Albertans’ Post-Election Anger and the Attraction of Separatism

Despite the fact that Albertans voted overwhelmingly—almost 70 percent of the popular vote—for the Conservative Party, it was the Liberals who won the election. The result has many Albertans questioning the place of their province within Canada.

The reason for Albertans’ anger is easy to explain. The Liberal government has done much to thwart the economic development of the province’s energy resources, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to continue with these kinds of policies.

For example, in 2016, the federal government cancelled the Northern Gateway pipeline that would have carried Alberta’s oil to the B.C. coast for export to Asian markets. In 2017, the Energy East pipeline, which would have carried bitumen from Alberta to New Brunswick, was cancelled by TransCanada partly due to regulatory changes related to environmental assessment that were initiated by the federal government.

Earlier this year, the Liberal government also passed Bill C-69, dubbed by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney as the “No More Pipelines Bill,” and Bill C-48, which bans tanker ships from carrying Alberta bitumen along B.C.’s northern coast. These actions further hamper the development of Alberta’s petroleum resources.

Together, these policies mean that there will be substantially less economic activity in Alberta, leading to fewer jobs and lower royalty revenue for the provincial government. In short, they will result in less prosperity and lower standards of living, all due to deliberate federal government actions. As if to illustrate this point, a little more than a week after the election, one of Canada’s largest energy companies, Encana, announced that it was changing its name and moving to the United States.

Shouldn’t it be the job of government to implement policies that make life better for its citizens? Not if you live in Alberta. Here, what people see is the federal government working against their economic well-being.

With this in mind, it’s clear why some Albertans have become interested in the idea of separatism. An independent Alberta would be free to develop its energy resources and enjoy the prosperity that this would bring.