum America in flouting the Fugitive Slave Act. .In federal systems, it's difficult to force sub-national units to fall in line, short of sending in the army. .Critics of Smith's Sovereignty Act proposal are right to say that this would trigger a constitutional crisis. They are just wrong in saying that this would be a bad thing. Alberta would simply be codifying into law what Quebec has done for decades while Ottawa turns a blind eye. .Former Kenney finance minister Travis Toews has rattled some rhetorical sabres about fighting Ottawa, but hasn't put much forward in the way of concrete policy, yet. ."I welcome a discussion on any proposals that would increase Alberta's autonomy,” Toews said, referring to the proposed Sovereignty Act. “While there's more work to be done, we need to be responsible with Albertans' futures — consider every aspect — and be strategic about how we increase our independence.".Jean also seemed to throw cold water on the Sovereignty Act. Speaking to the Western Standard on the night following his official campaign launch, Jean said he doesn't know which federal laws Smith is referring to. He also said some of things put forward by Smith's campaign "aren't realistic."."They're not something I'm going to talk about right now," he said. "I'd be happy to talk about them in the future. But they're not super realistic at the moment.".The race's big wildcard was federal Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, recently green-lighted by the UCP to seek the leadership, but declining to pull the trigger, at the time of my writing. .Had she run, she also would have likely joined the Alberta First arms race, having been the primary author of the Buffalo Declaration..That sprawling document laid out, like few have before, the historical inequities Ottawa has imposed on the West, and proposes a list of bold measures in the "West Wants In" tradition. Several times, it warns explicitly that if the West isn't let in, it will seek to get out. ."Our federation has reached a crossroads at which Canada must decide to move forward in equality and respect, or people in our region will look at independence from Confederation as the solution.".It was perhaps the most explicit warning from a federal Western politician, to date. It was language even the Reform Party was afraid to use. .She would have been a major contender for the job, but in any case, she's out. .Either way, this leadership race's policies are thus far being defined mostly by hostility to Ottawa, and hostility to lockdowns and mandates. As COVID fades into the rear view mirror, the Ottawa issue is likely to take primacy. .In 2012, Alison Redford ran explicitly against the Wildrose's "Firewall agenda." In the 2014 PC leadership race, nary a word of protest was raised against Ottawa by Prentice or his challengers. In 2019, the biggest policy issue between Kenney and Jean was debating who had the referendum idea first..In 2022, the defining issue appears to be just how far we want to get away from Ottawa.
