WAGNER: If Alberta wants change, it must threaten to leave Canada

Alberta has been the target of hostile federal policies for several decades, but it cannot get its grievances within Canada addressed because it has no leverage to use in negotiations. Whenever Alberta asks for changes to improve its situation, such as a Triple E Senate, it is always rebuffed. There are no consequences for central Canada when Alberta’s reform proposals are rejected.But that can change. As Ted Byfield of Alberta Report magazine argued over twenty years ago, Alberta can get positive change if it would threaten to leave Canada.The context for Byfield’s comments about threatening to leave was the aftermath of the November 2000 federal election. Jean Chrétien’s Liberals had handily beat the Canadian Alliance, leaving a large number of Albertans — once again — unhappy with their province’s status within Canada. Many wanted substantial change.One result of the discontent was the famous January 2001 “Firewall Letter,” written by Stephen Harper, Ted Morton and some other prominent Albertans. It proposed the Alberta government maximize its use of the province’s constitutional powers, including collecting income tax, creating a provincial police force, initiating a provincial pension plan, and forcing Senate reform back onto the national agenda.However, Byfield found the Firewall Letter to be defective on at least one major point — there was no threat to back it up. In a column discussing the letter Byfield wrote, “If Mr. Harper thinks that Alberta can merely proceed to exercise the same autonomy Quebec now does, he is dreaming. Quebec is a special case; it is, we are constantly told, ‘distinct.’ What makes it special? Its language? Its cultural heritage? Yes, but it always had those, and nobody outside Quebec gave a damn. Such autonomy as Quebec possesses was achieved in just one way: it made convincing threats to leave.”“The lesson is plain,” Byfield continued. “If you really want change,” you must “threaten to leave — and mean it. Period. If we fail to understand this, we are not being patriotic. We are being stupid. Crassly, arrogantly, blindly stupid.”He wrote a subsequent column with a title that summarized his argument: “The West’s paradox — the only way we can change Canada is by finding ways to leave it.”In this column Byfield made his argument forcefully: “Unless we make credible threats to set up on our own we will get absolutely nothing by way of constitutional change, or any other kind of change. We will be bashed down every time. If we threatened to leave and meant it, we would have enormous clout in Canada, more even than Quebec. By refusing to entertain such an idea, we have no clout whatever. That is the message of history — and of the last three federal elections.”Byfield went on to argue that Alberta needed to explore alternatives to being in Canada, such as becoming an independent country or even joining the United States. Once it was understood that these were viable options, Alberta could then return to the negotiating table to discuss its place within Canada.As he put it, “We should go back to the negotiating table, just as Quebec is proposing to do, and we should go back as Quebec goes back — with other options clearly in view — such as an independent state, or joining the American union. If we go to the table with these alternatives thoroughly explored, tenable and widely understood, we will come away with quite a bit, and a very new Canada will emerge. If we go to the table without those options, we will come away with nothing whatever. All central Canada need do is stymie the negotiational process and we will have to slump back into the status quo as we always have.”Without a genuine threat, there is no reason why central Canada would agree to any changes favourable to Alberta.Byfield referred to Alberta’s situation as “a paradox” because the “only way we can change Canada is to develop ways of getting out of Canada. We must possess other options.” This is undoubtedly true. Independence is Alberta’s only realistic alternative to the status quo.As things stand, Alberta’s legitimate grievances have been ignored and will continue to be ignored. Personally, I think pursuing independence — with the intent to achieve full independence — is the only reasonable choice left. However, as Byfield so cogently argued, even for those who want Alberta to remain within Canada, using the option of independence (or statehood) as a threat is the only way to get the changes that are sorely needed.Alberta needs leverage to renegotiate its place within Canada, and only the threat to leave will provide that leverage. .Due to a high level of spam content being posted in our comment section below, all comments undergo manual approval by a staff member during regular business hours (Monday - Friday). Your patience is appreciated.

WAGNER: If Alberta wants change, it must threaten to leave Canada

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