About 50 years ago, a High Prairie businessman was in a tizzy!
At the time, recently-elected to the Alberta Legislature, Larry Shaben didn’t have much in the way of political experience. He had been a town councillor. He knew a bit about the winds of politics. He picked as his party Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed over the weakening Social Credit party.
Then, much as now, Alberta politics was more about personalities and big name leaders than about party positions and policies. That was good enough for Mr. Shaben and the day-to-day running of government. The mantra of most Western Canadians then was, “Vote for the man, not the party.”
It happened, after Shaben’s own election about a year earlier, the Parti Quebecois came to power in Quebec in 1976. If ever there was a “man” behind the politics, it was the firebrand Rene Levesque.
Shaben was deeply concerned. Whether it was the Lougheed position at the time, or Shaben’s own, the Quebec election marked a serious turning point in Shaben’s politics.
“Fifteen years ago separatism was just a joke in Canada,” he said. “Now the separatists have their own government!” Shaben figured that was entirely the fault of the federal government.
A few years later, while the rest of Canada slowly sleep-walked on its normal “Toronto is the Centre of the Universe, and let none forget it,” Levesque organized a separation referendum. The march to separation has not stopped since.
Quebec may not really be a comparable equal to Ottawa and Ontario, but it sure gets treated as one. Certainly, the more Quebec is treated as the hard-done-by have-not province, the more it comes around every few years, waving the separatist flag and demanding more from those best able to pay.
The rest of Canada, and Alberta in particular, sure knows that. Why Alberta? Because it has the good luck of geography, and the bad luck of geography. The good luck of richness in resources and land. The bad luck of being a land-locked province with no tide-water access.
The circumstances in Shaben’s time were such he didn’t want to see Canada broken. Most facts were on his side. That was then. This is now.
Premier Danielle Smith seems to waffle. On the separation issue, saying she wants Alberta to stay in Canada. Yet is seemingly enabling a separation vote.
In central Canada, Alberta is seen as just muddying waters. The real problem we should all be concerned with, as far as they think, is Quebec. We must keep them happy.
If there is a serious brain trust in the back rooms of Canadian political circles planning how to get us all through this, where the heck were they when Justin Trudeau was making a mess of the country? If there is a brain trust in Alberta planning the best outcome for Albertans, there sure doesn’t seem to be any signs of one.
Circumstances proved Shaben correct in his concern Canada was in trouble. It’s just seems to be taking a long time to fumble to a still unknown conclusion. Will it be the same here in Alberta?
Jeff Burgar