Many who voted for Brexit now think it was a bad idea. What's more, the economic and social data backs up the view that it was a disaster for the UK.
Similarly here, I think. And, sadly, there seem to be a lot of people in Alberta who aren't thinking through their apparent willingness to vote for separation from Canada.
2018 was kind of a nadir for Canadian nationalism. Justin Trudeau's progressive ideology embraced a post-modern conception that nationalism was worthless, tended to fixate on intersectional pieties about past sins of colonialism, racism, and "whiteness", and had just whiffed on celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary with a half-hearted commemoration tinged with insinuations that we didn't really have anything to be proud of. Meanwhile, right-leaning voters in Alberta and elsewhere were recoiling from the election of left-leaning governments and acting as though that was somehow an undemocratic and illegitimate hijacking of True Canadians and Albertans. It was a pretty shocking change from the sense of Canadian pride and nationalism at the time of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
I lay a lot of the blame at the feet of irresponsible and inept political leadership. We've had far too many "leaders" who take a cheap and easy route of claiming that their loss and their opponent's victory is an illegitimate result and a sign that the system is rigged. I'm looking at left and right: the left wing bozos who raged about Harper are mirrored by the right wing bozos who cultivated a pathological hatred of Trudeau. In Alberta, it broke partisan brains when the NDP won in 2015 because Alberta was supposed to be a "conservative" province. Successive Alberta conservative governments have blamed their fiscal problems on Ottawa and the rest of Canada instead of their own mismanagement and profligate spending. When a conservative premier tried to send that message to Albertans in 2015, they turned on him and the NDP came to power instead. Danielle Smith has merely taken this approach the furthest so far, moving from "Alberta firewall" talk to actually abetting separatism.
Good post. The political climate in this country became downright hostile over the past twenty or thirty years. Leaders leading is a lie; pandemic sure showed us that one. The middle has dissolved and I think Carney is trying to build a new centrist consensus within politics in general. We've been at each other's throats. He'll have to take care of his kooks somehow. As well, and mentioned regularly on the podcast, Canada can't build shit. We can't get anything done.
I have watched Alberta western alienation simmer to burn the casserole temps for 46 years. Alberta has legitimate beefs, absolutely. The separatist folks are prone to stupid political stunts like the seeking a deal with the US. Those stunts are amateur hour and might be a laugh for party faithful, but to the average voter, it's another reason to tune out.
It does seem that doofus stunts seem to reside on the right side of the fence. Like, a lot of them over the years:
(Yes, yes. I know the Liberals and NDP do bozo shit, but the CPC, over the years, has raised that to an art form:
The Canadian Alliance Era
The Jet Ski Entrance (2000)
The Niagara Falls Gaffe (2000)
The "Doris Day" Petition (2000)
The Stephen Harper Era
The "Sweater Vest" Rebrand (2008).
The G8 "Gazebo" Scandal (2010)
The "Barbaric Cultural Practices" Tip Line (2015)
Trudeau Era:
The Insurance Broker Claim (2019)
The Secret Dual Citizenship (2019)
The Residential School "Education" Video (2020)
The "Bitcoin for Inflation" Advice (2022)
I don't get it. I don't know why conservatives do this to themselves repeatedly. I'm a conservative voter who has not voted conservative since 2010. Just had enough of it.
The Conservatives figured out that anger boosts fundraising, and it's spilled over into their platform. Conservative fundraising calls in the Harper era were all variations on "Look what those Liberal bastards are trying to do to us NOW!" That annoyed the hell out of me. I didn't want to hear the greatest hits about "risky coalitions" or whatever - I wanted to hear about what the *Conservatives* were going to do. Now they've become consumed with a populist approach, which leads to the same sort of problem. Populism is great at identifying problems: popular anger tells you where things have gone wrong. It doesn't usually get the root cause right, and rarely provides a useful solution. "Axe the tax!" "Build the homes!" are basically just statements negating the populist grievance. They don't tell you ANYTHING about how they're actually going to do it, or how they know such a solution is going to be effective.
There was an interesting article in the Calgary Herald stating that a quarter of the total Canadian winter Olympic team are from Alberta. The article does go into bureaucratic pedantry as to what constitutes an Albertan for national team affiliation purposes. However it does serve as an indication that an Alberta Nation would be able to hold its head high in a future winter Olympic. Especially with the increased oil wealth that it would be able to generate it might even be able to afford to pay for the games.
Qatar isn’t landlocked, I won’t deny that equalization payments are a bad deal for Alberta (at least from my limited understanding) but I don’t see how being able to build pipelines to the US is necessarily better.
Keystone was blocked by the Americans themselves after all. Not to mention that an independent Alberta can’t rely on a good deal from the US or Canada, it will have very little leverage.
I was pointing out Qatar as a wealthy oil nation without getting into details.. I’m sure there are others examples as rich.
Keystone was under a Democratic administration. And there was a squabble between different tribes over the pipeline routing and who gets the money.
Nobody is guaranteed a good deal. But I’m pretty sure given the cultural similarities between Alberta and the US a deal will be easier to negotiate. At least you wouldn’t have to translate everything into French 😆.
I believe that in life generally if there’s a will a way can be found. Your mileage may vary.
Trump has tried to revive Keystone XL several times. Hasn't happened. The opposition isn't partisan; it's Nebraska farmers who don't want the pipeline going through their state because of concerns for a critical aquifer. 59% of Nebraskans voted for Trump in 2024.
I think these “benefits” are theoretical ideas that will be crushed under the boot of reality.
