What To Expect From Alberta's Independence

By: Alan Clark

    In the words of Dr. Fred Marshall, "I don’t like my country but this place I love". Our parents inherited an Alberta that was destitute. The "dirty thirties" evolved into the "dust bowl" of drought and Alberta was the first province in history to become bankrupt. It was through a combination of tenacity, hard work and a little good luck that our parents turned this place around. In the fifties, Alberta was dirt poor. In the sixties it was lower middle class. The steady work of our parents brought Alberta to comfortable security in the 1970’s and as 1980 dawned, we stood poised to become fantastically wealthy.

    Then a greedy and vengeful Canadian Prime Minister named Pierre Trudeau, cheered on by our jealous and envious cousins in central Canada, took steps to take away our wealth. He attacked our primary industries. Crashed our banks. Closed our businesses. Bankrupted many Albertans who had only worked too hard and done too well.

    Mr. Trudeau had used our own political system against us. This had been done before but never with such calamitous results. Our banks were regulated. Our farmers and industries hobbled by freight rates, import tariffs, customs duties and marketing boards designed to favour central Canadian farms and businesses and to keep us either buying the overpriced products Ontario and Quebec supplied or to keep us sending the cheap raw materials their industries needed.

    Through various government policies and programs, the federal government took over $160 billion dollars away from Albertans. The 1980’s were a time when Albertans couldn’t fight. The best we could do was keep working, try not to go bankrupt and hope that things would get better. We cheered with delight when our boys - the Progressive Conservatives were finally elected and pledged to end the discrimination against Alberta’s industries. Our hopes were soon dashed however, when it became clear that the Mulroney Tories had to keep Quebec and Ontario happy if they wanted to stay in power. What makes Ontario and Quebec happiest it seems, is money stolen from Alberta. The Tories did however, give Albertans something no other government had ever. A sales tax. The flow of wealth out of Alberta continued.

    In the late 1980’s, in spite of the constant drain of wealth from our people, we had managed to survive and even prosper to some degree although Alberta didn’t look anything like what it would have if the now $200 billion which had been taken from us had been left here to build schools, roads and your personal bank accounts. A couple of new political parties were formed. One, the Western Independence Party lead by Dr. Fred Marshall said, "the system can’t be fixed. If we want a just society then we’ll just have to build one for ourselves." The other party, the Reform Party of Canada said, "The West wants In!" It’s leader Preston Manning was convinced that if the west were to send a solid block of Reformers to Ottawa, they’d have to listen. They wouldn’t be able to discriminate against us anymore.

    Our parents decided that they weren’t ready to give Canada an ultimatum. They were scared that our humble past wasn’t that far behind us and that one shouldn’t burn one’s bridges. So the decision was made to send the Reformers to Ottawa and demand that Confederation show Alberta some justice.

    Alas, fourteen years have passed and we’ve sent a full block of Reformers to Ottawa at each election. Still the flow of money from Alberta continues. Now the total is nearer $300 billion. That’s $50,000 per family. The federal government imprisons our farmers for the crime of having donated wheat to a charity without the marketing board's consent. Our businesses have become tax collectors for the government. Our dollar is worth half of an American dollar. Life for most Albertans is paycheck to paycheck. Savings are nonexistent and a tropical vacation is something only federal employees can seem to afford.

    We’re right where Preston Manning and our parents left us nearly fifteen years ago and I’m asking you to make the decision. Do we accept the status quo or will you back independence. Before you answer, let me tell you what independence will deliver.

    The reality is, Albertans can have all the services that they currently enjoy as Canadians. They can have these existing services and more and still our taxes could be lower than at any time in the past thirty years. Our standard of living the highest in North America. We can have total control of our own economy and our own environment.

    Every economic study ever done using an independent Alberta in the modeling has shown that Alberta would be stronger and much wealthier. We can determine our own laws, immigration policy, national holidays. All the benefits of an independent nation. Or we can just keep it the way it is and hope it gets better. Now tell me...

Will you support Alberta independence?