“Freedom is nothing, but a chance to be better.”.,.— French author, Albert Camus.“What happened to you, Dave?”.The voice on the phone was an old friend — from Ontario..We knew each other for years, went to school together, high school, and then lost touch after university..“Why did I become an Alberta separatist?” I responded..It was a complicated answer, one that couldn’t be explained in a simple way, I explained..When I landed in Calgary on board an Air Canada DC-8 (my first time in a DC-8) in 1974, I had $300 dollars in my pocket, that’s it..But I met a nice family, the Radants, on the plane. We chatted and became instant friends..As we deboarded in the old airport (now gone), Mrs. Radant pulled me aside and said, “Dave, we can rent you a room in our house, would you be interested?”.Holy crap, I thought, they want to help me..It would be my first experience with Western hospitality. They rented me a room on Calandar Rd., for $60 a month.. Screen-Shot-2022-04-06-at-2.44.47-PM1970s Calgary .They were the nicest people in the world and they gave me a chance to get a start in Cowtown..I would get a job at the Palliser Hotel — I was the security guard at the door of their annual Stampede party. And oh man, what a party!.I remember seeing some guy dressed as a prospector, bringing his donkey right into the hotel lobby!.And my God did people ever party and have fun. I also still remember how good the roast beef sandwiches were. The chefs at the Palliser were extraordinary!.And the soldier who, while holding the hand of a young lass, wanted to rent a room at the Palliser for “an hour.” I called the manager and let him deal with it..It was total chaos and total fun. And I loved every minute of it..I would then go up north, working out of Whitehorse with Highways, on the Alaska Highway. Then later, in Yellowknife, for the N.W.T. government..I loved the north and the excitement it offered a young man..A licensed pilot, I would rent a brand new Piper Warrior in Whitehorse and explore the skies of the Yukon. I also got to fly with legendary outlaw bush pilot “Midnight” Jimmy Anderson..The good old days, as they say..Anyway, getting back to the question..When I got back to Calgary after university in 1979, I did every job I could get my hands on, including spice salesman, in southern Alberta..But I would eventually land at Montreal Trust, where I met my future ex, Eileen. A wonderful woman who would turn my life around..I won’t dwell on that, but let me say this: When I came to the West, I had no clue, no idea. I made mistakes, plenty of them. And if I had to live it over, I would make the same ones..I have no regrets about heading West and making a life here, but man … I had a lot to learn. Some hard lessons, too..As my good friend, Pete Menzies, former publisher of the Calgary Herald once said: “In Ottawa they still think of Canada as Upper and Lower Canada. Everything else is sort of a colony or foreign protectorate.”.I have reason to believe that might actually be the case. In fact, nothing has changed. We are still nothing more than a colony..When the West was soaring and contributing to federal coffers and transfer payments, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau decided to invoke the now infamous National Energy Program..I hate to harp on that again and despite my personal respect for PET, it was a mistake, a huge mistake. And it’s been downhill ever since..As just a normal guy on the street it didn’t affect me, until the boom ended … and then, yeah, it did affect me and pretty much everyone I knew..If you didn’t have a solid job, you were screwed. You might have even lost everything, including your house, your car and anything else you were making payments on. .A way of life had disappeared overnight..But I somehow weathered that storm and many others that would follow. The Western spirit was firmly in my heart and I was going to stick it out no matter what..I soon learned that if you were working for a company in the West, any company, it was often controlled by people in the East. Heartless, faceless people who didn’t know you and would have no qualms about eliminating you or giving you a paltry raise..Politically, as well. We never had a chance. The feds never ever thought to make changes to our electoral districts — but they sure did give Ontario and Quebec their fair share..Many promises made, many promises broken..Eastern industries also got more than their fair share of government handouts. The West, not so much. We were on our own. But that’s the way we liked it..We never ever wanted handouts. Just an even playing field. That’s what Ottawa never understood from day one..Since then, a string of prime ministers have come and gone — and really, I didn’t see much difference between any of them. Although, I liked Jean Chretien and his down-home Shawinigan way of doing things..He (and Paul Martin) also kept Canadian banks from merging with US banks before the crash, and kept us out of that Iraq invasion debacle. That, I will never forget..Didn’t like Harper much, but in hindsight, he did keep his hand on the economic tiller and he liked cats. That last part saved him, IMO..By this time, I became what I call a small “l” redneck liberal. I had seen how the West was treated by an increasingly hostile Ottawa..Constantly undermined, the West, and especially Alberta, were treated as nothing more than a resource sector to satisfy Ottawa’s unending greed. And that’s putting it nicely..And then came Justin Trudeau and his pie in-the-sky shift to a so-called green economy. A world of unicorns and six-figure green jobs that would miraculously appear out of nowhere..A policy that demonized and marginalized the oil industry — the same industry that has paid the tab for these eastern bastards, for decades..Nothing to fear, the Green Party told us, welcome to the New World..As I told my Ontario friend, I never heard talk of Alberta separation, until Justin arrived on the scene with his sunny ways. .It is, in fact, the house that Trudeau built. It is what it is..Trudeau’s nonsensical attempt to control the internet, his over-spending amid Canada’s ballooning debt, his many scandals and mistreatment of then Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould, the damaging federal legislation and his assumption that everyone in the Freedom Convoy and those who supported it were Nazi sympathizers and racists. Take your pick..And then came his invocation of the Emergency Measures Act, which was not needed. .And that’s not just me saying that; several provincial leaders and human rights groups were also opposed, including his nibs, Quebec Premier François Legault — the same man who rejected “dirty oil” from Western Canada after enjoying decades of transfer payment cash..In short, Alberta independence offers up a viable solution to removing the heavy yoke that the East has placed on Albertans all these years..Without changes to Confederation, it may well be our only way out of this disastrous mess..Trudeau calls us “a threat to democracy,” which only feeds the fire. He’s an idiot, but we are stuck with this clown and his NDP court jester for three more years..At the end of the day all we really want is a future for our children, and their children. A fair deal, nothing more. We are not greedy. .And to quote Jared Wesley, a political scientist at the University of Alberta: “Get out of the way of our pipelines.”.So yeah, that’s why I’m an Alberta separatist. And damn proud of it..Dave Makichuk is a Western Standard contributor. .PTacitus27@gmail.com
