NELSON: Let's face it, as Ottawa holds back the country, only Alberta shines

Chris Nelson is a Calgary-based regular commentator on Alberta politicsThere are reasons why Alberta going it alone could be a walk down a potentially dangerous path. But thinking we’d be turning our backs on an economic powerhouse isn’t among them.That’s because Canada is stagnating. But the rot rate grew deepest during the debacle of Justin Trudeau’s decade of national governance. Years from now it’ll be remembered the way the Dirty Thirties still are across the prairies.But already a majority of Canadians know this in their bones. They feel it on every visit to the grocery store, or while wondering if they’ll ever afford a new vehicle again.It’s toughest on our young people, who look at today’s property market with something approaching horror. Unless they have especially rich and generous parents, any hope of eventually affording a home of their own looks increasingly forlorn..It’s only those fortunate older Canadians who feel any sense of security: those who’ve amassed a big chunk of home equity or paid off the mortgage entirely. They can relax and watch that assessed value ratchet ever upwards, although those annual big rate increases, courtesy of greedy civic governments, might curdle their Cheshire grins a tad.Those same lucky folk were in their working prime when Canadian companies were much more competitive and could therefore offer defined benefit pension plans to employees. Nowadays such plans only exist for cossetted public sector workers and hens with teeth.This age gap in wealth, security and future aspirations is why younger Canadians, along with recent immigrants, switched their votes to the Conservatives in the recent election. Those two demographic groups were once the Liberals’ bread and butter, but when the future doesn’t look as golden as promised, you act accordingly when marking a ballot..However, those Canadians happy enough with the status quo and hoping to ride such security through a cosy retirement were left shell-shocked by the recent bullying tactics and ceaseless bombast of US President Donald Trump.So, they turned tail on the Conservatives, while totally abandoning the NDP with its annoying blathering that only resonates when times are so good we can accept such moral indulgences. Thus the oldies voted Liberal.Yep, they picked that most unlikely Captain Canada: global banking superstar, Mark Carney. (Superheroes don’t usually have two additional passports in their back pocket in case things don’t work out.)As a result, Alberta’s at the crossroads and a vote on separation seems inevitable by 2026. And no, it’s not just some wild-eyed fringe players that support such a move..According to a recent Angus Reid poll 36 per cent of Albertans either want to leave Canada, or are leaning that way. And those startling numbers come while Carney’s still paying lip service about kick-starting industrial development across this country.Of course he won’t. Not when push comes to shove. There are too many noses in the national trough to allow diversion from our dreary economic route ahead. The debilitating status quo will continue.Imagine the reaction among those Albertans still optimistic about the future, once it becomes painfully obvious the Grits’ won’t follow through on their pre-election chatter. And if those separation intentions subsequently hit the 40 per cent mark things will get mighty interesting in one hell of a hurry, as talk of this being nothing but a fringe movement unravels.So, just how weak is Canada’s economic performance? How about 'dreadful?' It was sickly even before Trudeau arrived, but he took mismanagement to a whole new level of absurdity: far more concerned with personal pronouns than productivity..For example, between 2014 and 2023, our national per capita GDP grew by a miserly 1.9 per cent in real terms, by far the worst performer among the G7 group of countries.Meanwhile the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates by the end of this decade Canada will suffer the lowest GDP growth of the leading 32 global economies.Yet the Liberals want to curtail our energy industry, which is easily the best performing sector of the economy. Imagine how woeful those stats would read if oil and gas exports were removed from the GDP ledger.Maybe today’s fear merchants, endlessly screeching about the dreadful economic fate facing Alberta outside of Canada, should instead imagine the fate of Canada without Alberta. Ouch.Chris Nelson is a Calgary-based regular commentator on Alberta politics.

NELSON: Let's face it, as Ottawa holds back the country, only Alberta shines

Related Stories