The Alberta separatism boom is in full swing. Pundits are talking about "western alienation" again, pollsters are asking endless questions, no doubt some family dinners in Calgary and Red Deer have become a bit acrimonious.
This is all because of several factors. First, Conservative-leaning Albertans were excited that after years and years of the hated Justin Trudeau, they hoped to get local lad Pierre Poilievre as PM.
When that didn't work out, the hard-core grumblers again raised the possibility of seceding, either to form a Republic of Alberta or to join the United States.
Premier Danielle Smith then reduced the requirement for petitioning for a provincial referendum 鈥� cutting it from 20 to 10 per cent of voters. It suits Smith's political purposes to rile up the separatists who form part of her own base, even as she blithely claims to be opposed to separation personally.
(Smith has petulantly demanded that Ottawa expedite more cross-country pipelines, and is using "alienation" as a threat. How does she see that working out if Alberta isn't even a part of Canada anymore? What's our incentive to play nice with people who don't even want to be Canadians?)
I think we should have a referendum. Actually, we should have two.
First, the Albertans should get their vote on whether or not they stay in Canada.
But if they decide to hold a referendum, it should trigger a second vote: everyone else in Canada gets to vote on whether to keep Alberta or to get rid of it.
If either vote "wins," Alberta is out.
Why would we in the rest of Canada want to get rid of Alberta?
Well, there's the fact that they've succeeded Quebec as the most entitled province, by a wide margin.
Consider how good Albertans have it, economically speaking. Their GDP per capita is the highest in Canada. Their provincial debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest among the provinces. Their population is the youngest on average, which means lower health-care costs, and more people working and paying income tax, which is good for the provincial coffers. They can pump money right out of the ground.
So why are Albertans perpetually angry at Ottawa?
We're told that they're mad over pipelines and environmental policy, over equalization payments, and over the 1980 National Energy Policy, (which the average Albertan is far too young to remember).
I suppose that's true, but listening to Albertans complain that they aren't rich enough, that despite being the most prosperous province in Canada, they deserve to be richer still, is more than a little galling.
The worst Albertans (and I must say most aren't like this, just the loudest ones who turn up on TV) seem to believe that the oil that made Alberta wealthy was somehow conjured up by the sweat of their brows, instead of being a lucky accident of geology.
So we come to my modest proposal, with two votes.
The majority of Albertans don't want to leave Canada, and the majority of Canadians want Alberta to stay. But leaders and agitators need to learn that throwing a tantrum isn't how you solve things in our confederation.