We currently do not need permission from Ottawa to build a pipeline through to Montana. Never did. Why hasn’t it happened? And Keystone was killed by US politics, not Canadian ones. Our issue with pipeline construction is our ability to diversify away from the US market so as to obtain a better price for our WCS crude. Transmountain has helped, but the discount on our price per barrel we get by selling only to the southern US refining complex has been brutal. Do we think the US will help us diversify our export market to their own detriment? Or is it more likely they landlock us even more and keep that price per barrel discount large and growing?
A friendlier business environment? Using what currency? Under what court of law? Using what banking ecosystem? Is ATB to take over all the loans and banking in the province?
US politics is in free fall. For me, where there is oil, oil is going to eventually oil. Pipeline of not. Of course, we could always build Upgraders to process the bitumen into something resembling light sweet crude.
Alberta is land-locked. The United States would not necessarily be any more generous than Albertans perceive the rest of Canada to be WRT pipelines and resource revenues.
In fact, states in the United States are NOT as powerful as provinces in Canada are, constitutionally speaking.
No, Biden pulled the plug immediately after taking office. Trump has said he’s open to discussions on it at one point but my understanding is no business in their right mind would take the risk now.
Energy is federal jurisdiction in the US. AB wouldn’t get any royalties if there was US involvement.
The Biden admin cancelled it and so the company backed out. They would be very eager to finish it up if the US were able to get it approved again. Not even Trump will be able to revive it (and he won't anyways, he is not as trustworthy as his followers seem to think). The chances of one more line to the US are there, but minimal at best. More likely an independent Alberta would have to sell their souls to the US to get it done because they would have zero leverage.
Actually in some ways States are more powerful than provinces..... The US constitution spells out Federal Government rights and States rights...anything falling through the cracks belongs as a State right. In Canada the opposite is true, anything falling thru the cracks falls under Feds jurisdiction.
No. Getting any product or service to market requires investment and conditions conducive to achieving that goal.
If, for example, a land-locked oil producer cannot secure the approval of people living in (or who own lands along) a potential transportation right-of-way, roads and pipelines will not be built.
If investors fail to see a sufficiently compelling business case, those things will also be impossible to construct.
The power distribution between the fed and the states in the US is different from the Canadian one. The 10th amendment to the US constitution grants all powers not assigned to the Feds to the States. In Canada the opposite is true.
So it’s apples and oranges.
All I’m pointing out is that if a deal makes sense it will happen. I’m not an Albertan so I have no dog in the oil fight. But I believe that everyone is entitled to pursue their dream which includes economic freedom. Your opinion may vary which is cool.
Implementation of the Canadian Constitution has differed considerably from the original intent when the British North America Act (BNA) was passed in 1867.
In fact, legal scholarship notes the following:
QUOTE
In Canada, the intent, clearly reflected in the Constitution of 1867, was for the central government to predominate, but the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (which was the ultimate judicial authority until 1949, when that position was inherited by the Supreme Court of Canada) interpreted provincial powers generously and federal powers with restraint, giving the provinces a much greater share in the balance of power than had been contemplated.'
The United States has moved in the opposite direction; [there] the constitutional plan was one of states' rights, but the result has been strong central government.
END QUOTE
In other words, the Fathers of Confederation in Canada were deeply concerned about the risk of giving regional governments too much jurisdictional power (because they were horrified by what that had precipitated in the United States (Civil War).
However, subsequent juridical rulings over many decades had the effect of giving the provinces enormous power.
C.f.: Martha A. Field, THE DIFFERING FEDERALISMS OF
In my opinion, there is only one good model for an oil producing nation that actually benefits the population.
Norway consistently ranks at or near the top of the Human Development Index (HDI) because it has managed its oil wealth very differently from most resource-rich countries. Instead of relying heavily on oil revenues for everyday government spending, it invested much of its petroleum income into a massive sovereign wealth fund (the Government Pension Fund Global). The returns from this fund help finance strong public services like universal healthcare, education, and social welfare while preserving wealth for future generations.
Equally important, Norway developed oil after already having strong democratic institutions, low corruption, and a diversified economy. Oil wealth was used to strengthen society rather than replace other industries. Because of this combination of responsible resource management, strong governance, and high living standards, Norway is widely seen as the global benchmark for turning oil wealth into long-term human development.
Many oil-rich countries struggle to turn resource wealth into broad human development because heavy dependence on oil revenue can distort their economies and political systems. Governments often rely on resource income instead of building diverse industries, which makes them vulnerable to price swings and discourages innovation. In some cases, large oil revenues weaken accountability, contribute to corruption, or concentrate wealth among elites rather than distributing it widely. These patterns have been observed in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela, where oil wealth has not always translated into stable, diversified economies or consistently high living standards for the population as a whole. Go to the UAE, Qatar, or Oman to see the startling effects that oil has produced in terms of society.
Even large and economically advanced producers like the United States face challenges. Although the U.S. has a highly diversified economy, oil wealth can still create regional inequality, environmental costs, and political tension over energy policy and revenue distribution. Resource booms can distort local economies, while long-term dependence on fossil fuels complicates climate commitments and infrastructure planning. Not to mention the inherent geological and human disasters due to fracking. In different ways, these structural pressures show that oil wealth alone does not guarantee balanced development — and can create economic and political vulnerabilities if not carefully managed.
qatar isnt land locked and can sell to anyone... Republic of Alberta would have one place to expand, the US... and well, they wont be charitable when you are on your knees crumbling under the expenses of setting up a new nation and all the institutions you have to pay for.
No question that when someone is down Canadians will stretch them over the log and take advantage. (To paraphrase a Quebec premier, Canada is like a group of frogs in hot water - when one tries to escape the others pull it back in).
