The Road To Alberta

"Nothing makes conditions more unbearable than the knowledge that

no effort of ours can change them..." - F. A. Hayak, The Road To Serfdom

By: Alan Clark

    People have told me that I must impress on my fellow Albertans that independence is nothing to fear. "Let them know that Alberta will be the same tomorrow as it is today." Well that may be but not if I had my way.

    Canada, more than any other country, is grounded in Marxist fundamentalism. Surely, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and even America to a certain degree have their share of socialist planning. But those countries have long histories and vastly more experience than Canada. They have all known periods of great liberty. The greater the liberty, the greater the nation. It's no coincidence that the last two great powers, the United States and Great Britain before her, were the greatest libertarian nations of their time.

    Canada's formative years were at the height of socialist fundamentalism. Our system of government could have been written by Karl Marx himself. Every aspect of a Canadian's life is planned by the government. From the cradle to the grave. You are born in a government owned hospital. Delivered by a government employed doctor. Parked in a government subsidized day care. Educated in a government funded school by a government employee. The weight of your cereal box is scrutinized by government as is the printing on the box. The radio you listen to comes via government controlled airwaves from a station which has government approval to broadcast. The books you read are vetted by a government censor. Your job is regulated by government agencies. Notwithstanding the genocide of the Jews, there is simply no functional difference between being a Canadian and being a German under Hitler.

    The fundamental problem is that Canadians have no other experience. We have been a nation for just over a hundred years and we have been a totalitarian Marxist state for essentially all of our modern period. A democratic totalitarian state to be precise. Hitler's Germany was the same as was Mussolini's Italy. It's not uncommon for democracy to become dominated by a collectivist creed. 

    F. A. Hayak's book "The Road To Serfdom" explains, "Democratic control may prevent power from becoming arbitrary, but it does not do so by it's mere existence. It is not the source (of power) but the limitation of power which prevents it from becoming arbitrary." Canada proves that democracy can survive within autocracy.

    Canada stands centered between the cradle of western civilization and the greatest nation ever born of that philosophy and our greatest distinction has been our total abandonment of the individualist tradition which made Britain and America the greatest nations on earth.

    No, Alberta should not be tomorrow as it was yesterday. Canadian Marxists have crushed the democratic principles which are prerequisite to individual freedom and individual pursuits. We shall demand a system which recognizes that no one person's view about what is right or desirable can overrule the views of others in the name of "the common good". As Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

    As Jean Poutine himself said during the last election campaign, "Albertans are different." He's right. We don't want to live in a totalitarian Marxist democracy. Unfortunately, generations of Marxist teaching and propaganda have made Albertans into Marxists and it will take time to adjust our thinking to the new liberty and freedom from government coercion. But this is the fundamental difference between us and the Canadians. They want a system geared to the collective satisfaction of their needs. They are content to have every decision made for them. Albertans want the right of choice and are prepared to accept the risks, rewards and responsibility inherent in that right.