I spent the past two evenings at separatist events; here’s what I learned

I get defensive when people want to take advantage of my neighbours; and we all pay the price.

On Tuesday, I began writing a response to Derek Fildebrandt’s “Berta-splaining” article published on Paul Wells’ Substack. I was only half-finished when I had to leave for Lethbridge, where I attended my first in-person separatist-friendly event. I figured it was at least a good start for the next day. However, when I went back to it Wednesday, it wasn’t sitting right. I revised, rephrased, edited, and I knew it wasn’t working before I had to leave for a second event in Cowley.

It wasn’t that I suddenly had second thoughts about Mr. Fildebrandt’s anti-Ottawa blather. Projecting his personal issues with Ontario Liberals notwithstanding, it was obvious after I read some of the responses to his article that dunking on him for it would be a waste of my energy and your time. Mr. Fildebrandt was just a guy from Ontario who picked up on the local lore in Alberta and doubled and tripled down on it.

We have many such politicians and operatives in Alberta’s history and there’s nothing remarkable about what they’ve perpetuated here— they’re just the mean girls of Alberta politics. The people that matter are the ones they’ve consistently taken advantage of.

I’m not going to excuse any grown-assed adult for falling for the same lies over and over again, I’m just, as always, going to do my best to explain the effect their lies have had on my neighbours, and my family, and people I did and do call friends.

It doesn’t matter what side of the spectrum you fall on; if you’re an Albertan, you should care.

I chose the events randomly. There were two in a row, hosted by two groups I (thought) I knew nothing about. When you spend as much time as I do inhaling Alberta politics, however, I’m reminded that it is, in fact, a grossly incestuous circle.

Let’s Talk Alberta — Lethbridge, Sept. 9

When I first decided to attend this event, the only person named on it was Chris Scott. I did not know the name. When I had to look it up after I arrived at the wrong address in Lethbridge, two others had been added and I knew at least one: Cory Morgan. The third was Benoit Trudeau (a very distant relation to the same PMs Trudeau, he said).

The person who made the welcome speech and initial introductions informed around 50 of us in the audience that they welcome, and try to have, people who are for or against independence. This group was not quite as diverse, she said, but their perspectives were not entirely the same.

Mr. Trudeau hails from Quebec; the birthplace of foundational separatism.

If you happened to have missed that incredible dismissal from Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois Blanchet dropped on Alberta separatists, I’m happy to repeat it in all its brutality; “The first thing you have to do is define yourself as a nation. I’m not certain that oil and gas qualify as a culture,” he said.

Savage.

But also… a devastatingly direct hit to every person and politician who has forced our provincial identity into a single industry.

Mr. Trudeau offered his experience in Quebec politics as a hinge and threw some shade at our political predictability that I have also pointed out before— one of the reasons that Quebec enjoys leverage and power is because Quebeckers are willing to hold their government and their politicians accountable. Albertans keep doing the same thing over and over and somehow expect a different result.

We wear that, even if it’s not us specifically who are to blame for it. That’s a good question for those who are willing to vote “differently” but are dedicated to only one specific “difference”. To me, it’s the same brand of loyalty, even if it’s to a different party/sign/colour than other Albertans.

He had no respect for the question being offered to Albertans, nor the process by which it was being done and he spoke plainly.

“When referendum came, we were able to campaign on one question; not a fruit salad of them,” he snarked, adding that he wasn’t a separatist so much as a “sovereigntist”.

The focus, he said, should be taking control of what a province can control. Spend more money to do what the federal government already does. Take responsibility for things the province can and could control like its pension plan and tax collection. That requires trust, and the ability to rely on your neighbours to stand up when something is going wrong and vote out anyone who doesn’t respect what is in their— and also their neighbour’s— best interests.

Quebec is, I think, what some uncharitable Albertans would call “woke.” What with all their high taxes and well-funded social programs and all.

The second speaker was Cory Morgan. You may know him from the Western Standard, the Rebel, or perhaps from his time many years ago as an Independence Party leader.

All that is to say that he is a long-time advocate for more independence but still maintains the idealism that such independence would come with less authoritarianism. If only we knew who would be leading the “country” if independence miraculously happened.

The part of his speech that piqued my interest was when he was talking about the “insane” amount of “vitriol” he was seeing lately. He couldn’t understand it, he said. I’ll come back to that.

Finally, the once-mysterious Mr. Scott took the microphone and began telling the story of how I know of him; the owner of the Whistle Stop cafe. Yes, it’s a throwback to COVID mandates.

He was a disarming speaker. On the one hand, he was just a dude with barely-concealed anger issues. Insert meme of things men will do rather than get therapy. On the other, he had a “bit” where he called people who were definitely not “friends” and essentially wove his speech around comments on Facebook.

“I saw a group of people with red shirts,” he said. “I thought, ‘I like red, too’, and so I went to say ‘hi’.”

“I talked to my new friend Tom who said ‘I’m a proud Canadian’ and I said ‘I’m a proud Canadian, too!’ and I said we need to talk and have a conversation about it, and he said ‘it was a non-starter’.”

He just wants to “have a conversation” about it.

Next, he mentioned that “his new friend Carla” said something that he was sorry to repeat but she called him “a fucking traitor”. He didn’t think that was very nice.

He just wants to “have a conversation” after all.

This was about the time that I decided I was definitely going to get up and “have a conversation” myself. Once upon a time I would have taken my notes and left. Apparently, that is no longer the case.

Before I leave that, I have to add that he mentioned he was sitting in a jail cell five years ago because the government had him arrested. In my notes I added an asterisk and wrote “which government was that, Chris?”