But I would not assume that all Americans are like Canadians in the screw your fellow businessmen aspect. For one thing most Americans believe in God and the golden rule unlike the Canadians and British (who BTW were the original slave owners who moved to the US South when slavery was abolished in the 1830s- with a 7 year indenture for freedmen - by the Brits). And a prosperous neighbor with a good relationship is in the US interest especially when future alliances and access to water is concerned.
All Americans do not believe in God, and American business people who go to church on Sundays are just as ruthless and tough (more so than Canadian ones) regardless of their faith. This notion that a Christian will be nicer is fine and dandy in your local community, that stuff doesn't matter much when money and power come into play. Every corrupt person in the US administrations call themselves people of faith (and mostly Christian of some flavour), from the Clintons to the Bidens, Trumps, and Obamas. Alberta will not be better dealing with the US because you think more of them believe in the God of the Christian Bible.
I said most not all. But the US certainly isn’t overtly removing all signs of belief in a supreme being including legislation banning public prayer as recently submitted in Quebec. (And what happens in Quebec sets the pattern for Canada since it dominates Government).
If I break down in a snowstorm in the US I feel a lot more confident a believer will help me out quickly. All I hope for in heavily urban Canada is someone driving on and maybe calling 911 when and if they find a spot to pull over to make the call. The Prairies and Alberta and rural areas are a bit better.
Yep. I recently read that Canada started the process of ordering more F35s.
There is a neat arrangement called a US protectorate. Basically getting a free defense ride from the US. Canada has been accused of doing this for years. Of course you can’t use the P word in Canada. 🙄
I just read that the PRC fighter jets are catching up to the US ones. Their J-35 apparently has a greater range than the F35.
Somehow this discussion has conflated into an argument for and against Albertan nationalism. I think I’ll bow out at this stage since I don’t have a dog in the fight. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge.
It takes leadership to do big things. Canada doesn't have any. We're not smart enough to host an Olympics. The Olympics themselves are on life support because of the cost of hosting, the security required, and the fact that all those facilities cost money after the Games are over. We have so many major issues facing the country that we've lost focus on dealing with any of them. I have no idea what our national priorities are. I know that in Ontario, Doug Ford padding his and his donors' bank accounts is the only thing that matters. But they, with our blessing, are happy to keep spending borrowed money with zero concern about long-term consequences.....and those are just around the corner. We have so screwed our kids. I hope mine don't make any replacements. They don't deserve what we're leaving them.
I understand the frustration behind that comment — many people feel governments are juggling big challenges without always showing a clear long-term vision. Rising costs, public debt, and competing priorities can make it seem like energy is scattered rather than focused. Concerns about intergenerational fairness and whether today’s decisions will burden tomorrow’s citizens are reasonable and worth discussing seriously. Those are not fringe worries — they’re part of a healthy public debate in any democracy.
At the same time, it may be too strong to conclude that Canada has lost the ability to do big things or lacks leadership altogether. Choosing not to pursue expensive prestige projects — like bidding for the Olympic Games — can reflect caution rather than incapacity. Many well-run countries are becoming more selective about mega-events because the financial and security demands have changed dramatically. Re-evaluating priorities, even publicly and messily, is often how democratic systems adapt — not how they fail.
It’s also worth keeping perspective. Canada continues to function with strong institutions, high living standards, and a level of stability that much of the world still strives for. That doesn’t mean the country is without problems, or that criticism is misplaced — but it suggests the situation is more complex than simple decline. It may be more accurate to say Canada is a successful country working through difficult trade-offs, rather than a broken one unable to act.
There is no question Canada is going through a serious and needed transition away from the US. That alone is a massive challenge. However, we are also recovering from ten years of Trudeau doing nothing on anything, and five more of Harper selling off everything to foreign interests.
I have no issue with not bidding for another Olympics. We would have been brilliant hosts....unless Calgary's waster crapped out at a bad time. At this point, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City are probably on a short list of cities that might be able to host the Games in 20 years. Canada has a massive looming freshwater crisis, which seems unimaginable, but is a reality that no one is talking about. VIA Rail is in a full-service collapse. It is not a functional passenger service that anyone can trust. Alto is little different RFK sniffing coke off a toilet seat, the planning is so weak after 40 years of study, billions spent, and nothing on paper. We decided to study a secondary F35 purchase 8 months ago. When it comes to making decisions, I think we are paralysed.
I completely disagree with your third paragraph. Ask todays youth what their living standard is, and why they can't move out of their parents' homes. Ask why they can't get full-time work. Ask why benefits are now a fantasy. Ask why the day you drive your new car off the lot, it's worth $10000 less than what you owe on it.
We're a fabulous country dealing with massive geographical and economic challenges. Outside of a few idiots who think they'd be better off on their own, we have it all. We're great at talk. We are terrible at the required following actions. Leaders make decisions. We don't have any, and haven't for some time. We don't have more time....
The IOC and its idiot cousin, FIFA, are disreputable and should be kept away from decent places. Let them go to the place all the Russian oligarchs ski.
What annoyed me most about the proposed Calgary Olympics was that only residents of Calgary were voting when the majority of the money would come from the provincial and federal governments. Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are gigantic sink holes of money that come with all manner of strings and constraints. I was absolutely delighted that the referendum failed and remain so.
Jen have you noticed that most of the "separatist" stickers you see are on newer $75Kish pickups taking their owners to their $125Kish jobs in an oil patch that has doubled it's output since 2014 facilitated by an NDP Premier and a Liberal Prime Minister (the only ones to build an Alberta pipeline to tidewater since 1954)?
Those dreaming of new pipelines through the US to ship oil to China above really need to clean their rose coloured glasses.
