This was to be the height of recognition of the historical injustices done to Canada’s indigenous people..
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept Canadian flags at half-mast for over six moinths with no plans on raising them so far due to the revelation of unmarked graves at the sites of residential schools.
This is the Prime Minister who sheds tears at the drop of a hat.
He created a brand new holiday to be held on September 30 of every year to recognize how poorly the native people of Canada have been treated.
He is hip.
He is woke.
He is sensitive.
He is hiding out on a vacation likely surfing in Tofino during the first Truth and Reconciliation Day ever held. It sounds almost impossible to believe.
Is this Prime Minister really too shallow to even take part in the holiday that he created? Is he really too stupid to see how these optics will be?
The answer to both is yes.
While the Prime Minister’s public itinerary said that he was in “private meetings in Ottawa”, it has been revealed that Trudeau is actually enjoying the beach at Tofino on Vancouver Island and the Prime Minister’s office was forced to confirm that.
The plight of Canada’s First Nations was acute enough to create a holiday but not important enough for Justin Trudeau to actually take part in it.
Trudeau truly is the fakest Prime Minister in the history of Canada.
You would think that he would spend this one day out of 365 with some of his First Nations constituents. Nope. Beach time came first.
That said, Central Canada will continue to elect him until he tires of playing Prime Minister and retires permanently to a beach somewhere.
It may seem minor and petty but this is serious business.
Calgary mayoral hopeful Jyoti Gondek has made great political hay out of her support for lockdowns, masking, social distancing and mandatory vaccinations. Gondek opposed Alberta’s unmasking back in June and still supports stronger restrictions today.
Meanwhile at an event today (September 25) Gondek was apparently doing maskless selfies in close quarters with people who aren’t in her household.
Emma May who appears in the picture quickly deleted the tweet and blocked me on Twitter but alas, it is too late. The image of this act of hypocrisy endures.
Leading by example is critical. How are we supposed to expect citizens to take social distancing legislation or even recommendations seriously when proponents of such measures won’t do so themselves?
Are not Alberta’s hospitals filled to capacity right now? Has it not been made clear that vaccinations alone don’t prevent spread? Why does Gondek think that unmasked, close contact with people outside of her own cohort won’t lead to the potential spread of infections?
Hypocrisy is one of the worst traits one can see in political leadership.
There are many reasons not to select Jyoti Gondek as Calgary’s next mayor.
Her gross hypocrisy when it comes to COVID-19 safely measures should top that list.
While the term “Just Transition” sounds innocuous enough, it is anything but. It represents a plan based on the presumption that the world will no longer need petrochemical products in the near future. Proponents of Justin Trudeau’s “Just Transition Act” view energy transition as being a black and white issue. They feel that petrochemical production must be halted altogether as soon as possible while we seek new means of energy generation. This ideologically driven approach to policy is certain to irreparably harm Canada’s energy sector while doing little to mitigate climate change.
Producers in Canada’s energy sector are well aware that the old way of doing things is finished. They also understand that Canada remains blessed with some of the most abundant energy resources on earth. Rather than throwing up their hands and working under the assumption that we will be shutting in our petrochemical resources, our energy producers have been taking a pragmatic approach through embracing the principles of a circular economy.
In a circular economy, producers no longer are simply focused on extracting, refining, and selling an energy product. The age-old principles of reduce, reuse and recycle are now being applied with resource extraction. Companies are now looking at the entire cycle of their operations and with technological advancements, net-zero emission goals are within reach.
Carbon that once was released into the atmosphere is now captured. Rather than viewing carbon as a waste product to be disposed of, researchers are finding ways to turn it into an asset.
Carbon dioxide is already being used for enhanced oil recovery projects. This reduces water and steam injection and naturally sequesters the carbon underground.
Technology is being developed that can use carbon in concrete, plastics, and liquid fuels. Captured CO2 can be used to accelerate algae growth which can be used as feed-stock for food, biofuels, and plastics.
We are just beginning to see the potential uses for captured carbon and new applications for it are being discovered all the time.
To foster continued innovation in carbon technology, industry leaders and investors need to be confident that they can get a long-term return on their investment. Why invest in new technology when the government appears to be poised to shut down the industry that it will apply to?
It will be nothing less than a tragedy if Canada shuts down one of its core industries based on ideological and political motives. We have an opportunity in front of us to be technological leaders in the production of net-zero emission petrochemical products. Both the economy and the environment will suffer if we allow our petrochemical sector to be shut down rather than cleaned up. The world will continue to consume fossil fuels from nations with low environmental standards while our domestic energy prices will skyrocket.
We need to move away from binary thinking when it comes to the future of petrochemical production. There is a third way and it isn’t transition, it’s transformation. The petrochemical industry is embracing positive, forward-thinking change. If only the government would let the industry get on with it.
I formed the Alberta Independence Party in 2000 at the ripe old age of 29. I was full of piss, vinegar, and inexperience. The party didn’t last long but the experience gained was invaluable.
