One of the longstanding problems of the Alberta independence movement is that it waxes and wanes in response to external events. That is, something happens in Ottawa to provoke outrage in Alberta boosting support for secession, then something else happens in Ottawa easing the outrage, and the movement fades away. Each time there’s a provocation from the federal government, the movement needs to rebuild from scratch. This pattern has repeated itself numerous times over several decades..The first baby-steps of the secessionist movement were made shortly after Pierre Trudeau became prime minister, but were soon undermined by subsequent events. This is recounted by Calgary lawyer and long-time Liberal activist Darryl Raymaker in his informative 2017 book, Trudeau’s Tango: Alberta Meets Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-1972..Pierre Trudeau became prime minister in April 1968, and one of his top priorities was the passage of the Official Languages Act. The purpose of the bill was to give French and English equal status in the government of Canada, with the hope of redressing the concerns of francophones..As Raymaker notes, however, “Many English-speaking people across Canada, Albertans prominent among them, were outraged at the federal government ‘shoving French down our throats.” With oilmen and farmers already skeptical about Trudeau, the passage of the Official Languages Act in July 1969, increased the sense of Western resentment towards Trudeau and his government..A few months later, prominent Calgary lawyer Milt Harradence began to openly question the West’s place within Canada. As Raymaker describes him, “Harradence was a high profile, revolver-packing, headline-seeking criminal lawyer (and former skilled RCAF pilot) who had grown up in Prince Alberta, Saskatchewan, where he’d fallen under the spell of its finest criminal lawyer, John Diefenbaker.”.Harradence had also been leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party in the 1963 provincial election. He resigned as leader after the party won no seats, but remained involved politically. According to Raymaker, in “February 1970 Harradence announced the formation of the New West Task Force, comprising Calgary businessmen and ordinary citizens who wanted economic consultants to study the feasibility of an independent western Canada.”.Harradence received numerous calls offering support as well as requests to speak. Calgary radio talk show host Bill Knights reported that two-thirds of his callers were favourable towards Western secessionism. Additionally, Robert Thompson, the Progressive Conservative MP for Red Deer and former leader of the federal Social Credit Party, said that the independence movement only needed a leader for it to pose a threat to Canadian unity..However, as Raymaker writes, “All this western alienation ballyhoo continued at a reduced noise level through the summer of 1970 and Harradence’s task force never delivered a report.” Indeed, the incipient secessionist movement was about to be cut off at the knees by a major event down East..That event was the “October Crisis” of 1970. A far-left Quebec terrorist organization, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and British trade commissioner James Cross. The FLQ had committed numerous acts of violence throughout the 1960s and was already responsible for the deaths of eight people. Acting at the request of the Quebec government as well as the Montreal municipal government, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, thereby suspending habeas corpus, and giving extraordinary powers to police. The army was also out in force..Trudeau’s decisive action was very popular across the country, and notably in Alberta. When a reporter questioned Trudeau on the large military presence and asked him how far he was willing to go, Trudeau responded, “Well, just watch me.” As Raymaker writes, “Most westerners loved Trudeau’s retort; it remains one of his most popular lines in Alberta.”.It was three days later that the War Measures Act was invoked and Trudeau gave a very effective twenty-minute televised speech to the nation. According to Raymaker, “For the second time in three days Trudeau was the most popular man in the country and probably the most popular Canadian prime minister of all time. Albertans and millions of Canadians coast-to-coast regarded this speech as his finest hour. The Alberta daily press throughout the crisis remained squarely on the government’s side.”.A public opinion poll conducted the following month found that 80 percent of Canadians supported Trudeau’s use of the War Measures Act while only 10 percent were opposed. And in an interview, Alberta’s Social Credit Premier Harry Strom, “said that he completely supported the federal government’s response to the Quebec crisis, and in his view so did 95 percent of Alberta’s citizens.”.Trudeau’s newfound support in Alberta was the death-knell of the embryonic secessionist movement. As Raymaker puts it, gone “were the rabble-rousers of western alienation; Harradence’s task force disappeared permanently. Alberta public opinion had rarely been more unconditionally Canadian than in those dark days of October 1970.”.Support for secessionism was essentially dead but would rekindle within a few short years, and the Independent Alberta Association (IAA) – the first serious secessionist organization – would be formed in 1974..Nevertheless, the pattern of an “on-again, off-again” secessionist movement would continue for decades. We are currently in an “on-again” phase, and there is no end in sight, so perhaps this time will be different. Justin Trudeau shows no signs that he could demonstrate genuine leadership like his father did during the October Crisis. Therefore, as long as he is prime minister, the movement can continue to grow and organize with the possibility of achieving Alberta independence on the horizon..Michael Wagner is a columnist for the Western Standard