To your point, in this province and this country, we have spent 40 plus years chasing shiny projects while failing to recognize that, just like scheduled maintenance keeps a vehicle on the road, the same requirement exists for everything we build from houses, to public infrastructure.
Politicians rarely get elected on a promise of substantive preventive maintenance (although I am starting to see more evidence of it in municipal budgeting). 🤞🏻
On the AB separatists, this article get a big fat FAIL. Not one sentence about the reasons for the separatism. The description of the separatists aims at a very small group and so is way off mark.
On the bright side, the allusion to the young man wearing a Canada shirt suggest he may actually be a trans-Separatist. The important adjective is, young.
"These are people who are so daunted by the prospect of winning actual elections, succeeding in real policy disputes, or making reasoned gains in the culture wars that they’ve simply given up."
Jen, I would be fascinated to hear exactly how you think Albertans can address their longstanding complaints vis-a-vis our relationship with Ottawa by "winning elections"...?
From where I sit, any federal election is already completely decided long before the polling station in my neighbourhood even closes.
When was the last election that was decided in Atlantic Canada only? The polls close at the same time in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain Time Zones. It's been this way since 1996, so either you don't live in Canada or you haven't been paying attention for 30th years.
The Line is stuck in a do loop. Nothing happened in Alberta this week. Let's consider what the world sees of our neighbour to the west. Makes Alberta look like the model of sanity. A few samplings. What a place.
The Olympics are a treat to watch (and I've enjoyed them at most previous games), but with all that's going on in the world right now, it does not seem right to indulge in the spectacle. I'll no doubt end up watching some of it, but I'm less engaged than ever before.
The athleticism, the personalities of the athletes, the thrill of watching competition - it's all there, and appeals to us on a basic level of our human nature. The Olympics are absolutely tailor-made for international spectacle that attracts eyeballs from around the world - and that sells. As does the related country-themed swag.
The Olympics are also a case-study in the bread-and-circuses and attention-defecit-disorder theory of the general public (myself included). Canada is the classic example - we invest our (so-called) national pride in athletes that most of us have never met in many sports that most of us have never played at anything other than a local level. It also seems to be all about Olympic medals - fourth and below won't get you that coveted interview with CBC/CTV. For a month we distract ourselves in the faux-nationalist spectacle, and then promptly forget the sports and the athletes almost immediately after the closing ceremonies, on to the next distraction.
Politicians, grubby opportunists they universally are, wrap themselves in the flag for the duration of the Olympics, a welcome distraction from their own corruption. The thing is, it works, every single Olympics (assuming our ladies win enough medals - 75% of them in Tokyo 2020).
The Olympics themselves are, at their core, rotten and corrupt. That's not the athlete's fault, it's a symptom of the endemic corruption of most countries that host the games. This, more than any other reason, is why Olympic venue construction runs so far over budget for what generally turn out to be shoddily constructed venues. Every. Single. Time.
Meanwhile (as Jen quite rightly observes) regular, boring, essential infrastructure crumbles and fails as we waste money, time, and energy on Olympic bids. It's not exactly a testament to Calgary that the 88 Olympics Saddledome, considered a world-worthy state of the art event centre when it opened in 1983, is after just four decades considered utterly useless and obsolete. In contrast, Fenway Park (home of the Boston Red Sox) is over a century old (constructed in 1912 and improved ever since). I visited Fenway in 2019 for a game - you could (quite literally) smell the history.
The Saddledome cost $98 Million in 1980s bucks - equivalent to $310 Million if we were to rebuild the structure today. Calgary's *new* Saddledome-replacement event centre is (at the moment) pencilled in at $1.2 Billion - over 12 times the Saddledome's original cost.
As noted, I'm a sports fan, and an avid hockey fan, but you can lay miles of 72" water line for around $4 Million per mile, or 300 miles of 72" water line for the (projected) cost of Calgary's new replacement for the Saddledome. Think this new barn will last 40 years?
I live in BC. It seems pretty hopeless as you say, to "see the rotten door and fix it". We've tried that in numerous Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections and come to nought. To carry on with your metaphor, what do you do when you are literally barred from getting near the door you want to fix? Maybe you decide to build a new door.
Canada does put on fabulous Olympics. I vaguely remember stories about the corruption and fraud at the top of the Olympic management but that is all I remember. Also, how would we handle the potential for widescale asylum claims. I mean look at FIFA and how that was bumbled along. At this stage in our country, I sense a severe disconnect between the opinions and values, the live-experiences of citizens and that of our government overlords. Until we fix that, we are hooped.
Is Jen Gerson becoming the leader of the Federalist movement in Alberta right before our eyes?!
Your arguments are sound and your points of attack poignant. Keep going!
I am really getting tired of feeling like the adult in the room. JG
Many who voted for Brexit now think it was a bad idea. What's more, the economic and social data backs up the view that it was a disaster for the UK.
Similarly here, I think. And, sadly, there seem to be a lot of people in Alberta who aren't thinking through their apparent willingness to vote for separation from Canada.
Calgary 2032, then?
Uh... No.
Yes, but…….the IOCrooks
I know! JG
2018 was kind of a nadir for Canadian nationalism. Justin Trudeau's progressive ideology embraced a post-modern conception that nationalism was worthless, tended to fixate on intersectional pieties about past sins of colonialism, racism, and "whiteness", and had just whiffed on celebrating Canada's 150th anniversary with a half-hearted commemoration tinged with insinuations that we didn't really have anything to be proud of. Meanwhile, right-leaning voters in Alberta and elsewhere were recoiling from the election of left-leaning governments and acting as though that was somehow an undemocratic and illegitimate hijacking of True Canadians and Albertans. It was a pretty shocking change from the sense of Canadian pride and nationalism at the time of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
I lay a lot of the blame at the feet of irresponsible and inept political leadership. We've had far too many "leaders" who take a cheap and easy route of claiming that their loss and their opponent's victory is an illegitimate result and a sign that the system is rigged. I'm looking at left and right: the left wing bozos who raged about Harper are mirrored by the right wing bozos who cultivated a pathological hatred of Trudeau. In Alberta, it broke partisan brains when the NDP won in 2015 because Alberta was supposed to be a "conservative" province. Successive Alberta conservative governments have blamed their fiscal problems on Ottawa and the rest of Canada instead of their own mismanagement and profligate spending. When a conservative premier tried to send that message to Albertans in 2015, they turned on him and the NDP came to power instead. Danielle Smith has merely taken this approach the furthest so far, moving from "Alberta firewall" talk to actually abetting separatism.
Good post. The political climate in this country became downright hostile over the past twenty or thirty years. Leaders leading is a lie; pandemic sure showed us that one. The middle has dissolved and I think Carney is trying to build a new centrist consensus within politics in general. We've been at each other's throats. He'll have to take care of his kooks somehow. As well, and mentioned regularly on the podcast, Canada can't build shit. We can't get anything done.
I have watched Alberta western alienation simmer to burn the casserole temps for 46 years. Alberta has legitimate beefs, absolutely. The separatist folks are prone to stupid political stunts like the seeking a deal with the US. Those stunts are amateur hour and might be a laugh for party faithful, but to the average voter, it's another reason to tune out.
It does seem that doofus stunts seem to reside on the right side of the fence. Like, a lot of them over the years:
(Yes, yes. I know the Liberals and NDP do bozo shit, but the CPC, over the years, has raised that to an art form:
The Canadian Alliance Era
The Jet Ski Entrance (2000)
The Niagara Falls Gaffe (2000)
The "Doris Day" Petition (2000)
The Stephen Harper Era
The "Sweater Vest" Rebrand (2008).
The G8 "Gazebo" Scandal (2010)
The "Barbaric Cultural Practices" Tip Line (2015)
Trudeau Era:
The Insurance Broker Claim (2019)
The Secret Dual Citizenship (2019)
The Residential School "Education" Video (2020)
The "Bitcoin for Inflation" Advice (2022)
I don't get it. I don't know why conservatives do this to themselves repeatedly. I'm a conservative voter who has not voted conservative since 2010. Just had enough of it.
The Conservatives figured out that anger boosts fundraising, and it's spilled over into their platform. Conservative fundraising calls in the Harper era were all variations on "Look what those Liberal bastards are trying to do to us NOW!" That annoyed the hell out of me. I didn't want to hear the greatest hits about "risky coalitions" or whatever - I wanted to hear about what the *Conservatives* were going to do. Now they've become consumed with a populist approach, which leads to the same sort of problem. Populism is great at identifying problems: popular anger tells you where things have gone wrong. It doesn't usually get the root cause right, and rarely provides a useful solution. "Axe the tax!" "Build the homes!" are basically just statements negating the populist grievance. They don't tell you ANYTHING about how they're actually going to do it, or how they know such a solution is going to be effective.
Yep. And I got nobody to vote for except the occasional independent candidate
There was an interesting article in the Calgary Herald stating that a quarter of the total Canadian winter Olympic team are from Alberta. The article does go into bureaucratic pedantry as to what constitutes an Albertan for national team affiliation purposes. However it does serve as an indication that an Alberta Nation would be able to hold its head high in a future winter Olympic. Especially with the increased oil wealth that it would be able to generate it might even be able to afford to pay for the games.
Just sayin…
How would it be able to generate this increased oil wealth?
Fewer impediments to exporting. No need for Ottawa permission for pipelines to the US. No equalization payments. Etc etc.
A friendlier climate for Investment.
Look at Qatar for a good example of long term potential.
Qatar isn’t landlocked, I won’t deny that equalization payments are a bad deal for Alberta (at least from my limited understanding) but I don’t see how being able to build pipelines to the US is necessarily better.
Keystone was blocked by the Americans themselves after all. Not to mention that an independent Alberta can’t rely on a good deal from the US or Canada, it will have very little leverage.
I was pointing out Qatar as a wealthy oil nation without getting into details.. I’m sure there are others examples as rich.
Keystone was under a Democratic administration. And there was a squabble between different tribes over the pipeline routing and who gets the money.
Nobody is guaranteed a good deal. But I’m pretty sure given the cultural similarities between Alberta and the US a deal will be easier to negotiate. At least you wouldn’t have to translate everything into French 😆.
I believe that in life generally if there’s a will a way can be found. Your mileage may vary.
Trump has tried to revive Keystone XL several times. Hasn't happened. The opposition isn't partisan; it's Nebraska farmers who don't want the pipeline going through their state because of concerns for a critical aquifer. 59% of Nebraskans voted for Trump in 2024.
I think these “benefits” are theoretical ideas that will be crushed under the boot of reality.
We currently do not need permission from Ottawa to build a pipeline through to Montana. Never did. Why hasn’t it happened? And Keystone was killed by US politics, not Canadian ones. Our issue with pipeline construction is our ability to diversify away from the US market so as to obtain a better price for our WCS crude. Transmountain has helped, but the discount on our price per barrel we get by selling only to the southern US refining complex has been brutal. Do we think the US will help us diversify our export market to their own detriment? Or is it more likely they landlock us even more and keep that price per barrel discount large and growing?
A friendlier business environment? Using what currency? Under what court of law? Using what banking ecosystem? Is ATB to take over all the loans and banking in the province?
Actually you do need Ottawas approval to cross a International or internal border.
