Geoff Russ is a writer and columnist based in West Vancouver.Albertans have voted overwhelmingly against pursuing the question of independence, for now. There will be no binding referendum on independence in the near future.It was the first of three contests that will have huge implications for Alberta’s future. The final one will be the 2027 provincial election. Before that, however, comes an election in which no Albertan can vote because it will take place in British Columbia on October 24.Strengthening Alberta within Canada depends in large part on a friendly government in Victoria, and the same is true of BC with regard to Alberta.A victory for the BC Conservatives led by Lorne Doerkson would give Alberta — and Saskatchewan, for that matter — a fair and good-faith partner in Western Canada.A Conservative government has not been elected in BC in almost a century. In fairness, the province did enjoy several decades of right-of-centre governments under the Social Credit Party and, at times, the BC Liberals.However, should the BC Conservatives led by Doerkson prevail this weekend, they will have no need to shy away from the conservative label or make concessions to federal Liberals and moderate progressives as the BC Liberals once did.Much like Alberta, BC has a long tradition of populism. Premiers such as Social Credit’s W.A.C. Bennett and the NDP’s Glen Clark both found themselves at loggerheads with the Liberals in Ottawa. In 1997, Clark went so far as to attempt to undermine joint military cooperation between Canada and the United States taking place on Vancouver Island.Unfortunately, under the modern NDP, that honourable, blue-collar populist instinct has been largely redirected at Alberta by New Democrats who are ever more white-collar and Laurentian in their outlook. On issues such as the Trans Mountain pipeline, the tanker ban in northern BC, and the fuss over the newly named Pacific Link, the BC NDP government has sought to be a thorn in the side of Alberta’s ambitions.The erosion of the BC NDP’s once-strong rural caucus is a consequence of this, with ridings across the TMX pipeline route rejecting the formerly pro-worker party. Like so many once-unique left-wing traditions around the world, the BC NDP have subsumed themselves into the monolithic politics of the modern left, which are as predictable and harmful here as they are anywhere else. .Now, however, that NDP government is fighting for its very life.The Angus Reid Institute’s latest survey puts the BC Conservatives at 46% against 43% for the BC New Democratic Party. Importantly, Conservative supporters are more certain of their choice in the ongoing snap election that Premier David Eby called to save his political career. Eby may yet discover that inviting public judgement on his record was an extravagance, much like his spending and attempts to tear down BC’s culture.Eby triggered the election in the hopes of running against Donald Trump, using former BC Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay as a surrogate for the president. The strategy was meant to overshadow his years of misgovernance that had driven his personal approval ratings into the dirt.With Manitoba in the grip of Wab Kinew, its wildly popular progressive premier, a conservative bloc could stretch from Creighton to Tofino if the NDP are cast out of power.Under Mark Carney, the federal government has made a show of approving major energy projects throughout BC and Alberta. From LNG projects in Kitimat and Prince Rupert on the West Coast to the Pacific Link pipeline that will run from Edmonton to Metro Vancouver, Western Canadian energy is poised for a renaissance.Fusing the economies of Alberta and BC via pipelines will only increase the economic clout of Western Canada’s two westernmost provinces. Oil drives the Canadian economy in unmatched fashion, giving its producers and carriers enviable leverage over Ottawa.BC is an oil and gas province, whether fashionably green urbanites in Vancouver and Victoria want it to be or not. It certainly produces plenty of LNG, but it is also the gateway for Canadian oil to the Pacific. The completion of TMX brought a near-unprecedented boost to the BC economy, and Pacific Link promises more. Such growth would not have been possible without Albertan oil, which would otherwise remain stuck in the ground for lack of access through BC.Despite the stereotypes of a rivalry between Alberta and BC, the two provinces are stronger together, both economically and politically. Although Eby publicly claimed that his vision of Canada includes Alberta, his words should be taken with a grain of salt. He has shown no affection for the neighbouring province in the past and has been more than happy to attack Danielle Smith and her United Conservative government on the campaign trail.Furthermore, Eby’s calls for economic patriotism amid the trade war with the United States do not extend much further than keeping American bourbon off the shelves. He has readily outsourced ferry construction to firms in China rather than ensuring the vessels are built in Canada..Vanquishing the scourge of bourbon will not save BC. It is time for a fresh start in the province, and a new alliance with the rest of the West should be one of its pillars.Former BC Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay deserves credit for her idea of a “Western Alliance.” Obviously, her leadership was otherwise a brief, spectacular failure, but her vision of a united West should not be tossed into the tomb of her political career.Shared transportation and energy corridors are vital to this, of course. There is also the prospect of a shared Western political outlook. The pursuit of independence in Alberta hit a roadblock during Monday’s referendum, but the answers to the other questions made the desire for autonomy abundantly clear.There is a tension in BC between the decidedly pseudo-Laurentian attitudes of Vancouver and the defiance of the rest of the province. A BC Conservative government should not hesitate to embrace the latter in pursuit of a freer BC within a united Canada.More importantly, the West is still a more unsettled and open place than Ontario and Quebec. Our history is more recent, and our lives more connected to the resource economy and the wilderness. The frontier spirit still lives out here, and our politics ought to reflect that rather than imitate Toronto’s.Western prosperity should not be subject to federal approvals and regulations, as both the TMX and Pacific Link pipelines have been, nor should Western identity be dictated from on high. The purpose of a Western alliance ought not to be to reflexively oppose every bit of federal outreach. Rather, it should be the latest and most resilient expression of the West as a region that is distinct and includes the West Coast alongside the Prairies. If the right is the only political tribe capable of still expressing this, so be it.Geoff Russ is a writer and columnist based in West Vancouver.
