Albertans’ distaste for the federal government in Ottawa goes back more than a century.
In 1891 when Edmonton was a growing village of 700 people it competed for dominance with the community of Strathcona on the south side of the North Saskatchewan River.
The new Calgary to Edmonton Railway ended at Strathcona, requiring Edmontonians to cross the river to get home.
In a bid for dominance Strathcona prevailed upon the distant federal government to move the critically important land office across the river from Edmonton.
On June 20, 1892 The Edmonton Bulletin ran a headline that rejected the move:
ROBBERS ATTEMPT TO STEAL LAND OFFICE
BUT THEY WON’T GET AWAY WITH IT
According to the Bulletin 500 men came out and demonstrated.
When “moving day” arrived Edmonton residents surrounded the movers, even unhitched horses from the wagons that were to cart the land titles records across the river.
Following two days of blockades a telegram from faraway Ottawa declared the land office would stay in Edmonton.
It would be incorrect to assume this incident was the start of western alienation.
Albertans had already had their fill of distant government. The first settlers came to southern Alberta and were for the most part adventure seeking souls from the East and from England. They had little use for government other than locally elected councils.
These southerners were joined by an influx of Mormon settlers, also bearing a dislike of distant government controls.
Because they were free traders, Liberal Party candidates won most elections in Alberta until 1922 when the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) won the legislature.
A farmer-based protest movement, the UFA lost power 13 years later to Social Credit, a party based on private enterprise and religion.
Social Credit opposed restraints from federal governments. The party promised to pay every resident an annual dividend, a rather attractive promise in the depths of the Great Depression.
Social Credit locked horns with Ottawa. A Social Credit law placing all banks under the province’s control was declared void by the Supreme Court of Canada. And a law that would have allowed censorship of the media was also killed by the federal court.
Once oil was discovered in 1947, Alberta always had enough money for expensive social programs and didn’t need Ottawa as much.
Western alienation rose to prominence with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Policy limiting domestic price increases and with federal government acquisition of an oil company Petro-Canada, since sold to the private sector.
When oil prices collapsed in 2014, Albertans, accustomed to their province being the Canadian engine of growth, became frustrated.
Inability to build pipelines to move oil offshore and release Alberta oil from the American price discount raised the alienation level once more.
In court, Alberta challenged the federal government’s right to levy a carbon tax that will limit the use of oil.
History indicates Albertans have always felt alienated from the distant federal government, but the current alienation must be taken seriously.
When Pierre Trudeau managed the feat of returning the Canadian constitution to Canada from the United Kingdom he made one major concession to the premiers.
It was the notwithstanding clause that allows a province to withdraw from a law it cannot accept.
The notwithstanding clause offers provinces a weapon to disrupt, perhaps destroy, the Canada we know and love, by removing some provinces from federal laws.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