US politics is in free fall. For me, where there is oil, oil is going to eventually oil. Pipeline of not. Of course, we could always build Upgraders to process the bitumen into something resembling light sweet crude.
Seriously?
Alberta is land-locked. The United States would not necessarily be any more generous than Albertans perceive the rest of Canada to be WRT pipelines and resource revenues.
In fact, states in the United States are NOT as powerful as provinces in Canada are, constitutionally speaking.
People forget that Keystone XL wasn't built because of opposition in the US.
I thought it was the Canadian company (TCPL or some alias) that backed out.
No, Biden pulled the plug immediately after taking office. Trump has said he’s open to discussions on it at one point but my understanding is no business in their right mind would take the risk now.
Energy is federal jurisdiction in the US. AB wouldn’t get any royalties if there was US involvement.
The Biden admin cancelled it and so the company backed out. They would be very eager to finish it up if the US were able to get it approved again. Not even Trump will be able to revive it (and he won't anyways, he is not as trustworthy as his followers seem to think). The chances of one more line to the US are there, but minimal at best. More likely an independent Alberta would have to sell their souls to the US to get it done because they would have zero leverage.
Actually in some ways States are more powerful than provinces..... The US constitution spells out Federal Government rights and States rights...anything falling through the cracks belongs as a State right. In Canada the opposite is true, anything falling thru the cracks falls under Feds jurisdiction.
See my response to @John below.
Oil is gonna oil. It will always find its way to market for a thirsty world.
No. Getting any product or service to market requires investment and conditions conducive to achieving that goal.
If, for example, a land-locked oil producer cannot secure the approval of people living in (or who own lands along) a potential transportation right-of-way, roads and pipelines will not be built.
If investors fail to see a sufficiently compelling business case, those things will also be impossible to construct.
You might be right, might not. All I know is oil is going to oil in an oil thirsty world. Oil finds a way. Always does.
The power distribution between the fed and the states in the US is different from the Canadian one. The 10th amendment to the US constitution grants all powers not assigned to the Feds to the States. In Canada the opposite is true.
So it’s apples and oranges.
All I’m pointing out is that if a deal makes sense it will happen. I’m not an Albertan so I have no dog in the oil fight. But I believe that everyone is entitled to pursue their dream which includes economic freedom. Your opinion may vary which is cool.
Implementation of the Canadian Constitution has differed considerably from the original intent when the British North America Act (BNA) was passed in 1867.
In fact, legal scholarship notes the following:
QUOTE
In Canada, the intent, clearly reflected in the Constitution of 1867, was for the central government to predominate, but the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (which was the ultimate judicial authority until 1949, when that position was inherited by the Supreme Court of Canada) interpreted provincial powers generously and federal powers with restraint, giving the provinces a much greater share in the balance of power than had been contemplated.'
The United States has moved in the opposite direction; [there] the constitutional plan was one of states' rights, but the result has been strong central government.
END QUOTE
In other words, the Fathers of Confederation in Canada were deeply concerned about the risk of giving regional governments too much jurisdictional power (because they were horrified by what that had precipitated in the United States (Civil War).
However, subsequent juridical rulings over many decades had the effect of giving the provinces enormous power.
C.f.: Martha A. Field, THE DIFFERING FEDERALISMS OF
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES, Duke Scholarship Law Repository, published 1992, accessed 13 February 2026, https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4124&context=lcp
Thanks for the reference. I’ll look it up to see the differences between its conclusions and the four or so courses I took is SCOTUS ruling history.
In my opinion, there is only one good model for an oil producing nation that actually benefits the population.
Norway consistently ranks at or near the top of the Human Development Index (HDI) because it has managed its oil wealth very differently from most resource-rich countries. Instead of relying heavily on oil revenues for everyday government spending, it invested much of its petroleum income into a massive sovereign wealth fund (the Government Pension Fund Global). The returns from this fund help finance strong public services like universal healthcare, education, and social welfare while preserving wealth for future generations.
Equally important, Norway developed oil after already having strong democratic institutions, low corruption, and a diversified economy. Oil wealth was used to strengthen society rather than replace other industries. Because of this combination of responsible resource management, strong governance, and high living standards, Norway is widely seen as the global benchmark for turning oil wealth into long-term human development.
Many oil-rich countries struggle to turn resource wealth into broad human development because heavy dependence on oil revenue can distort their economies and political systems. Governments often rely on resource income instead of building diverse industries, which makes them vulnerable to price swings and discourages innovation. In some cases, large oil revenues weaken accountability, contribute to corruption, or concentrate wealth among elites rather than distributing it widely. These patterns have been observed in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela, where oil wealth has not always translated into stable, diversified economies or consistently high living standards for the population as a whole. Go to the UAE, Qatar, or Oman to see the startling effects that oil has produced in terms of society.
Even large and economically advanced producers like the United States face challenges. Although the U.S. has a highly diversified economy, oil wealth can still create regional inequality, environmental costs, and political tension over energy policy and revenue distribution. Resource booms can distort local economies, while long-term dependence on fossil fuels complicates climate commitments and infrastructure planning. Not to mention the inherent geological and human disasters due to fracking. In different ways, these structural pressures show that oil wealth alone does not guarantee balanced development — and can create economic and political vulnerabilities if not carefully managed.
qatar isnt land locked and can sell to anyone... Republic of Alberta would have one place to expand, the US... and well, they wont be charitable when you are on your knees crumbling under the expenses of setting up a new nation and all the institutions you have to pay for.
No question that when someone is down Canadians will stretch them over the log and take advantage. (To paraphrase a Quebec premier, Canada is like a group of frogs in hot water - when one tries to escape the others pull it back in).
