CaptainCodeman

🇨🇦What is Alberta?🇨🇦 I was looking at the questions on the referendum ballot, and one of them asks whether Alberta should remain a province of Canada. I found myself asking: were we ever really a province? I say no. We're a territory with a participation ribbon. When did we become a province? Meaning equal to all others. Not just equal in law, but equal in practice. Not in 1905, when Ottawa carved us out of the Northwest Territories without asking the people who lived here. Territorial Premier Frederick Haultain had proposed one large province called Buffalo, covering what became Alberta and Saskatchewan, arguing it would give the West a voice in Ottawa. Wilfrid Laurier rejected it and split the territory into two smaller provinces instead, two that would be easier to control than one that could rival Ontario. Not in 1982, when the Constitution was rewritten and the one chance to fix the imbalance came and went. Lougheed won a few concessions, sure, but the Senate stayed stacked, the Commons stayed tilted, and the amendment formula locked it all in. The amendment formula makes it permanent. Most changes need seven provinces with half the population, but the Senate, the Commons, and the Supreme Court require all ten provinces to agree. Sp the very things that keep Alberta on the outside are the things that can never be fixed without the provinces that benefit from them agreeing to give that up, rendering Alberta's problems in Confederation permanently unfixable. If that's the way it is, then perhaps the way forward for Alberta is "so be it," because we were always on the outside anyways. A couple historical quotes tell the story. "The people of the North West are allowed but a degree more control of their affairs than the serfs of Siberia." Frank Oliver, Edmonton Bulletin, 1885. "We all desire, every patriotic Canadian desires, that the great trade of the prairie shall go to enrich our own people in the east, to build up the factories and the workshops of eastern Canada, and to contribute in every legitimate way to its prosperity." Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior, 1904. For those who are unaware or curious, start here: PEI has about 183,000 people and 4 senators, roughly 46,000 people per senator. Alberta has about 5 million people and 6 senators, roughly 850,000 people per senator. A resident of PEI gets about 18 times the senatorial representation of an Albertan. Our vote rarely matters at all, and everything is dictated to us from the East, who doesn't understand us. We were never let in, yet we are told to sit here, close our mouths, and accept our situation in a nation that has never allowed us a full say in our own affairs. Then we are called vicious names and traitors by our own countrymen for simply wanting change and to preserve our future, in a post-national state that refuses to answer to us. And in this post-national state with no core identity, what is it that we're supposed to identify with? It should also be noted that it was two Liberal judges appointed by David Lametti that squashed the separation question and turned it into a referendum on a referendum. You see, it's not all about pipelines. Alberta's historical grievances go back more than a hundred and forty years. It didn't all start in 1905. Some things never change, I suppose... until you change them. Vote option 2 on October 19th. #AlbertaIndependence 🤠