Alberta at a crossroad

On Sunday, I walked into a hair salon in Langdon, Alberta to put my signature onto the petition that, if successful, will lead to the referendum asking this: Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?

The lineup was just a couple ahead of us, and another couple was talking with the owner/operator and it sounded like they stuck around for a visit after they signed. The dog came to sniff me, and it didn’t growl to signify a threat compared to what I imagine quite a few fellow Albertans would consider the act to be as my information was taken and I signed.

It was all rather simple in the process of it all. I wouldn’t say the thought process that led me me signing was, though. While the total number of signors to the petition that began on January 2nd won’t actually be released or known until May 2, I’m also aware that I’d be in minority of the reasoning for doing so.

I want Albertans to participate in the direct democratic process of voting for a referendum on this important issue- that’s all I want this to represent. And now that I put my John Hancock on such a wish, I’ll spend the rest of the year until voting day to decide whether to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Across the province there are tables set up with volunteers that will let Albertans sign up for the petition and I expect to see more as volunteers work through the process of becoming a canvasser (makes sense for the validation of the petition’s numbers and chain-of-custody) and ensuring distance will no longer be a major hurdle for those interested. There’s also the combination of town hall events with advocates of the separation movement, and operators are standing by! Queues stretching blocks is likely evidence of early-adopter inertia or wanting to participate in the spectacle side of things. As someone who doesn’t know how he’ll vote, I’m glad I didn’t have to freeze my butt off queuing for a couple of hours. I suppose I’ll get that chance if October (the month it’s reckoned a successful referendum will be held) is unusually chilly.

This isn’t a petition to take flippantly; it is much more important than you clicking a link to change.org and offering your support to help save the barrel-chested macaws on a peninsula off of Costa Rica. I know once all these signatures are tabulated it will be a pre-vote barometer of the independence movement and thus be spun into the narratives that suit its advocates and detractors alike.

The citizen led petition needs 10% of 2023’s elections total votes cast, reckoned to be 177 732 total signatures. Of course the actual goal of the movement is to submit the petition with multitudes more and I think that’s entirely possible. Seeing as the actual vote on the referendum will need more than 50%, it had better for any wind to stay in its sails.

The more important question, to me, is 50% of what? Will it be 50% of the 60.5% of eligible voters that participated in 2023’s provincial election? Heaven forfend it be closer to municipal participation! If it isn’t 85% or above, independent or not, something is forever lost to us as Albertans and Canadians. That apathy is catastrophic.

If that 85 per cent plus do get to the voting booth, what will their vote be? Will they cast with emotion, zealotry, bad faith or grievances- or thoughtful pragmatism? It will take a recognition of something so important it cannot be reflected on if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. And that the majority of votes cast were made of those aware of Albertan and Canada’s history, while predicting Alberta’s and Canada’s future without the Wild Rose. Your vote will change the world, so be serious! The reason for seeking independence wasn’t created in a vacuum; there are serious problems going on that necessitated this. And if they are intractable problems with Canada as a confederation there luckily is an opportunity for the people to speak to it, to find its solution in a breakup letter of epic proportions.

Conversely, it can’t be a bunch of grumps that cynically use a groundswell of discontent who found the big red button and are threatening to hit it at any opportunity they feel personally aggrieved. This ought to be thoughtful than Quebec in 1987. Meech Lake was not d’accord and it can’t be cynically used for concessions for a better deal in confederation.

Beware of the pitches: the independent state of Alberta cannot and will never be a Utopia once unburdened of the shackles of federal Liberal party rapaciousness of the vassal-state of Alberta and anyone trying to sell the movement that way is a huckster. However, it also can’t be about denying that the federal government’s top-down approach to governance that seriously crosses the line into provincial jurisdictions, the runaway train that is our nation’s annual deficits and growing debt, net zero hooey and the low-trust society we’ve eroded into are not just concerns to some ‘fringe’ citizens and has huge ramifications to our collective future.

There are major problems and there is a solution to it. I do not know what it is, but any good solution eventually requires Herculean efforts, clarity of purpose and unity (as best as we can get with that) to all pull together and do the work that’s needed. But it all starts with knowledge. The internet is full of info, social media is always available to fill one’s need for outrage and scapegoats (please don’t vote solely on social media ‘information’) and the newspapers of those interested in wanting to be the source of essays like this and your responses. Major decisions need information, and with people who’ve communicated beforehand, thought of the greater good, and cast their vote in good-faith. Any discussion being had up to October will represent the fact that a lot of people are taking this decision seriously, and they must. And Small Town Square is one of those venues; think of it as a place to make your pitches, for and against.

Voting yes or no becomes secondary to the intent of the people showing up and discussing this, as whatever the case may be there will be problems to be solved (those don’t go away in a vote), and we’ll all be more willing to work together in whatever system will be there after the result. Each vote will represent the work and thought that went into whichever box you tick, and it will be a closer reflection that whatever government (an independent one or a sovereign Alberta within a unified Canada) is a reflection of its people and that we are more connected with purpose than if this decision was never offered to us.