The United Conservative Party’s official campaign slogan is “Alberta Strong and Free,” but it could just as easily be “More Alberta, Less Ottawa.”
Mind you, that second slogan has pretty much been co-opted by the province’s Freedom Conservative Party, but the UCP and its leader Jason Kenney have been known to bandy it about. That’s because the Alberta election campaign isn’t just Kenney and the UCP fighting against Rachel Notley and the NDP, it’s Kenney and the UCP fighting against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government.
It’s even Kenney and the UCP fighting against parts of Canada.
“We need to create some new political facts that Ottawa and other parts of the country have to respond to,” Kenney said in Red Deer last weekend. “That’s exactly what Quebec has done.”
Under a UCP government, those new political facts would include Alberta having its own parole board, turning off the oil taps to British Columbia if necessary, launching a constitutional fight against the federal Bill C-69, holding a referendum, according to the UCP campaign website, “on removing equalization from the Constitution of Canada,” and pressing Ottawa to cut its tax rates as a “powerful way of shrinking Ottawa’s control over Alberta.”
If you’re getting a sense of deja vu right about now, that’s understandable.
Welcome to Firewall 2.0.
Walling off Alberta
It’s a repeat of the original and notorious Alberta “firewall” campaign of 2001.
It started with a letter of frustration from six of Alberta’s leading Conservative thinkers (including Stephen Harper, before he became an elected politician, and academic Tom Flanagan) to then-premier Ralph Klein.
They called on Klein to build a firewall against Ottawa’s intrusion into Alberta’s affairs.
Among their recommendations: have Alberta withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and set up its own Alberta plan; create Alberta’s own personal income tax system; start an Alberta provincial police force; force a constitutional showdown over Senate reform; and defy the Canada Health Act.
Oh, and fight to change the equalization system.
Here is the letter summed up in one of its sentences: “It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.”
Remove the reference to “build firewalls around Alberta” and you have a Kenney election campaign pledge.
Fed up with the feds
The firewall letter was a reaction from Albertans fed up with the federal Liberals, who had just won a third consecutive election under Jean Chretien, by focusing on central Canada while pointedly ignoring Alberta.
And back in the day, Klein responded to the letter cannily:
“Our goal is not to distance Alberta from the rest of Canada; our goal is to bring Alberta closer to the rest of Canada,” said Klein, who appeared, at first, to be rejecting it.
But he also realized the letter expressed a growing feeling of alienation.
So, he proposed three ideas to give Alberta, and all provinces, a louder voice on the federal stage: to have the prime minister hold annual first ministers’ conferences, appoint senators based on a list of appointees named by the provinces and give the provinces a say in drafting international treaties (such as the Kyoto accord).
Ever the pragmatist, Klein didn’t completely pour cold water over the firewall idea. He let it smoulder. Eventually the complaints extinguished themselves under the Harper government, in part because Harper embraced issues such as appointing Senators chosen in non-binding Alberta elections, a decade later.
But now the dogs of war are baying again under the Trudeau Liberal government — chewing on the bones of Western discontent and marking their territory in the depressed rural heartland of Alberta, and in the empty office towers of Calgary.
Kenney is exploiting this discontent by making Trudeau the target and, by extension, Notley.
If I’m premier, he is telling Albertans, I’ll make sure Trudeau listens.
Taxes, bills and pipelines
Many Albertans, if the public opinion polls are correct, feel the federal government has failed to help Alberta during its recession.
They feel that it has taken more money from Alberta in taxes than it has given back in transfer payments, hasn’t done enough to get a new pipeline to tidewater, and has introduced legislation, such as Bill C-69, that will make it more difficult, if not impossible, to ever get that new pipeline built.
Never mind that Trudeau bought the Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion and has promised to spend billions more to build the expansion project, Albertans feel he’s just hasn’t done enough. And they also feel the rest of Canada doesn’t care or is outright helping stymie the province’s economic recovery. (Hello, British Columbia.)
A billboard in Calgary now asks the unthinkable, “Should Alberta ditch Canada?”
Helpfully fanning the flames of discontent is Kenney and what seems to be Firewall 2.0. He is telling Albertans they have every right to be upset, not only with the Trudeau Liberals but also with Trudeau’s “good friend and ally” Notley.
“Their alliance has brought nothing but pain for Albertans and other Western Canadians,” declares the UCP’s official campaign page. “The United Conservatives will stand up for Alberta and challenge the constitutionality of Justin Trudeau’s ‘No More Pipelines’ Bill C-69.”
“A United Conservative government would not be defensive, passive, or apologetic. We will stand up for Alberta, our industries, and for the people who work so hard to keep Alberta strong and free.”
The details
So let’s look at what this might mean from all the various announcements and statements.
Kenney’s firewall would scrap Notley’s carbon levy and fight Trudeau’s federal carbon tax.
He’d use a Constitutional fight to challenge Bill C-69. He’d turn off the oil taps to B.C. if it tries to use provincial powers over the environment to impede the construction of a new pipeline. He’d hold a referendum to “give Albertans an opportunity on voting to remove equalization from the Canadian constitution.”
He’d push Ottawa to makes changes to the programs that transfer money to the provinces for health care and social programs, in effect swapping out direct money transfers for tax breaks so provinces would be given more fiscal room to either cut or raise their own taxes.
Kenney calls this promise, “Convert the Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer to Tax Points for the Provinces.” (That would make for the worst campaign slogan ever, but it’s not exactly at the centre of the UCP platform.)
And he’d even set up Alberta’s own parole board — as they have in Ontario and Quebec — to keep dangerous offenders off the streets.
By fanning the flames while offering panaceas, Kenney is acting as both arsonist and fire-fighter.
Much of this is political theatre.
Holding a referendum to “remove equalization” from the Constitution, for example, would have as much effect as holding a vote to remove the Charter of Rights and Freedoms from the Constitution. Single provinces cannot unilaterally change the Constitution.
Kenney risks blowback from other provinces. If he becomes premier, he might find it difficult to find allies on issues outside of his alliance with anti-carbon tax premiers. He has to build relationships with B.C. and, yes, Trudeau, to get a pipeline built.
He is burning bridges for the short-term benefit of winning a provincial election. Rebuilding them if he becomes premier will be no easy task.
But when it comes to short-term politics, it is effective theatre.
Singularly cynical
Ralph Klein built a successful career in part by regularly growling at the federal government.
“By God, Ottawa, keep your hands off!” he exclaimed in 2004, even though Ottawa had no intent to put its hands on.
Klein executed a skillful dance, allowing the separatists and malcontents to have their say at party conventions so they wouldn’t grumble off to the more right-wing fringe parties of the day: the Alberta Alliance Party; the Social Credit Party; and the Separation Party of Alberta.
One suspects Kenney is also playing a bit of a game, too, trying to keep today’s disgruntled conservatives from wandering off to the Alberta Advantage Party, the Freedom Conservative Party or the Alberta Independence Party.
This is probably smart politics but it’s also singularly cynical.
Kenney is stoking discontent in Alberta, setting up an us-versus-them scenario in Canada, and making promises he cannot fulfil. By claiming to help fix a damaged Confederation, he risks doing real, long-term damage to the country.
This column is an opinion. For more information about our commentary section, please read this editor’s blog and our FAQ.