The Kerr Petition
June 9, 2003
By Alan Clark
Too many parties. I'm not talking about my teen-age years. I'm talking about the political landscape. In Alberta there are now nine hundred and seventy-one political parties. Only four of them are officially registered with the Bureau of Official, Proper and Recognized Parties though. The reason I don't personally support any of these un-official parties is that I regard anyone who starts a political party as being completely insane. Having been involved in starting a party back in the 1980's, I know the incredible amount of work that is required just to achieve "official, proper and recognized" status. Getting people to actually support you is worse still. Two years of working nearly every day "for the party", all the writing, the endless meetings, the phoning, the organizing, the candidates forums, the door knocking all culminated in a grand total of 159 votes on election night. I think my wife was so fed up with me and "the party" that she didn't even vote for me. That's why, when people call me and say "I'm starting a new political party", I instantly say "pfffft, nut bar!!" and hang up the phone. In short, if you are thinking of starting a new political party, you obviously know nothing of what you are undertaking because if you did, you wouldn't bother.
That's not to say that I think there's nothing to be done. Trevis Kerr & his Associates are doing exactly what I think needs to be done. They go out into our communities and talk to people one-on-one. They ask simple questions like, "Do you support the jailing of our farmers for selling their own grain? Do you support spending a billion dollars on a gun registration program which benefits no one except violent criminals? Do you believe the federal government thinks that Albertans are intelligent human beings capable of rational thought? When the person they are talking to finally stops ranting about one legalized marijuana-induced liberal policy or another, they ask one more question. "Will you sign our petition asking the Alberta government to hold a referendum on independence?"
Recent polls, as quoted by the news media and even Premier Klein, have indicated that between 18 and 23 percent of Albertans support the idea of separation. It's not surprising that Mr. Kerr et-al, are actually getting people to sign their petition. What's remarkable is that they are getting so many people to sign. If the polls and King Ralph are right then standing in the Canadian Tire parking lot asking people to sign a petition on Alberta independence should be a soul-destroying proposition. In reality, Mr. Kerr & Co. simply can't write fast enough. On average, seventy-four percent of the people they talk to sign. And we're not talking about downtown Olds or Sundre here. Mr. Kerr & Associates have visited an impressive list of Alberta communities from Fawcett in the north, through Edmonton to Drayton Valley and as far south as Coaldale, Pincher Creek and Lethbridge. They have talked with over 2000 Albertans and nearly 1700 of those people have signed their petition.
If you can design a more scientific or verifiable poll than to ask people their opinion on a subject and have them provide their name, address, phone number and signature, then I'd like to see it. These guys should be consulting to Ipsos-Reid and Insight Research because those two companies have obviously got it all wrong. Let that be a lesson to you about poll numbers. Somehow the "official" pollsters came to the conclusion that less than a quarter of the province favours separation, which may or may not be accurate. It appears however, whether Albertans support independence or not, nearly three-quarters of them want to hold a referendum on the issue.
Getting back to the new political party idea. Ask Cory Morgan or Bruce Hutton how the collecting of signatures to gain "official" party status goes. If they had one-tenth the success that Trevis Kerr & Associates have had, they would both be leading official political parties right now. They're not. Not because their ideas weren't good. Not because they aren't likable guys. Not because Albertans are particularly happy with any of their current political choices. The reason nobody will sign on to a new political party is because they have become like dandy-lions. Every spring, a new crop springs into existence and, in reality, they seem to die again faster than actual dandy-lions.
Referenda however, are a game that Albertans never get to play but they just know they'd love it. The one time in my 42 years that I got to play the referendum game was when Dong Getty and his Mahareshi Mulroney tried to slip Distinct Society past us via the Charlottetown Accord. We gave that one such a sound thrashing that Muldoon vowed never to hold another referendum and Quebec's Lucien Bouchard cried himself to sleep for weeks. It was better than the Calgary Flames thrashing of the Montreal Canadien in the 1989 Stanley Cup! I know the Flames would like another crack at Lord Stanley's mug about as much as I would like to take another crack at this referendum stuff. The first one was great! Seventy-two percent of the eligible voters in Alberta turned out which in itself is proof that referenda are marvelously popular. We haven't had a 72 percent turn-out for any vote, of any kind since - well, never in my life-time. The Alberta average for voter turn-out is barely over 50 percent.
What Albertans are craving isn't another political party. We want another referendum. Oh, and another Stanley Cup too! While we'll have to wait for Stanley to come to town, as far as the referendum goes, all we have to do is sign up! If we can get a quarter million names on the Kerr Petition, then Ralph will have no choice but to don his stripes and drop the puck.
Right now there are three men going around the province collecting names. They are each getting about a hundred names a week. If we had 300 men and women collecting names and each got a hundred names a week, then in a scant 10 weeks we'd be ready to present them to Ralph. We could play Referendum before the kids go back to school!
This is the one thing that we can all do. You don't have to support Ralph or Cory or Bruce or anyone else. You can sign up a thousand people or a dozen. Sign up your family and friends. You can take a prominent place in history or simply tell your grand kids about the time you helped bring about that historic referendum in 2003. You can print off a copy of the Kerr Petition and carry it with you. When you've got all the names you think you can get, call Trevis at (780)954-2415 and let's get this game on! If you'd like to spend some interesting times, get together with Trevis and his crew and hit the streets. You will go home with a new perspective of how Albertans really feel about life in Canada. And you will never believe another poll so long as you live. I have to go now. I am going out to collect names on the Kerr Petition. See you at the referendum party!