After the intermission, that saw at least half of the original 50 people in the room not return, it was time for the Q and A portion. One person went. Then a second. I decided to go up too.

“I spend most of my time explaining conservatives to people on the left but tonight I’d like to explain why this is an emotional topic and why you might be seeing more vitriol. I’m going to pose this question to each of the speakers; what changes for you if a separation referendum passes or fails?”

Mr. Scott and Mr. Morgan (though a longer version) said “nothing.”

“Right. Nothing changes for you and that’s why people are upset because things would fundamentally change for them if a separation referendum passed.”

Incredibly, I heard a few “oh’s” from the remaining audience as if they hadn’t thought of that at all.

I continued to explain the same with more words and I will admit my voice cracked. I don’t want to think it’s because I was emotional about the topic because that would just prove them right; but I heard it. I stood and listened to the response, then returned to my seat. It was late and I still had a drive, and saw I had a text from one of my kids and decided I could leave before it ended.

When I got up, a lady on the other side of the aisle said “good question”. I smiled and nodded, and continued toward the exit. As I passed the lady who had given the welcome, she reached out, squeezed my arm a bit, and thanked me for the question. As I pushed open the exterior door, an older gentleman was behind it. I laughed and apologized and he said, “that was a really great question. Thank you.”

Honestly— I didn’t expect a single ‘thank you’, let alone three.

And I thought to myself, on the drive back, that perhaps it was just the setup of that specific event. Maybe some people really did want to hear other perspectives. It didn’t really distill until after Wednesday night’s event.

(Late addition, another view from Jen Handley at their stop in Nanton)

Alberta Women for Independence — Cowley; Sept. 10

As the author of Women of ABpoli, I had a special interest in “Women for Independence” and I’m thankful I was able to go. Yet again, I had the wrong address but Cowley has barely more than four avenues (there’s a “3A avenue”) and I knew I just had to find where all the extra cars were parked. I get why that might seem “off” to people in urban centres but it’s easy enough in rural.

I found it after a few rounds and went in. This event was smaller than the previous one— as expected— with about 25-30 attendees, and also not a room full of women— which was somehow not expected.

The host at this event was Angela Tabak. I did not know who she was but I found the common threads quickly enough.

She told us how she had found herself at home with time on her hands during the pandemic. That’s when she discovered the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta (WIPA) [or as Chandler Bing said, “whhhiippahhhh!” (old WoABP pod joke)]. Through WIPA, she became friends with Kathy Flett (formerly of WEXIT, WIPA, and currently competing for the UCP nomination in Sherwood Park).

She began reading books by Dr. Michael Wagner (part II of three) on why independence parties in Alberta die (“ego and infighting” or maybe just power plays by opportunists who will bail for the party in power instead of putting in the immense amount of work to build something Albertans would support… ahem…).

Her group (WINS) assisted with a seven-part video series but the videos are all over the place; one by Jason Lavigne (the Jason Lavigne Show, separatist supporter/independent media, who also ran in Poilievre’s by-election), Cory Morgan, and others.

Ms. Tabak had a different tactic than Let’s Talk Alberta; she went through each of the questions on the referendum.

While admitting the additional nine questions were both confusing and suspect, she also said it was an opportunity to “send Ottawa a message”.

As if decades of sending a solid majority of Conservative MPs back to Ottawa, or Ralph Klein’s famous Alberta salute, or a bumper sticker that said “tax this Brian”, or Reform’s rise to power, or even a referendum on equalization under Premier Jason Kenney had never managed to adequately convey Alberta’s “message” to Ottawa.

I… digress?

Despite the fact that she and Kathy Flett had been holding backyard discussions on independence since at least 2024, the group was told they needed to register as a Third-Party Advertizer (TPA) if they planned to continue them. They were also told they needed to take a position on all of the questions (yes, they’re all supposed to; no they aren’t; no, it doesn’t look like Elections Alberta has the power or desire to enforce any rules now).

Ms. Tabak said that’s the reason they chose to support “yes” to all nine and Option 2.

When she asked for audience engagement on the nine questions, I contributed.

For the question about withholding support services to people who are only in Canada temporarily, I offered the fact that Alberta doesn’t offer support services to them now. When someone is here temporarily, they are assigned a SIN that begins with a “9”. No Government of Alberta programs (or contracted programs) will allow payment for services provided to people with those SIN’s.

Just a little factoid I picked up at a couple of my previous 27 previous jobs.

For the question about whether proof of citizenship should be provided to be allowed to vote, both she and another audience member offered anecdotes about non-citizens having been mistakenly sent voting cards. In both of the anecdotes, the individuals knew they weren’t allowed to vote and destroyed the cards. Somehow, that was evidence of the need to protect our elections harder.

One person in the audience asked if anyone knew of a country that was as generous as Canada to non-residents so he could move there and get free services. Another suggested he move to Mexico and renounce his citizenship, then move back to get all the “free money”. My good gawd.

Okay. That happened, yes, and it was frustrating, yes; and I’m not even telling you about what that same dude said that was worse because I had a point to make.

…

Right.

Just because you can’t reach everyone doesn’t mean you give up the floor

There are people in Alberta— our neighbours, friends, family— whose brains have been cooked by Facebook memes and smarmy Conservative politicians.

Of that, there is no doubt.

I’m not excusing grown-assed adults from their responsibility to figure out what is real and what is fake.

However.

People are confused about these questions and they are seeking answers.

From what I can tell, the only people offering those answers have the same agenda that every opportunistic Conservative politician before them did; to take advantage of them and screw the rest of us.

I hope that makes you a little defensive, too, because it’s obvious to me that we can and should be doing more.

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