Alec Salloum
Regina Leader-Post
As conversations of Western secession re-emerge, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says “we are going to have a significant problem moving forward” if the Liberal Party wins the upcoming federal election.
That comes as Moe is set to speak at an event in Ottawa founded by former Canadian politician Preston Manning, who recently stated that a vote for the Liberals and Mark Carney will fuel western separatism.
The Canada Strong and Free Network (CSFN) — known until 2020 as the Manning Centre for Building Democracy — is hosting an annual conference April 9-12 that features speakers like Moe, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Saskatchewan Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill, and many others.
Manning was the leader of the Reform Party and served as leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons between 1997 and 2000. The Reform Party would eventually merge with the federal Progressive Conservatives, forming the modern Conservative Party of Canada.
In an April 2 opinion piece run by the The Globe and Mail, Manning wrote: “Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”
Moe, who just returned from a trade mission to Europe, said Friday from Saskatoon that “we most certainly are Canadian in this province.”
At the same time, Moe said there are times when the federal government does things “without consultation” which “aren’t in the best interest of people living in this province.”
Moe said the Liberal Party “needs to go further” in some of its policies, but added that “I won’t go so far as to comment on a Western secession crisis at this time.”
When pressed on the prospect of Western separation, Moe said he would work with whichever party forms government following the April 28 federal election. However, he suggested it would be an issue if the Liberal Party continues with policies like carbon taxation, energy production caps and Bill C-69, which mandates several forms of assessment, including Indigenous rights, before a resource or infrastructure project is approved.
“If that’s the path that they are going to continue to take, in that unconsulted policy, that is harmful to how we create wealth, jobs and opportunity in this province,” he said. “Then we are going to have a significant problem moving forward.”
As for Manning’s conference, Moe said his attendance does not go against a Team Canada approach to U.S. tariffs.
Other names listed on the CSFN’s program include former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, ex-U.S. secretary of homeland security Chad Wolf, and former Hungarian president Katalin Novák.
Novák resigned in 2024 after it came to light she issued a presidential pardon to a man convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in state-run orphanages. Before her time as president, she served in Viktor Orbán’s government as a minister.
On Thursday, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre distanced himself from Manning’s comments about Western separatism by saying “no, we need to unite the country.”
-with file from The Canadian Press, Associated Press alsalloum@postmedia.com
