Wildrose Alliance: Alberta Independence?

With the Canadian journalistic elite splitting their time between preening in front of the mirror, dissing Stephen Harper, and fawning over (enter current Liberal leader’s name here), leave it to a small town paper, namely Rocky Mountain House, Alberta’s The Mountaineer to break news that could have an incredible impact on the future of the province.

While the majority of Canadians do not support the idea of the Separatist Coalition ripping the reins of power away from the recently re-elected Harper Conservatives, the reaction in Alberta has started to raise some eyebrows across the land. It has become the epicenter of discontent. To the chagrin of the few Coalition apologists left around, it isn’t fading away.

Instead of smoldering out with the extended Parliamentary break, the voices of Albertans have continued to grow louder in opposition to what we see as much more than just another run-of-the-mill, Ottawa-based, slimy leftwing money-grabs.

Even some Easterners – many of whom previously looked upon discussion of Alberta succession with snickers and guffaws – are now starting to realize that a real and serious movement has begun. The telling signs are all there: the usual talk radio shows are always popular here, but never before have we heard from so many moderate and downright leftwing Albertans shouting their distain alongside the traditional Ottawa-wary rightwing. A big warning sign for the East is how the younger generation of Albertans – the 18-30 year olds – are feeling a rush of patriotism for their province because of this issue.

In what could be more than just an astute political move, the upstart Wildrose Alliance party has come out as supporting the idea of taking the idea of Alberta separation to the people via a provincial referendum. While this has not been confirmed as official party policy, in the article entitled ‘Albertan's Rage at Politics in Ottawa Reaches New Heights’ by Cameron Strandberg, Wildrose VP of Policy Cory Morgan signaled what could be a new, populous direction for the party.

Morgan is careful enough to put it in perspective, reminding us that support for independence from Ottawa comes and goes in waves. As he continues, however, it becomes clear that he is more than open to the idea of a move towards independence.

Morgan said instead of swinging for the out and out separation homerun, the Alliance should focus on setting the table for a future move towards independence in small and purposeful steps, such as taking care of the legal mechanisms that would be required in order for Albertans to engage in the historic vote.

"We want to get more Albertans to not be afraid of talking about secession, and events like this can help push the dialogue forwards," said Morgan.

When followed by the warning of Wildrose leader Paul Hinman that "(The Bloc Quebecois) want to show that Canada is dysfunctional because if they can show that Canada does not work, than they can say ‘Why should we be a part of this?’ By entering into this unholy alliance and creating all this chaos in the parliament, they're furthering that argument”, you can almost see a policy forming right before your eyes.

Albertans are looking for someone to defend the province from what could be another attack on our economy and our way of life. It looks as if the Wildrose Alliance has just taken a giant leap towards filling that role.