But I would not assume that all Americans are like Canadians in the screw your fellow businessmen aspect. For one thing most Americans believe in God and the golden rule unlike the Canadians and British (who BTW were the original slave owners who moved to the US South when slavery was abolished in the 1830s- with a 7 year indenture for freedmen - by the Brits). And a prosperous neighbor with a good relationship is in the US interest especially when future alliances and access to water is concerned.
Your mileage may vary.
All Americans do not believe in God, and American business people who go to church on Sundays are just as ruthless and tough (more so than Canadian ones) regardless of their faith. This notion that a Christian will be nicer is fine and dandy in your local community, that stuff doesn't matter much when money and power come into play. Every corrupt person in the US administrations call themselves people of faith (and mostly Christian of some flavour), from the Clintons to the Bidens, Trumps, and Obamas. Alberta will not be better dealing with the US because you think more of them believe in the God of the Christian Bible.
I said most not all. But the US certainly isn’t overtly removing all signs of belief in a supreme being including legislation banning public prayer as recently submitted in Quebec. (And what happens in Quebec sets the pattern for Canada since it dominates Government).
If I break down in a snowstorm in the US I feel a lot more confident a believer will help me out quickly. All I hope for in heavily urban Canada is someone driving on and maybe calling 911 when and if they find a spot to pull over to make the call. The Prairies and Alberta and rural areas are a bit better.
PADD2 and 4 are already saturated with heavy oil. More pipelines to the same saturated pool just means more discount to WTI.
Can it be shipped overseas? Like China?
Through a newly antagonistic BC?
Maybe, but you certainly wouldn’t have any profit left over after paying the pipeline tolls!
Assuming that overseas markets stay growing as well…
Wouldn't we need to buy our own F35's? Doesn't take many of those to equal one Olympic bid...Just saying..
Yep. I recently read that Canada started the process of ordering more F35s.
There is a neat arrangement called a US protectorate. Basically getting a free defense ride from the US. Canada has been accused of doing this for years. Of course you can’t use the P word in Canada. 🙄
I just read that the PRC fighter jets are catching up to the US ones. Their J-35 apparently has a greater range than the F35.
Somehow this discussion has conflated into an argument for and against Albertan nationalism. I think I’ll bow out at this stage since I don’t have a dog in the fight. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge.
It takes leadership to do big things. Canada doesn't have any. We're not smart enough to host an Olympics. The Olympics themselves are on life support because of the cost of hosting, the security required, and the fact that all those facilities cost money after the Games are over. We have so many major issues facing the country that we've lost focus on dealing with any of them. I have no idea what our national priorities are. I know that in Ontario, Doug Ford padding his and his donors' bank accounts is the only thing that matters. But they, with our blessing, are happy to keep spending borrowed money with zero concern about long-term consequences.....and those are just around the corner. We have so screwed our kids. I hope mine don't make any replacements. They don't deserve what we're leaving them.
I understand the frustration behind that comment — many people feel governments are juggling big challenges without always showing a clear long-term vision. Rising costs, public debt, and competing priorities can make it seem like energy is scattered rather than focused. Concerns about intergenerational fairness and whether today’s decisions will burden tomorrow’s citizens are reasonable and worth discussing seriously. Those are not fringe worries — they’re part of a healthy public debate in any democracy.
At the same time, it may be too strong to conclude that Canada has lost the ability to do big things or lacks leadership altogether. Choosing not to pursue expensive prestige projects — like bidding for the Olympic Games — can reflect caution rather than incapacity. Many well-run countries are becoming more selective about mega-events because the financial and security demands have changed dramatically. Re-evaluating priorities, even publicly and messily, is often how democratic systems adapt — not how they fail.
It’s also worth keeping perspective. Canada continues to function with strong institutions, high living standards, and a level of stability that much of the world still strives for. That doesn’t mean the country is without problems, or that criticism is misplaced — but it suggests the situation is more complex than simple decline. It may be more accurate to say Canada is a successful country working through difficult trade-offs, rather than a broken one unable to act.
There is no question Canada is going through a serious and needed transition away from the US. That alone is a massive challenge. However, we are also recovering from ten years of Trudeau doing nothing on anything, and five more of Harper selling off everything to foreign interests.
I have no issue with not bidding for another Olympics. We would have been brilliant hosts....unless Calgary's waster crapped out at a bad time. At this point, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City are probably on a short list of cities that might be able to host the Games in 20 years. Canada has a massive looming freshwater crisis, which seems unimaginable, but is a reality that no one is talking about. VIA Rail is in a full-service collapse. It is not a functional passenger service that anyone can trust. Alto is little different RFK sniffing coke off a toilet seat, the planning is so weak after 40 years of study, billions spent, and nothing on paper. We decided to study a secondary F35 purchase 8 months ago. When it comes to making decisions, I think we are paralysed.
I completely disagree with your third paragraph. Ask todays youth what their living standard is, and why they can't move out of their parents' homes. Ask why they can't get full-time work. Ask why benefits are now a fantasy. Ask why the day you drive your new car off the lot, it's worth $10000 less than what you owe on it.
We're a fabulous country dealing with massive geographical and economic challenges. Outside of a few idiots who think they'd be better off on their own, we have it all. We're great at talk. We are terrible at the required following actions. Leaders make decisions. We don't have any, and haven't for some time. We don't have more time....
The IOC and its idiot cousin, FIFA, are disreputable and should be kept away from decent places. Let them go to the place all the Russian oligarchs ski.
I think the IOC is on life support. I think all oligarchs need to be financially neutered.
