Colin MacLeod is the author of the provocative book “The Case for Alberta’s Independence,” and the force behind @cnm5000 on X.The Liberal government’s majority in the House of Commons, stitched together through a handful of federal by-elections and a few corrupt opposition defections, feels profoundly hollow to me as someone who calls Alberta home.On paper, it meets the minimum parliamentary threshold, yet it never faced the one test that truly matters: a general election put to every voter from coast to coast. Alberta sent 34 of its 37 seats to the Conservatives in 2025 and gave them 63.5% of the popular vote in our province. That unmistakable voice was simply set aside while arithmetic in Ottawa produced a fresh majority.I cannot help but see this as more than a procedural quirk; it is a quiet erosion of the consent that ought to bind a federation as vast and varied as ours.What troubles me most is how easily this outcome bypassed the democratic safeguard Canadians have always relied upon. A government worthy of the name should earn its mandate in the full glare of a national campaign, where every region’s priorities are weighed, and every citizen’s ballot counts equally in shaping the result.Instead, we are left with a ministry that can govern until at least 2029 — and quite possibly well beyond — without ever having to defend its agenda before the entire electorate again.The larger population centres in central Canada can, and do, decide national direction without ever having to reckon with the West’s distinct realities. That imbalance is not new, but this latest manoeuvre makes it feel newly permanent..The prospect of Liberal governance stretching across the better part of the next decade is not an abstract worry; it is a tangible threat to the economic lifeblood of Alberta. We have already lived through years of carbon pricing regimes, protracted regulatory delays on energy projects, and an equalization system that treats our resource wealth as a national revenue for climate priorities.A decade of uninterrupted federal control will only deepen those pressures. Investment will continue to flee to more welcoming jurisdictions, provincial revenues will shrink, and talented young Albertans will look elsewhere for opportunity.I have watched friends and neighbours weigh the cost of staying versus the lure of Texas or North Dakota, and each departure chips away at the province’s future. The human toll is real: families uprooted, communities hollowed out, and a growing sense that Ottawa views Alberta less as a partner than as a reliable source of transfer dollars.This is why, after years of watching the same pattern repeat, I have come to believe that independence is no longer a fringe idea but the only realistic path left. No amount of provincial premiers’ meetings, Senate reform promises, or constitutional tweaks has ever altered the structural reality that our province’s interests are permanently outnumbered.Independence would place control of our resources, our borders, and our fiscal policy squarely in Alberta’s hands. It would let us set our own environmental standards, negotiate our own trade deals, and decide how best to steward the wealth that lies beneath our feet. Far from an act of anger, it would be an act of responsibility — to our children, to our industries, and to the generations who built this province through sweat and risk.Like many Albertans, I once believed the federation could be fixed from within. This majority government, the way it was conceived, has made clear that the system is working exactly as designed: majorities formed in the population heartland will always prevail, and the West will always be asked to accept the consequences.If we truly value self-determination, prosperity, and the right to chart our own course, then the time has come to pursue independence with clarity and resolve. Alberta has the resources, the people, and the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive as an independent nation.Colin MacLeod is the author of the provocative book “The Case for Alberta’s Independence,” and the force behind @cnm5000 on X.
