Alberta： A History of Separatism (part 2)
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
147.0855
Summary
This is the second part in a two-part series on Alberta s history of separatism. In this episode, we will cover the history of the Reform Party of Canada and its impact on the oil and gas sector in Alberta.
Transcript
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Hi everyone, and welcome to the second part in the two-part series about Alberta's history of separatism.
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So without further ado, let's continue where we left off.
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In 1987, Preston Manning, son of Alberta's longest-serving Premier Ernest Manning,
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The aim of the party was to address issues of Western disgruntlement and alienation within the federal Canadian Parliament,
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While many members of the party had advocated for Albertan independence,
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the party aimed to keep separatist sentiments at bay as it worked to achieve its goals within the confines of Canada.
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In the 1993 election, the Reform Party of Canada won a staggering 52 seats,
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making it a formidable force in Parliament, but at the expense of the progressive Conservatives,
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who were far more concerned with Central and Eastern Canada and paid little attention to the West.
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In the same election, the energy minister in charge of enforcing the disastrous national energy program under Pierre Trudeau,
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Jean Chrétien, is elected to prime ministership, with yet again another majority liberal government.
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Chrétien was in fact a great admirer of Pierre Trudeau, going on record to say,
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the genius of Mr. Trudeau was in sensing the desire among our people in seizing the moment.
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Although he was nowhere near as disastrous as Pierre Trudeau,
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Chrétien's tenure was still stained by a growing sense of Western alienation, and for good reason.
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Under his reign, the federal government was criticized for being hesitant on supporting pipeline and oil sands projects.
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This perception of hesitancy was due to the fact that federal approvals of such projects had experienced many delays.
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In 1997, Chrétien signed the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to reduce global greenhouse emissions.
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This decision was made without any consultation with Alberta,
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whose economy heavily relied and still relies on carbon-intensive industries such as oil and gas.
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His government was also hesitant to make infrastructure investments in Alberta.
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They'd rather focus on investment on Ontario and Quebec, where they gobble up the most votes,
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even though Alberta contributed billions of dollars in tax revenue each year,
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all the while garnering no benefit from equalization.
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The Canadian Senate is a body of government whose members are appointed by the Prime Minister.
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Ontario and Quebec each have 24 seats in the Senate, while Alberta and other Western provinces only have 6 seats.
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A quarter of the representation of Ontario and Quebec.
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Reformers in Alberta called for an elected, equal, and effective Senate,
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whereby senators were voted for, not appointed, and with every province given an equal number of seats,
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all the while making the Senate more effective in influencing federal legislation.
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In 1998, Burt Brown won a Senate election in Alberta,
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but Chrétien, the boss who called the shots, refused to appoint him, despite public pressure to do so.
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Albertans deemed this decision to be a slap in the face to their sovereignty as voters.
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It marked a clear sign that Ottawa did not take Albertans' concerns seriously,
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and underscored the over-representation and domination of central Canada in federal institutions.
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On a more positive note, the Federal Reform Party increased its seat count from 52 to 60 in the 1997 election,
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In 2000, the Reform Party rebranded itself as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance Party,
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which was then merged with the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003 to form the Conservative Party of Canada,
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Harper's Conservative Party went on to form government in the 2006 federal election,
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bringing an end to Alberta's 30-year nightmare.
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His government's mandate was comprised of fiscal accountability, tax cuts, crime legislation, and resource development.
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His government was much appreciated and had a very strong base in Alberta,
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as they were unilateral in their support for energy development, lower taxes, and limited government.
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They went on to push back on ridiculous federal environmental regulations
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that were deemed to be obstacles to Alberta's oil and gas sector,
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But unfortunately, Alberta's good fortune would run out by 2015,
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with yet another liberal majority government coming into power,
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this time led by none other than Pierre Elliott Trudeau's spawn, Justin Trudeau.
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Trudeau first upheld his family's heritage of tirades against Alberta oil and gas
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when his government cancelled the Northern Gateway Pipeline in 2016,
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even though the majority of indigenous groups supported the project.
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During their majority reign, his liberal government wasted no time getting in the way of energy projects
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by first passing Bill C-69, commonly dubbed as the No More Pipelines Act,
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which has greatly stymied the approval of energy infrastructure, pipelines in particular.
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which banned oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 tons of crude off the coast of British Columbia,
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making it virtually impossible to export to foreign markets,
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and thereby increasing our dependency on the U.S. as our sole customer for oil.
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Disastrous and laughably ineffective consumer-facing carbon tax was put into place in 2019,
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driving up the cost of gasoline, diesel, and utilities.
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What's more is that according to the Bank of Canada,
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the carbon tax was responsible for an increase of 0.4% in the inflation rate,
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which accounted for 10% of the inflation in January 2022, for example.
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What made the carbon tax laughably ineffective in the face of global emissions
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is that the reductions in emissions that it was responsible for
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Thankfully, the consumer-facing carbon tax is no longer in effect,
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The government plans to force Canada's energy grid into carbon neutrality by 2035,
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even though Europe, being the leaders that they are in decarbonization,
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plans to decarbonize their electricity grids by 2050.
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Thankfully, Trudeau is long gone now, with a golden parachute nonetheless.
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And in his place came Mark J. Carney, under the same liberal banner and the same mandate.
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Carney got rid of the consumer carbon tax, but in his place,
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which requires carbon-intensive economies, such as Alberta's, to bear the burden.
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He's been sending mixed messages in regards to building pipelines
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in different campaign stops and in different languages.
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The cabinet he's shuffled around is already facing a competency crisis,
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as most of them have been failing upwards from Trudeau's government.
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Speaking of his cabinet, he's yet again appointed another,
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quote, keep-it-in-the-ground activist as environment minister,
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while putting the former radical environment minister,
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He's tabled half a trillion dollars of new spending
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He has vowed to uphold the disastrous aforementioned Bill C-69,
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which has created a devastating regulatory environment
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And to top it all off, when asked if he would potentially fast-track any pipeline projects,
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he said he would, but only if they were producing decarbonized barrels of oil.
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The terms decarbonized and oil do not belong in the same sentence,
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UBC climate scientist Simon Donner claims that the phrase decarbonized oil
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Carney is stupidly naive if he thinks carbon capture and storage in its current state
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can eliminate carbon emissions from oil production.
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But remember, Carney isn't stupid, nor is he naive.
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It's far more likely that he wants Brookfield Asset Management,
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to be involved in these decarbonized pipeline projects.
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The man is a slithery snake of the highest order.
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don't want to be in a federation governed by a slithery snake and his henchmen.
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pollsters have been finding that support for Alberta independence has drastically shot up,
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while others finding a whopping 47% in favor of independence.
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With the lowered signature threshold for citizen-initiated referendums,
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Albertans have a golden opportunity to unshackle themselves from the federation,
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Well, thank you so much for watching and getting this far.
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I plan on creating more videos to educate people about this topic.
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whether they're people that are in favor of Alberta's independence,
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or even people against Alberta's right to self-governance.