Ilana Mercer Is Right

By: Alan Clark   

    In an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen and which appears also on this site, Ilana Mercer wrote -  "secession has not really been defended as the mainstay of the liberties of a sub-national region." and ..."Secession must emerge as a higher-not subordinate-principle. It isn’t, because its proponents neglect the soul of secession." She is of course, completely right.

    I have said before that I got away from politics over a decade ago because I became completely frustrated with the debate. I was sick to death of people who were supposedly on my side, constantly harping about bilingualism and Meech Lake and the myriad of grievances that had become our rallying cry. I didn't want to hear it anymore and I suspected that my fellow Albertans didn't either.

   I've spent the past ten years camping and looking up at the stars. After several rum and cokes around a campfire, the mind starts to wander. My mind, unruly bastard that it is and much to the consternation of my wife who wishes I'd just stay out of it, wanders to how I am going to convince my friends and neighbors that Alberta can be the greatest country in the world. And then it struck me! "You have to tell them what it will be like. Paint them a picture of a free and democratic Alberta."

   I guess I've actually done more than drink and contribute to the smoke in the atmosphere. I've also been reading. F.A. Hayak "The Road To Serfdom". John Locke's "Second Treatise on government", Peter McWilliams'  excellent book "Ain't Nobodys Business If You Do" and Ann Coulter's "Slander". I've come to understand, largely thanks to Hayak, that the road to prosperity lies "in the free exercise of human ingenuity".

    Then I started putting together all that I know about Alberta's economic strength and our people's inherent free market spirit and it occurred to me that Albertans, left unencumbered will multiply their combined wealth exponentially. And mine too! All I have to do is deliver to them a government system that will pave the roads, educate their children, and for the most part, leave them the hell alone! It's not about money. It's all about liberty.

   If there is one thing that defines Albertans it's that we all appreciate a job well-done. That includes Ralph Klein. We didn't elect him to lead us. We elected him to do a job. Run the corporate province. Try not to spend too much money and leave us the hell alone. Ralph, for the most part, has done just that and that's why we love him. Albertans love anyone who will just take a job and do it properly. No bitching. No whining. You know your job. Do it.

   The problem has been that no matter how good a job Ralph has done, the federal mafia is still there extracting from us. Day by day, week by week. And no matter how much liberty we grant ourselves, the mafia will never let us be free. Free from search and seizure. Free from cultural imposition. Free from marketing boards. Free from every looney idea that comes down the "planned society" pipe.

   Ilana Mercer is right. If we are to impress our fellow Albertans we must tell them about the new Alberta. The one where they will be free and government will be a tiny, almost insignificant factor in their lives. A government that paves roads, incarcerates criminals, educates children and very little else. An Alberta where, as Hayak says, we are "without the coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority".