One unacknowledged assumption is most certainly shared by the would-be leaders of a “free” Alberta: The new country they hope to create could not function as a democracy.
Indeed, from the perspective of the many aspiring Fathers of Deconfederation (and that of Premier Danielle Smith among the vanishingly small number of their maternal counterparts) the new country must not be truly democratic.
How could it be? Like all utopian ideologues, the Americanized separatist fringe that now controls Alberta’s United Conservative Party and dominates all separatist subgroups in the province does not, will not, and truly cannot acknowledge or accept the legitimacy of the many political philosophies that are present, and often prevalent, in any healthy democracy.
Like believers in the One True Church of your choice, all available evidence indicates that advocates of Alberta separatism universally share the same dystopian dogma associated with the so-called Make America Great Again movement south of the world’s longest undefended border. Any alternative view is therefore seen as having no validity, and anyone holding it no right to power, no matter how many votes they can get.
So, how can a state have a functioning democracy when every stream of political thought outside the MAGA cult must be proscribed in order for the prevailing official ideology to remain in power?
South of the Canada-U.S. border, what isn’t MAGA has no political legitimacy in the eyes of the Trump Administration. This is clear from its conduct. It is what drives the ICE invasion of Minnesota, the contempt for Congress shown by administration officials, and President Donald Trump’s threats of prison and death against Democrat politicians who oppose his unconstitutional policies.
This is the same administration with which the unelected trio of Alberta Prosperity Project zealots now claim to be negotiating the removal of Alberta from Confederation against the wishes of the clear majority of Albertans. Presumably they are singing a song of easy access to all the oil, water and rare earths President Trump could desire to their unnamed contacts in Washington.
The very same administration, that is, that’s plotting to purge more than 20 million American citizens, including millions of married women who have adopted their husbands’ last names, from state voter rolls in preparation for stealing November’s mid-term Congressional elections.
Obviously, there’s not much respect for democracy or the rule of law in MAGA circles on either side of the 49th Parallel.
In Alberta, as we have already seen from the opposition to premier Rachel Notley’s moderate government from 2015 to 2019, the nascent MAGA right argued fatuously that the NDP had no right to implement its own election promises.
Wildrose Party finance critic Derek Fildebrandt claimed in 2015 that the NDP had “hoodwinked voters into believing it would lean only slightly left.” (In the event, that was exactly what the NDP did. Lean ever-so-slightly left.)
Mr. Fildebrandt now publishes an online news site that the APP describes as an affiliate. “While APP builds the movement on the ground, the Western Standard delivers the hard-hitting journalism that fuels it,” the APP says on its website. The Western Standard describes itself as “an independent source of news and commentary” that is “fighting for a strong and free Western Canada.”
In 2016, Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Chris Alexander led a demonstration against the NDP’s carbon tax in chants of “lock her up” – the target being Ms. Notley and her “crime” of trying to do something about climate change. And when the UCP led by Jason Kenney took power in 2019, promising a “summer of repeal,” it set out to repeal all NDP legislation, good or bad, in imitation of Mr. Trump’s efforts to obliterate Barack Obama’s legislative legacy.
All this was long before the MAGA movement reached its present level of derangement south of the Medicine Line, and spread its tentacles into Alberta.
In Alberta today, the minority who want Alberta to separate from Canada consider progressive conservatives, socially liberal democratic conservatives, and other right deviationists to have no more right to power than New Democrats, old Democrats, mere democrats, or, God forbid, social democrats!
From the MAGA perspective – and the Alberta separatist cause is MAGA to its core – none of those political camps in which a majority of Albertans would be comfortable have any place in the ideological Nirvana they intend to build. (Just the same, they were infuriated when a pollster suggested large numbers of Albertans would leave in the event their project succeeded.)
Why do you think the APP Traitor Tots say an independent Alberta would need an army, right away?
It’s not needed to defend against Canada. Canada, unwisely perhaps, is committed to a constitutional process by which any province can separate as long as there is a demonstrably fair referendum, the result is decisive, and the resulting negotiations with the rest of the country reach agreement on the division of assets and liabilities.
Of course, the admitted goal of many separatists is to unilaterally declare independence despite the wishes of most Albertans and ignore the constitution and the rule of law with the backing of the Trump Administration. Indeed, that is the only way they are likely to succeed.
The purpose of that Alberta army, then, must to defend the new government against Albertans.
Can you imagine what would happen if, in the first election after a unilateral declaration of independence, Albertans elected the NDP? Or a progressive conservative party? Or any government committed to seeking readmission to Canada? Well, those work camps and deportation centres aren’t going to guard themselves, are they?
Look, if the APP’s leaders had an ounce of respect for democracy or the rule of law, they never would have crossed the border to try to negotiate the breakup of our country and secure a loan to finance their takeover.
We know from that alone how likely a functional democracy would be in Alberta post separation. And that’s without considering the company they keep Stateside!
So if you support Alberta separation, you have a legal right to do so. But please don’t try to persuade anyone it would be a democracy!
Some positive commentary about Canada
When the separatist crowd melted down at the suggestion by a pollster that a significant percentage of Albertans would get the hell out of Dodge if they succeeded, their online bots kept whining that no one was making a positive case for Canada. This was pish-posh, of course, like a lot of separatist propaganda. But on Valentine’s Day, in response to that plaint, both University of Calgary political scientist Lisa Young and Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt published commentaries making a case for Canada. Dr. Young also linked to Senator Paula Simons’ excellent The Case for Sticking Around. These are all good pieces, well worth reading.
Cheerful positivity alone is not enough, though, when the people with whom you disagree have given up on logic, facts, and critical thinking and willfully adopted stupidity, corruption, mendacity and, arguably now in a few cases, outright treason.
Happy Family Day!
Today is Family Day in Alberta. This year, obviously, there are bigger fish to fry. Nevertheless, readers can access my past thoughts about the February long weekend here.