James Moore is a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper and is a contributing columnist for CTVNews.ca.
The referendum results in Alberta should mark a turning point for the relationship between not just Alberta and the government in Ottawa, but for Alberta and all of Canada.
Canadians outside Alberta have watched and overwhelmingly hoped that the remain side would win. And, I think it is safe to say, that Canadians were both relieved and rejoiced to see that our fellow Canadians in Alberta stood up and stared down those who pushed for a separate Alberta.
The process that led to this referendum was driven by Alberta separatists and enabled by a compliant provincial government hoping that a process to vent deep divisions publicly would result in some sort of catharsis that would heal divisions within Alberta’s conservative movement. It likely will not.
The soft separation question of the referendum, about whether to have a definitive referendum on separating from Canada, was overwhelmingly rejected by Albertans. So those righteous separatists who claim to speak on behalf of all Albertans were rebuffed by their neighbours, who said very clearly that they have had enough of this distraction.
Those separatists with their social media feeds and YouTube channels, who claim to speak for the whole of their province, have been humbled and should probably sit down for a little while. In a democracy, the majority have rights, and the majority have spoken loudly and clearly.
The federal fallout
While people empathize with the frustrations of many Albertans — particularly flowing out of the peak frustrations of the Justin Trudeau era — separation was never the right answer to the important question of how we move forward with effective reconciliation within Canada.
So, what is the fallout? For Prime Minister Mark Carney, there should be no declaration of victory, but a commitment to keep moving forward on getting things done.
Continue the respectful tone. Continue the progress on pipeline expansion. Continue the dialogue on future immigration inflows to meet economic needs. And continue to fight for the Canadian interest against Donald Trump.
For Premier Danielle Smith, her path is likely to be less easy. Federalists are frustrated that this path was ever taken and that this distraction and its divisions were created throughout Alberta to resolve a political problem within the United Conservative Party. People will be looking for accountability.
The Trumpist elements
For the conservative movement, I hope this is a turning-the-page moment as well. For far too long, going on years now, the conservative movement has been too nice and too close to forces that are too dark and too destructive for the future of the country. For years, the conservative movement has played nice with those who are sympathetic to separatism and too enamored with Trumpism.
Overwhelmingly, Canadians and Albertans have clearly rejected both separatism and Trumpism. If the Canadian conservative movement is going to win and be seen by Canadian voters as worthy of winning — particularly in this time of heightened Canadian pride and nationalism in the face of Trump — the separatist and Trumpist elements within the conservative movement need to walk away or be pushed away.
This is an internal fight within the conservative movement, and it has been going on for over a decade now. With the separatist forces now defeated in Alberta and Trump’s time as president coming to an end in roughly 27 months, the conservative movement needs to move forward and move past these ankle weights that are unrepresentative of the overwhelming majority of Canadians who will only trust Canada to be governed by people who are clearly federalists, who will always put Canada first.
Alberta voters have spoken, and the fallout is clear. Prime Minister Carney needs to get to work and start giving results back to Canadians that can be seen and felt in a real way. Premier Smith needs to take concrete steps that leave no doubt that this separatist distraction will never be visited upon Alberta again as long as she is premier.
And the conservative movement needs to reform itself back to the better days of being the party of nation builders, like Sir John A. Macdonald, John Diefenbaker, Brian Mulroney, and Stephen Harper. Move forward and reject those who would drag us down into the divisive path of separatist and Trumpist politics that will only lead to the dead ends of both political failure and toxic division.
