David Boles
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
St. Albert Gazette
On a balmy Monday afternoon in Calgary, two men made their cases for Alberta’s future.
One man advocating for Alberta to go it alone, one man advocating for Alberta to stay the course within Canada.
The debate was held in front of around 100 people at Calgary’s historic Grand Theatre, where former Alberta premier Jason Kenney and St. Albert-based lawyer Keith Wilson laid out their respective cases.
For Kenney, the case for staying in Canada was clear.
“Alberta is the most Canadian province,” said Kenney, who called himself a Conservative who wants to build the country up.
A longtime Calgary MP and former immigration minister in the Harper government, Kenney also served as Alberta’s 18th premier, leading the United Conservative Party to government in 2019.
It’s a position the party has yet to relinquish, with Danielle Smith now heading Alberta’s governing party.
For Wilson, a constitutional lawyer, the case for Alberta independence is equally clear.
“Canada is no longer an optimal size of governance. Alberta is,” said Wilson to applause.
The arguments tabled by Kenney noted the successes Alberta had in fighting for fairness in the federation, with one of his more notable points being 1982, when Alberta won the right to develop its own resources.
The victory came in 1982 as part of the Constitution Act at the insistence of former premier Peter Lougheed.
Kenney also mentioned that prior Canadian governments facilitated oil booms, including the former Stephen Harper Conservative government and the Jean Chrétien Liberal governments of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Despite recent troubles with the Justin Trudeau Liberal government on the energy file, Kenney believes Alberta’s energy future is clearer and more successful in Canada.
“I think we as Albertans need to be able to take yes for an answer. Does that make things perfect? No,” said an impassioned Kenney. “But what’s the alternative?”
For Wilson, the alternative is separation.
“Canada’s institutions, with all due respect, are corrupt,” he said.
Wilson said that he’s not sure Alberta even has clout in Canada right now, with the province having only six representatives in the 105-seat Senate, and 37 members of parliament in a House of Commons that seats 343 elected MPs.
For Wilson, an independent Alberta would mean the province having its own elected national government, and that’s the goal.
“Alberta is not landlocked by the Rockies; Alberta is landlocked by Ottawa,” said Wilson. “I have faith in the value of Albertans.”
But for Kenney, this issue is a far more fundamental one that Alberta would find tough to recover from.
“It (separation) would be the single most dramatic act of economic suicide in modern history,” said the former premier.
There are 147 days until Albertans cast a vote on whether to keep Alberta in Canada or begin the process of possibly charting the province’s future outside of Canada.
It’s a road Quebec has been down twice, only to reject leaving the federation each time.
This is Alberta’s first time flirting with that possibility.
With more debates over Alberta’s future expected in the months ahead, Albertans will vote on the province’s place in Confederation on Oct. 19.