Now more than 20 years later, other Western independence groups and parties have come and gone. All of the same regional grievances exist and we are no closer to independence than we were decades ago.
We continue to go in circles and keep making the same mistakes. While the situation of the West hasn’t changed in the last 20 years, I have.
I have remained active in provincial political circles and have served in roles ranging from election candidate for the Separation Party of Alberta to VP of policy for the Wildrose Party of Alberta when they were the official opposition.
After every assault on the wealth or culture of the West, we see new supporters of independence created. Every time a Conservative candidate takes us for granted or a Liberal candidate insults us, a few more people realize that the West’s relationship with Canada is untenable.
New supporters of Western independence are often politically inexperienced. They are ready to pursue independence but don’t know where to begin. They need a guide and I am putting it together.
It’s time for a new approach and there is little need to keep slamming into the walls that I already have.
The book is now in the final stages of editing and an electronic version will be published soon. The introduction is below. Consider signing up in the form at the bottom of the page so you can be informed when the full book is available.
Support for Western independence in Canada has had ebbs and flows for decades. Western alienation in Canada has existed since the beginning of confederation.
This book is for those who have concluded that the time has come for Western independence but may not know where to begin. We have tried to achieve change through the electoral system for generations to no avail. Attempts to change the constitution are futile as demonstrated by the failure of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords.
Canada’s system is outdated and lopsided. It is designed to serve Central Canada at the expense of outlying provinces. The deck is stacked and we will never win by playing within the existing structure.
The Reform Party burst upon the scene with the message of “The West wants in”. Through decades of pressure and compromise, the Reform Party merged into the mushy Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) of today. Even with O’Toole throwing Western interests to the wind by flip-flopping on his carbon-tax and firearm rights stances, the CPC was rejected by Central Canada in favour of the scandal-ridden Liberals. Western interests will never be a priority in federal politics. It is political suicide for a federal party to serve anything but Central Canada’s demands.
Western independence parties and movements have come and gone over the years. The Western Canada Concept made inroads in the 1980s and faded away. The Alberta Independence Party made ripples at the end of the 1990s and dissolved shortly into the 2000s. The Separation Party of Alberta came and went by 2010. Wexit was formed in 2019 and morphed into the soft-regionalist Maverick Party that made little more than a blip in the 2021 election.
We need to approach the pursuit of Western independence differently or we will never break out of the pattern of chronic failure that has marked the movement so far.
Rather than spawning more parties and advocacy groups, Western independence proponents need to build their base as individuals.
A lasting foundation for Western independence won’t be built through electoral runs or advocacy groups that seem to be little more than fundraising machines. Those organizations inevitably fall apart due to self-interested leadership, infighting or the compromising of core principles by the impatient.
Every supporter of Western independence needs to become an ambassador for the movement. The discussion forum for independence needs to be at dinner tables, over the neighbour’s fence, and in the lunchroom at work. Growth needs to be organic and from peer to peer.
This book will provide the tools to become an effective advocate for Western independence. Not as an annoying fanatic, but as a rational voice for a concept whose time has come.
Supporters for Western independence need to be won one person at a time. It will take patience and many conversations but this is how we will build the environment for the sea-change required in order to make Western independence a reality.
As Western independence proponents, we must to be able to effectively counter the common arguments made against independence. We need to be able to express how it’s the Canadian system rather than the Canadian people that we are eschewing.
We also need to avoid the mistakes made by previous independence movements.
Rather than having an independence movement represented by a handful of parties and groups we need to have a movement made up of hundreds of thousands of active, individual supporters. A true grassroots movement is invulnerable to the damage that organizations can cause under poor leadership.
When we communicate with our peers about independence, we speak directly and genuinely. The bias of the mainstream media is bypassed when we take on communication individually.
Once the strong foundation of support for Western independence is built, the parties will follow. As the late Ralph Klein said, his secret was to find out where the parade was going and to get in front of it. Once we build the parade, rest assured we will see plenty of prospective leaders and spokespeople rushing to get in front of it.
The concept is old but our approach needs to be new. This book will chart the path to Western independence and it begins with you.
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The Libertarian Party of Canada has been around since 1973. Few alternative parties can claim that sort of longevity and many have come and gone in that period.
The Libertarian party stays true to its ideals and philosophy. While the mainstream parties tend to change tact whenever the political winds shift, the Libertarians stick with their principles. That tenacious nature may be admirable, but it does make it difficult to garner support on the electoral front.
Libertarians are a stubborn lot by nature and can be difficult to lead. Jacques Boudreau has taken on a challenging task. Boudreau is maintaining an optimistic and pragmatic attitude and is planning to have a bigger presence in the next election which may be coming quite soon. With unrestrained government growth being the theme of the 2021 general election, a fiscal crisis down the road is unavoidable. The Libertarians plan to be there as the small-government alternative if and when Canadians do realize that we need to change the status quo.
It was refreshing to interview a leader with a vision deeper than simply printing money and hoping to have retired before the inevitable financial crisis comes home to roost.
