Wendy Wadstein is a lifelong Albertan, having lived in or near Calgary, Airdrie, or Rocky View County for 54 years. She is also a canvasser for the Alberta Independence Referendum petition.A relative in Ontario recently asked me whether certain online sentiments expressed by an “Albertan who loves Canada” resonated with me. I had to admit, they did not. Like the author of the essay, I too loved Canada and took pride in my country. I loved that it was a relatively safe place to live, with a beautiful and varied landscape, mostly friendly people, and the opportunity to work hard and build a future. But I don’t recognize that country anymore in Justin Trudeau’s “post-national state” with “no core identity.” It is still strikingly beautiful, but our federal government sows divisiveness deliberately. Corruption, scandal, and greed abound with no accountability, and the rule of law has become a mockery that only applies to those who respect it. Since the Freedom Convoy and the polarization of the “small fringe minority … holding unacceptable views” that turned out not to be so small, people seem largely angry. I don’t feel safe here anymore, and opportunity no longer goes to those who work hard and keep their noses clean, but instead we have “equality of outcomes,” whether earned or not.The essay referred to the Premier’s “weaponization” of the notwithstanding clause to “strip away our rights,” which seems backward to me. She invoked it to protect our rights: the rights of students to an education, the rights of parents to know if their children are struggling with gender dysphoria, and the rights of women and girls to be safe in sports. The Premier had a mandate from the people of Alberta in these decisions, as her strong approval rating proves.The healthcare system was full of corruption and waste, and desperately needed fixing. I support the Premier and our UCP government in their efforts to rid the system of bloated management and get back to caring for the sick. There is still a long way to go, and with the cooperation of Alberta Health Care, we could have a much better system.As for “foolish divisions being sown,” I see that more on a federal level than provincial. I see Alberta becoming more united with each passing day, as Ottawa continues with one disastrous policy after another. Premier Danielle Smith has repeatedly stated that she supports “a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” much like Quebec has negotiated for. The UCP did not run on an independence platform, and they are not advocating for it..The author wrote of her concern for the “full-blown harm separation will [wreak] on our economy, our way of life, our identity, our values, our standing in the world.” In fact, our economy would be much stronger if we broke free from the Laurentian system that sees the East as the economic and political centre of the country, with the West treated like a natural resource piggybank. Alberta could be one of the wealthiest countries in the world if we no longer subsidized the East with transfer payments ($26.2 billion for 2025/26, with Quebec receiving $13.6 billion), if we were free to develop our natural resources, and if our tax dollars were no longer being used to prop up an ever-growing federal bureaucracy or to service a ballooning $1.35 trillion debt (which, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is costing taxpayers more than $55 billion in debt interest payments — more than what is collected from the GST or healthcare transfers to the provinces). Our “way of life” is quickly becoming untenable, as young people cannot find employment due to the abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Young families cannot afford to buy homes due to the massive inflation caused largely by printing money and devaluing our dollar. Our streets are no longer safe, with violent offenders like “Alice” Michael Attwood (who admitted to stabbing his two children, aged 7 and 8) released on bail (but now sentenced to five years), while pastors are convicted of “criminal harassment” for simply objecting to drag queen story hour in public libraries. Whether you think that’s a bad idea or not, surely you should at least be able to say so.Which brings me to “our values.” Alberta has consistently voted Conservative in federal elections, and yet the election is called before our polling stations have even closed, sending the message loud and clear that our votes literally don’t matter. We do not have representation by population in the House of Commons. Our senators are appointed by the Prime Minister, most often a Liberal, who chooses a senator whose ideology aligns with his party and not that of our province. The RCMP work for the government, not the people. Every elected politician swears allegiance to the Crown, not the Constitution or the people. The PMO appoints everyone from the RCMP Commissioner to Supreme Court Justices. Look what just happened there; we have a “conservative” Supreme Court Justice retiring early, gifting the appointment of her replacement to Carney, ensuring the continuation of a Liberal majority.Regarding “our standing in the world,” Alberta will be just fine. Canada’s reputation as one of the most taxed countries in the world, with rising crime, rising unemployment, an underfunded military, and now close ties with the Chinese Communist Party, is a reputation Alberta would prefer not to share. I’m not sure where the disinformation is coming from about the independence movement being bankrolled by American or Russian actors intent on Canada’s demise; sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. Canada is imploding all on its own..It may be offensive to talk about independence, but it certainly is not illegal. The Clarity Act was enacted by the Canadian government in 2000 to lay out clear rules for any province wanting to secede from Canada in response to the ambiguous referendums held in the past on Quebec’s independence. Independence is not unconstitutional based on treaties with First Nations either. According to constitutional lawyer Keith Wilson, “A referendum is a democratic vote. If that vote succeeds, the law requires negotiations that include affected First Nations, and any separation agreement must recognize Aboriginal and treaty rights before constitutional changes can even proceed.” If Alberta becomes sovereign, we will have our own Constitution, written in consultation with indigenous representatives. They could potentially secure much better treaties, to be honest. It is not a “desecration” or a “deep cruelty” to negotiate a better future for First Nations in our province.To say that Albertans are disdained and stereotyped may be accurate, but most of us are familiar with being marginalized and underestimated, and it has given us the impetus we need to decide we have earned the right to some respect.In summary, Canada is not the country I grew up in. It has become a place where good people are punished and the bad go free, the hard-working can’t get ahead, and the lazy live off the sweat of the rest, a place that has so demonized that “bad orange man” to the south that we will happily make unprofitable deals with Communist China, ignoring the fact that roughly 76% of our exports go to the United States. Canada has become a country where violent protesters calling for the death of certain people groups are lauded and given room, while peaceful truckers standing in the gap for the freedom of all Canadians are vilified and jailed, and their supporters’ bank accounts are frozen (no consequences for the unconstitutional invocation of the Emergencies Act either). Our federal government allows unchecked immigration with no regard for the housing, healthcare, or education crises our own citizens face. The RCMP return guns to mentally unstable people with no PAL and confiscates them from hunters and farmers. The feds mandate electric vehicles with unethically sourced cobalt in the lithium-ion batteries that cannot be recycled or even safely stored, and we import dirty oil from countries that commit atrocious human rights violations while preferring to leave our ethically sourced resources in the ground and our workers unemployed. A sovereign Alberta would mean greater prosperity for Albertans, lower taxes, and freedom from persecution, politically, economically, and culturally, from federal control, as well as from China, Europe, the UK, and globalist NGOs like the WHO and the WEF. Canada is a sinking ship. Large swaths of us (and not just in the West) no longer recognize it, and we certainly do not want to go down with it.Wendy Wadstein is a lifelong Albertan, having lived in or near Calgary, Airdrie, or Rocky View County for 54 years. Also a canvasser for the Alberta Independence Referendum petition.
