Now that Canada has seriously damaged the reputation, economy and military of the United States by booing its national anthem and beating them unmercifully at a hockey game, it is time to get back to the larger issues of life in the Great White North — particularly in the western part of the Great White North. First however, a little digression for background.Over one hundred years after the fact, we Canadians take pride in how our forebears defined our country on the battlefields of Ypres, Passchendaele, Dieppe, Juno Beach etc. Canada came to age on the killing fields of Belgium and Normandy. Canadians have always stepped into the gap when asked to do so. But those of us alive today aren’t those Canadians. We, instead, have allowed our military to become the laughingstock of western nations. We sit by as money is poured into foreign nations while our veterans are chided for “asking for too much.” So, let’s stop shamelessly living off the bravery of our fathers and grandfathers. It is a form of “stolen valour” and the Americans, at least, punish such shamefulness with up to three years in prison. Instead of shaking our fist at our American neighbours and demonstrating faux pride in a country that ignores its history and destroys its institutions, we need to push for necessary changes to redeem our valour.My allegiance these days is much less to Canada and much more to Alberta and I am tired of being embarrassed by our federal government. If we are to remain a country, many things must change. It is time to demand those changes by implementing a forcing function, We can start with equalization and see how it goes.To wit... We, in Alberta, have been tearing out our hair for decades about equalization. “No more equalization payments to support Quebec, dammit!”And the result of all that hair tearing? Nothing happens.In the interest of causing something to happen, consider the following a “modest proposal.”What if we make a unilateral declaration that Alberta will no longer offer equalization payments to provinces that refuse to develop their resources and/or provinces whose resources are removed from the equalization formula? “Keeping Canada together” is no longer Alberta’s problem.But the federal government collects the taxes and does the redistribution to Quebec. We are hooped, n'est-ce pas? But are we?What if Alberta proposes to collect the federal and provincial taxes and then sends the federal tax portion to Ottawa based on the average country-wide, per capita tax? The “equalization portion” would remain in Edmonton. And Quebec would howl. And Ottawa would huff and puff. And it would quickly be declared unconstitutional. So on to step two…The Alberta government should then declare a one hundred percent tax on all provincial resource wealth. Then the government could announce a series of incentives paid back to the industry. The incentives might be equal to the taxes. “Sorry Mr. Trudeau/Carney/Poilievre there is no money available for the equalization program.”The federal government will certainly take Alberta to court but that is why we have courts. And it is why we have a Sovereignty Act, come to think of it. The legal process will take several years during which Alberta withholds the equalization payments. But the case will never get to court. Rather, it will force a conversation that Alberta has demanded for decades. Someone famously said that doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. It is nice that the “conversation in Canada is changing” but that is small consolation. It is time that Alberta stops being codependent on Ottawa and forces an action that either rebalances the constitution, leads to overt acceptance of the status quo, or results in a completely different association between Alberta and Canada. It is time.Jesus could have asked the shopkeepers to please stop carrying out their commerce in the temple. But he didn’t. He tipped over the tables, scattered the money, and forced a reaction. It is time to start tipping over some tables.
