Alberta referendum a notable chapter in long history of grievance with Ottawa

Alberta will remain in Canada following Monday’s historic referendum result, despite hundreds of thousands of votes cast in favour of asking the provincial government to begin the process of separating.

A referendum held Monday asked residents 10 government-initiated questions, with the lion’s share of public and political attention focused on the 10th question asking Albertans whether they wanted to remain in Canada or proceed to another, binding referendum on leaving Confederation.

While about 76 per cent of voters opted to stay as of early Tuesday morning, the referendum brought to a head grievances in the province towards the federal government that go back nearly a century.

Alberta farmers versus the Canadian Wheat Board

Starting in the 1930s, many Alberta farmers opposed the monopoly the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) had over wheat and barley prices and their sales.

Established in 1935, for much of its history the CWB was the sole buyer and seller of Prairie wheat and barley destined for export from Canada.

It became illegal for farmers to sell their grains elsewhere in order to facilitate Canadian sales to Britain during the Second World War, at a time when many were struggling to survive following the Great Depression.

Many Alberta grain farmers — viewing their operations as independent commercial businesses rather than state-managed entities — strongly opposed the single-desk system.

They argued the CWB restricted their freedom to sell grain to private buyers, negotiate independent contracts and capture better market prices.

Changes to loosen restrictions were made in later decades until the board was dissolved in 2012.

Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program

Anger boiled over in the 1980s when Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program (NEP) devastated jobs and investment in the province’s oil and gas sector.

The program kept domestic oil prices below world levels to promote Canadian energy security and increase the federal share of oil revenues.

Opposition led by Peter Lougheed, who served as Alberta premier from 1971 to 1986, viewed the program as an unconstitutional federal intrusion into provincial resource ownership.

The province retaliated by ordering a cut to oil production and suspension of oil sands projects.

Lougheed’s battles with Trudeau over Alberta’s oil revenues and the NEP were legendary, sparking the famous bumper sticker reading: “Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.”

Anger amongst Albertans lingered long after Lougheed and Trudeau developed a grudging friendship and worked together on constitutional reform.

For many Albertans, the NEP became a lasting symbol of federal interference.

The rise of the Reform Party

The Reform Party of Canada rose to prominence in the late 1980s largely from Western Canadian, and particularly Albertan, frustration with the federal government.

Founded in 1987 by Preston Manning, the party tapped into a belief that Ottawa routinely prioritized the interests of central Canada, especially Ontario and Quebec, over the west.

The Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney alienated many westerners through constitutional debates, particularly the Meech Lake Accord, and decisions such as awarding a major CF-18 maintenance contract to Quebec rather than Manitoba.

Under the slogan “The West Wants In,” Reform advocated greater Western influence in federal politics, Senate reform, fiscal conservatism and decentralization.

In the 1993 federal election, the Reform Party won 52 seats — overwhelmingly in Western Canada — while the governing Progressive Conservatives collapsed.

As feelings of Western alienation began to resurface in 2019, Manning once again issued a warning to politicians about rising separatist sentiment, saying, “There’s real reasons for why people are angry and disillusioned.”

Manning said problems with the energy sector and the inability to get resources to tidewater and world markets were fueling the fire.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Jason Kenney era

More recent grievances included the Justin Trudeau government’s policies on energy investment and public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The anti-Ottawa mood ramped up in 2019, when the United Conservative Party under former premier Jason Kenney came to power in Alberta, capitalizing on discontent over federal rules and policies deemed to impair Alberta’s ability to create wealth, particularly in oil and gas.

Kenney fought for more independence from Ottawa but remained a staunch advocate for the province staying in Confederation.

In 2022, many Albertans joined the thousands of Canadians in a series of protests and blockades, initially organized to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates for cross-border truck drivers but quickly expanded to protest all COVID-19 restrictions.

During the pandemic, Kenney aimed to strike a balance between keeping the public safe while not overly infringing on people’s rights — but much of his party’s base felt the province still went too far.

Alberta separatists began working to oust him as leader.

“The lunatics are trying to take over the asylum, and I won’t let them,” Kenney was recorded saying to staff in March 2022.

Two months later, he received an approval of 51.4 per cent in a leadership review and resigned that same day.

That fall, Danielle Smith emerged as his successor in a leadership race that many prominent separatists have said they worked to get her elected in.

Oil and gas industry limitations

For years, Alberta opposed the federal carbon tax and Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, arguing the latter expanded federal oversight, created uncertainty for major projects and intruded on provincial jurisdiction.

The province and industry supporters also criticized Bill C-48, which cited environmental reasons for banning large oil tankers from parts of British Columbia’s northern coast, as restricting access to global markets.

The policies fuelled Alberta arguments that Ottawa was discouraging energy investment and limiting the province’s ability to develop and export its resources.

In recent months, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said the province’s relationship with the federal government has improved since Mark Carney was elected prime minister last year.

She noted, however, Albertans’ anger with the state of affairs left by the second Trudeau boiled over into hundreds of thousands of signatures on a petition to leave Confederation.

Earlier this year, that petition became ensnared in a legal process that Smith said could take months or years to resolve.

The referendum, Danielle Smith said, was necessary to address the matter once and for all.

Smith said repeatedly if the vote went the way polling has suggested for months, she expected everyone to accept it and move on.

On Tuesday, Smith will address Albertans on where the province goes from here.