WAGNER: Who broke Canada?

By now everybody knows the election results. The Liberals are still in power. That’s a terrible outcome, but the silver lining is that more Albertans and other Westerners are seriously considering Western independence for the first time. Even many of my Western Standard colleagues are now on board.As a longtime Alberta independence supporter myself, it seems like Christmas. A political stance that used to carry a notable stigma is now common on every hand.With such sunny ways in view, it’s worth looking back and recalling that it never needed to come to this. Canada could have worked..In fact for its first hundred years or so, Canada did work. A large country of diverse regions and interests is bound to have internal conflicts and that was certainly the case here. The West had many grievances and generated various populist movements to address those concerns. Sometimes things improved.But Canada’s federal system — with the federal government addressing issues of national concern like the military and foreign affairs and the provinces addressing local concerns like resource development and education — worked reasonably well. It’s a good system but you need politicians who believe in the system to make it work, as it did until the 1960s or so.Then came change. That change had a name: Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Here was a man of superior intellect, superior ability and an unmatched drive to attain his goals. He preferred centralized control over provincial autonomy. During his time as prime minister, he essentially “re-founded” Canada as a different country. He is likely without peer in Canadian history..Numerous books have been written about his effect upon the country so that needn’t be recounted here.But there is one thing that needs to be said clearly and loudly. Canada did not have to fracture. So when this great country of ours breaks apart we shouldn’t be shy about who’s to blame.Not coincidentally, there is one organization in this country that has done more to provoke regional division than any other during my lifetime: the Liberal Party of Canada, which Pierre Trudeau also played a great role in changing. Without the malice and incompetence of the modern Liberal Party, Canada may very well have survived.I say “malice” because the Liberal governments of Pierre Trudeau and his son Justin intentionally harmed Alberta as part of their political programs. And I say “incompetence” because it’s hard to believe any thoughtful person would actually think that deliberately aggravating regional conflict in a country like Canada could lead to anything but disaster. But that’s what they did..The 1980 federal election is one of the most blatant examples of this kind. After Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative minority government was brought down in December 1979, Pierre Trudeau and his Liberal team decided to intensify regional cleavages as a way to get back into power. This was explicit in Liberal campaign materials.As John Duffy wrote in his book Fights of Our Lives, “The divisive appeal to regional interests was overt, as in one ad that depicted a grinning Clark cozying up to Alberta’s Premier Lougheed. The voice-over stated, ‘Ontarians should pay attention to the budget that demonstrates how easily Joe Clark would give in to Premier Lougheed and Alberta on energy prices.’ ”Previously, the Liberals liked to campaign on “national unity” but their new campaign strategy directly contradicted it. According to Duffy, “In 1980 they dropped their unity message and ran on a bald program of redistributing wealth from the West to the East. As Keith Davey subsequently put it, ‘Screw the West. We’ll take the rest.’ The Liberals figured that any western outrage would be more than offset elsewhere, especially Ontario.”.This election campaign was a long time ago but it is unique in Canadian history for its effort to aggravate regional divisions as a deliberate strategy. It clearly demonstrates who makes regional divisions worse to achieve political goals, namely, the Liberal Party.After the 1980 election the Trudeau Liberals launched a blatant attack on Alberta with the NEP. As Energy Minister Marc Lalonde would later admit, the central purpose of that policy was to transfer oil revenues from the producing provinces and the industry to the federal government. It was a crude money grab at the expense of Albertans.Similarly, Justin Trudeau’s climate policies were meant to appeal to voters in eastern Canada at Alberta’s expense. Albertans get hurt but Trudeau and the Liberals get votes.As Canada breaks apart many people will be upset, as they should be. But they should also keep clearly in mind the perpetrators of this calamity. Those of us who work to achieve Alberta independence are not the cause of the country’s divisions. Decades of Liberal Party malice and incompetence — especially under the Trudeaus — brought us here.

WAGNER: Who broke Canada?

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