Eighty percent. Think about that number. Pierre Poilievre took four out of every five votes in Battle River–Crowfoot. It is the kind of margin that would make a Soviet apparatchik blush. The Conservatives didn’t just win. They flattened the field. The Liberals and NDP weren’t opponents. They were extras in a conservative play.And yet. Behind the great Conservative thumping lies an inconvenient truth. Pierre Poilievre isn’t really from here anymore. He left Alberta a quarter century ago to work for Stockwell Day. Since then, he’s been a resident of Ottawa — elected in Ontario, living in Ontario, steeped in the bubble. If this was a homecoming, it was the sort where the guest has to ask for directions..EDITORIAL: Rolling out the blood red carpet for terrorists.The West knows this game by heart. Ottawa takes. Alberta pays. Quebec takes. Repeat. It has been the formula for half a century. Equalization — the word alone makes Westerners grind their teeth — is the gleaming symbol of this swindle. Alberta has poured over $600 billion more into confederation than it has ever received back.And what has Poilievre said? He will not touch the formula. Not a comma, not a decimal. So the biggest grievance in the West is to be left untouched, wrapped in Ottawa’s protective glass case, while Alberta is told to smile and keep paying. How long do you think that will last?.Yes, Poilievre is pro-pipeline. Bravo. He loves pipelines the way Prairie farmers love rain. But pipelines are no longer the dividing line. When even the hard left Alberta NDP and Saskatchewan NDP wave the pipeline flag, you know the debate has moved.Alberta doesn’t want another politician’s photo-op with a hard hat and a shovel. It wants a new deal. It wants Ottawa’s boot off its neck. Pipelines are necessary — but they are yesterday’s fight. The real issue is recognition, respect, and relief from being Canada’s permanent paymaster..MCMILLAN: Independence from what?.Poilievre now has the hardest job in Canadian politics: convincing the rest of the country he’s not just Alberta, while convincing Alberta he hasn’t gone full Ottawa. It is a tightrope over a canyon, with no net below. Lean too far to one side, and he loses the West. Lean too far the other, and he scares Central Canada. Ask Preston Manning what happens when that rope snaps. The Reform Party wasn’t built out of nothing. It was built out of frustration just like this.And then there are the Liberals. Once upon a time, Pierre Trudeau strutted through Alberta as if he owned the place. His son’s party now can barely muster 4.3% of the vote. Four point three. That’s not a political showing. That’s a rounding error. In Battle River–Crowfoot, the Liberals have become what in another context we would politely call “fringe.”.So let us not confuse numbers with trust. Poilievre’s 80% is dazzling, yes. But it does not erase Alberta’s grievances. It does not fill the hole dug by equalization. It does not silence the long memory of Ottawa’s betrayals.Alberta gave Poilievre its overwhelming support. But it was not a love letter. It was a test. A dare. A challenge.Deliver more than photo-ops. Deliver more than slogans. Or the West, once again, will look for someone who will.
