Federal Environment Minister, Stephen Guilbeault, recently released draft regulations for achieving a net-zero power grid by 2035. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith quickly announced they will not be implemented in Alberta and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the net-zero energy goals were unachievable and unaffordable..Another battle in the long war between the Prairie West and Ottawa is upon us..It is notable the origins of that war go all the way back to the late nineteenth century..This is explained by George Koch in his chapter, “To the western school of history, Canada was a business proposition,” from the first volume of Ted Byfield’s multi-volume history of Alberta, The Great West Before 1900..Most of the prairies were originally part of Rupert’s Land which was controlled by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Rupert’s Land was acquired by Canada in 1870..As Koch explains, “For 35 years after the Hudson’s Bay territory was acquired by Canada, and effectively for decades thereafter, the Prairies were in every sense Canada’s colony. This was no happenstance. They were conceived specifically to fulfill that role."."In the Quebec Resolutions, in the Confederation debates, in John A. Macdonald’s letters and pronouncements, the western interior was viewed as a means to enrich central Canada. Settlement, development, the CPR, Indian policy and local government were all planned with this in mind.”.This meant that the West’s role was essentially to produce resources and staples that could be utilized and consumed by central Canada. Even after Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed in 1905, their lands and resources remained under federal control until 1930..As immigrants were brought in to populate the prairies, pioneer the land and create an agricultural economy, these new settlers soon “found themselves locked into enduring conflict with Ottawa..The West wanted responsible government; Ottawa sought to sustain colonial despotism..The West wanted commercial freedom; Ottawa pushed protectionism..The West liked populism and political pragmatism; Ottawa depended upon national partisanship and, later, upon executive federalism.”.Despite this conflict, westerners did not desire independence from Canada. They looked for other solutions that would essentially make them genuine participants in Canadian national affairs..As Koch explains, “Fundamentally, westerners of the 19th century, like those of the 20th, wanted an equal part in national life. As a whole they never were, and did not become, separatists. They wanted justice, not independence. Neither did they ever seriously favour annexation by the United States.”.Despite their opposition to joining the United States, however, many westerners admired the American political system because it gave the less populated states equal representation with the more populated states in the Senate..To use Ted Byfield’s term, the Americans had a “Triple-E” Senate. That is, a Senate with an Equal number of senators from each state, where the members are Elected and have Effective political powers..Supposedly the Canadian Senate was created to offer a voice for regional representation as well, but it completely failed in this function..As Koch points out, “From the start, however, that body was regarded with scorn in the West. As early as the 1890s, westerners were demanding it be changed.”.Furthermore, westerners learned they could not get their concerns addressed by working within the national Liberal or Conservative parties. As a result, they created their “own political movements to attack the institutional inequities directly..This spirit would rise again and again throughout the coming century, both in the form of populist, western-based, so-called protest movements and as powerful provincial governments taking an active role in national affairs.”.At the time Koch was writing in 1991, the Reform Party of Canada was rapidly gaining support in western Canada. During the 1990s it achieved considerable success in the West, including winning the vast majority of Alberta’s seats in the 1993 and 1997 federal elections..Despite this success, however, the Reform Party never came close to achieving its goal of reforming Canada’s national institutions to get a bigger voice for the West, namely, through the creation of a Triple-E Senate..What this means is that Westerners — and particularly Albertans — have already spent considerable time and effort trying to improve their political situation within Canada. Yet, after all this time, Alberta is still having harmful policies imposed on it by a hostile federal government..So here we are, still spinning our wheels. The net-zero goals being imposed by Guilbeault will certainly hurt Alberta and Saskatchewan..No doubt, Smith and Moe will do their best to defend their provinces from this attack. But their options are limited and any legal actions they initiate will ultimately reach the Supreme Court of Canada which heavily favours the federal government..Therefore, the only way to bring this long conflict to an end is for Alberta to move towards independence..A successful independence referendum will make Albertans “masters in our own home” — to borrow a phrase from Quebec — and enable us to make the best decisions for our future..The time for patiently working on a solution with Ottawa is over.
