With the rise of Alberta’s independence movement and the cunningly conceived “Fair Deal” panel to “explore” what it is Albertans want, inevitable comparisons have arisen between Alberta and Quebec..And, to be fair, there is much we have learned from Quebec. For example, what sorts of jurisdictional authority we should assert as a province and over what kinds of areas. Like them or hate them, Quebec at least is one of the few provinces that understands what it controls and demands that it maintains that control. .But beyond that lessons in jurisdiction, the similarities end there..The very concept of Canada is vacant without its twin founders. Like Romulus and Remus of Roman myth, the English and the French, Upper and Lower Canada, Ontario, and Quebec are at the heart of what we understand to be Canada. Like twins wrestling together in the womb, the character of the country was profoundly impacted by those two cultures and political entities. Whether they care to admit it or not, they have rubbed off on each other and there is more than grudging mutual respect. .In fact, even a cursory review of Canadian political origins reveals that once they overcame their animosity toward each other, Ontario and Quebec have shaped confederation into something that would benefit them and retain a lock on power. Certainly, the maritime provinces received concessions (good ones at that) and British Columbia as well, but all through those negotiations, you can see the tag-team effort between our two founding provinces in the manner in which they ensured that political and economic power would always rest in the center. .That is why when the undercurrent of separatist sentiment bubbled to the surface in the middle of the last century in Quebec, it could actually be labeled as separatist. .Quebec’s exit from confederation would have ripped away half of the Canadian identity. It would have been a separation, similar to a divorce of two parents in a family with eight other children. .This is not so with Alberta and the rest of the West. When in the late 19th century, when Ottawa (that is, Ontario and Quebec) was lobbying London to grant them take over control over the West from the various companies that had been mandated to settle it, it caused a great deal of unease with the people who were already living in those regions. And with good reason; there were interesting lessons still fresh in everyone’s minds from the manner in which the federal government had “welcomed” Manitoba into confederation. It had occurred to the people in these parts that Ottawa did not seem quite as accommodating as London..As it turns out, they were right, as was evidenced in the heavy-handed manner in which Ottawa dealt with the citizens of Manitoba, culminating in the brutal put-down of the Northwest Rebellion..Canada was not at all shy about declaring the West a vast region over which it was their duty as imperial subjects to exploit. That the people who lived out here might not yet see themselves as Canadians in the same light never occurred to the ruling elite in Ottawa. Never mind that Alberta and Saskatchewan were really provinces in name only with a scant few of the same powers as the other provinces in confederation. Never mind that whether it was the Wheat Board, dairy cartel, or simply control of our own provincial resources, Ottawa employed many levers of repressive economic exploitation and ensured that the game was always stacked in their favor..We knew this in 1905, we knew this in the 1980s when the rallying cry was ‘the West wants in’, and we know it now with the rise of a much more organized Alberta independence movement. .Notice I say “independence”, and not “separatist”. We would have to be treated as equal partners, contributors, and benefactors of confederation to actually be considered separatists. Likewise, Quebec’s movement is fueled by ethnicity, language, culture, and sometimes race, where Alberta’s is driven by a desire for economic and political self-determination. .It is not Canada’s culture that many Albertans and Westerns seeks distance from. It is its policies. It is time to leave an abusive system of structured and ingrained exploitation of our region and its industries. Time to leave a system that uses its population base to impose burdensome policies, taxation, and debt upon us. It is time to leave a ‘nanny state’ culture that simply does not reflect the values of a majority of Albertans. .The Americans declared independence over taxes on tea and stamps, and had to fight the most powerful empire in the world with self-armed farm boys. .Albertans are in a position to leave an equally distant, but even more exploitive relationship peacefully, and in friendship. The only thing holding us back is our will to act. .James Albers is a guest columnist for the Western Standard