What annoyed me most about the proposed Calgary Olympics was that only residents of Calgary were voting when the majority of the money would come from the provincial and federal governments. Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are gigantic sink holes of money that come with all manner of strings and constraints. I was absolutely delighted that the referendum failed and remain so.
Jen have you noticed that most of the "separatist" stickers you see are on newer $75Kish pickups taking their owners to their $125Kish jobs in an oil patch that has doubled it's output since 2014 facilitated by an NDP Premier and a Liberal Prime Minister (the only ones to build an Alberta pipeline to tidewater since 1954)?
Those dreaming of new pipelines through the US to ship oil to China above really need to clean their rose coloured glasses.
To your point, in this province and this country, we have spent 40 plus years chasing shiny projects while failing to recognize that, just like scheduled maintenance keeps a vehicle on the road, the same requirement exists for everything we build from houses, to public infrastructure.
Politicians rarely get elected on a promise of substantive preventive maintenance (although I am starting to see more evidence of it in municipal budgeting). 🤞🏻
On the AB separatists, this article get a big fat FAIL. Not one sentence about the reasons for the separatism. The description of the separatists aims at a very small group and so is way off mark.
On the bright side, the allusion to the young man wearing a Canada shirt suggest he may actually be a trans-Separatist. The important adjective is, young.
"These are people who are so daunted by the prospect of winning actual elections, succeeding in real policy disputes, or making reasoned gains in the culture wars that they’ve simply given up."
Jen, I would be fascinated to hear exactly how you think Albertans can address their longstanding complaints vis-a-vis our relationship with Ottawa by "winning elections"...?
From where I sit, any federal election is already completely decided long before the polling station in my neighbourhood even closes.
When was the last election that was decided in Atlantic Canada only? The polls close at the same time in the Eastern, Central, and Mountain Time Zones. It's been this way since 1996, so either you don't live in Canada or you haven't been paying attention for 30th years.
The rotation of the Earth is Ottawa's fault, as are all things.
The Line is stuck in a do loop. Nothing happened in Alberta this week. Let's consider what the world sees of our neighbour to the west. Makes Alberta look like the model of sanity. A few samplings. What a place.
https://quillette.com/2026/02/08/podcast-223-dallas-brodie/
https://babylonbee.com/news/canadian-reporterperson-announces-policepersons-have-identified-gunperson
https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/02/13/we-must-be-free-to-speak-about-the-scourge-of-trans-violence/
The Olympics are a treat to watch (and I've enjoyed them at most previous games), but with all that's going on in the world right now, it does not seem right to indulge in the spectacle. I'll no doubt end up watching some of it, but I'm less engaged than ever before.
The athleticism, the personalities of the athletes, the thrill of watching competition - it's all there, and appeals to us on a basic level of our human nature. The Olympics are absolutely tailor-made for international spectacle that attracts eyeballs from around the world - and that sells. As does the related country-themed swag.
The Olympics are also a case-study in the bread-and-circuses and attention-defecit-disorder theory of the general public (myself included). Canada is the classic example - we invest our (so-called) national pride in athletes that most of us have never met in many sports that most of us have never played at anything other than a local level. It also seems to be all about Olympic medals - fourth and below won't get you that coveted interview with CBC/CTV. For a month we distract ourselves in the faux-nationalist spectacle, and then promptly forget the sports and the athletes almost immediately after the closing ceremonies, on to the next distraction.
Politicians, grubby opportunists they universally are, wrap themselves in the flag for the duration of the Olympics, a welcome distraction from their own corruption. The thing is, it works, every single Olympics (assuming our ladies win enough medals - 75% of them in Tokyo 2020).
The Olympics themselves are, at their core, rotten and corrupt. That's not the athlete's fault, it's a symptom of the endemic corruption of most countries that host the games. This, more than any other reason, is why Olympic venue construction runs so far over budget for what generally turn out to be shoddily constructed venues. Every. Single. Time.
Meanwhile (as Jen quite rightly observes) regular, boring, essential infrastructure crumbles and fails as we waste money, time, and energy on Olympic bids. It's not exactly a testament to Calgary that the 88 Olympics Saddledome, considered a world-worthy state of the art event centre when it opened in 1983, is after just four decades considered utterly useless and obsolete. In contrast, Fenway Park (home of the Boston Red Sox) is over a century old (constructed in 1912 and improved ever since). I visited Fenway in 2019 for a game - you could (quite literally) smell the history.
The Saddledome cost $98 Million in 1980s bucks - equivalent to $310 Million if we were to rebuild the structure today. Calgary's *new* Saddledome-replacement event centre is (at the moment) pencilled in at $1.2 Billion - over 12 times the Saddledome's original cost.
As noted, I'm a sports fan, and an avid hockey fan, but you can lay miles of 72" water line for around $4 Million per mile, or 300 miles of 72" water line for the (projected) cost of Calgary's new replacement for the Saddledome. Think this new barn will last 40 years?
Don't hold your breath.
Oh, and Go Canada Go.
I live in BC. It seems pretty hopeless as you say, to "see the rotten door and fix it". We've tried that in numerous Federal, Provincial and Municipal elections and come to nought. To carry on with your metaphor, what do you do when you are literally barred from getting near the door you want to fix? Maybe you decide to build a new door.
I was a no voter for the Olympic bid simply because of the open ended security requirement. There was no real effort to estimate it.
Canada does put on fabulous Olympics. I vaguely remember stories about the corruption and fraud at the top of the Olympic management but that is all I remember. Also, how would we handle the potential for widescale asylum claims. I mean look at FIFA and how that was bumbled along. At this stage in our country, I sense a severe disconnect between the opinions and values, the live-experiences of citizens and that of our government overlords. Until we fix that, we are hooped.