We've got to let Canada know: Do we stay or do we go?
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Art Hunter
Apr 7, 2026, 4:59:20 PMApr 7
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We've got to let Canada know: Do we stay or do we go?
Calgary HeraldCHRIS NELSON Chris Nelson is a weekly columnist.
It looks as though we're going to have a vote on separation after all. That's a good thing, because Albertans deserve this moment.
Finally, history will sit firmly in our own hands. Do we remain part of Canada or forge a different path as an independent nation?
Ballot questions don't get any bigger than that.
For almost its entire existence, our province has railed against the confines imposed by Central Canada. Most of the anguish revolved around our natural resources, which Ottawa has always figured it had a claim upon, even after the Constitution ruled otherwise.
A fight to keep the federal government off our land marks Alberta's history. Whether it was wheat or oil, the battle was always the same.
But never in the province's 120-year existence have citizens been given the opportunity to decide for ourselves — do we stay or do we go?
To again slightly misquote The Clash — our prime minister's favourite band, which is probably the only thing Mark Carney and I have in common — if we stay, it could be trouble; if we go, it could be double.
It now seems certain we will vote on independence on Oct. 19, after Jeffrey Rath, leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, this week announced the separatists have enough signatures to force that referendum. They needed 177,723 and, with a month before the cut-off, Rath says they have surpassed that number.
Finally, something definitive will take place in this country. That alone is cause for some celebration.
After the past 12 months in which we've been inundated with grandiose announcements and endless waffle with no real change to the suffocating status quo in our province's relationship with Ottawa, we're finally getting down to the nitty-gritty.
Unlike much of what has gone before, this matters. Yes, it might be nerve-racking, but at least a separation vote is real. It has consequences. There will be a result, one where the idea of this province going it alone will either die for at least another generation or spring to life in a history-making moment.
Premier Danielle Smith has certainly given Carney a lot of rope since he was elected prime minister, signing a memorandum of understanding aimed at transforming Alberta into an energy superpower.
Yet, how much further along that promised road have we actually travelled? With the entire planet now crying out for more oil and gas because of the ongoing war in Iran and its effect on energy supplies, Canada still appears stuck in its starting blocks.
Ottawa seems much more enthusiastic about the environmental aspects of any accord with Alberta, such as limiting methane emissions or moving ahead with a massive carbon capture project, than talking seriously about the rapid construction of another oil pipeline to the
West Coast. And, in a rather bizarre twist, that carbon capture plan is itself now running foul of a coalition of farmers and Indigenous groups who are demanding a federal review of the $16.5-billion Pathways project, led by a coalition of oilsands companies.
“We will voice our concerns, and we will make sure this project gets a thorough environmental review from the Canadian government,” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is part of the Alberta No CO2 Pipelines coalition.
Meanwhile, other Indigenous groups also claim Ottawa didn't properly consult them about carbon capture, and that this pipeline could threaten nearby communities.
Oh, yes, more consultation. That's become Canada's calling card. It's all we do these days.
There is no leadership, responsibility or courage. Everything is buried beneath a blanket of dreary, endless consultation in which everyone is asked for an opinion so that nobody has to make a decision.
Come Oct. 19, the consulting will be done. It is D-day for Albertans. There will be no one to pass the buck to. It's all on you.
After 120 years, that seems only fair.
-- Calgary HeraldCHRIS NELSON Chris Nelson is a weekly columnist.
It looks as though we're going to have a vote on separation after all. That's a good thing, because Albertans deserve this moment.
Finally, history will sit firmly in our own hands. Do we remain part of Canada or forge a different path as an independent nation?
Ballot questions don't get any bigger than that.
For almost its entire existence, our province has railed against the confines imposed by Central Canada. Most of the anguish revolved around our natural resources, which Ottawa has always figured it had a claim upon, even after the Constitution ruled otherwise.
A fight to keep the federal government off our land marks Alberta's history. Whether it was wheat or oil, the battle was always the same.
But never in the province's 120-year existence have citizens been given the opportunity to decide for ourselves — do we stay or do we go?
To again slightly misquote The Clash — our prime minister's favourite band, which is probably the only thing Mark Carney and I have in common — if we stay, it could be trouble; if we go, it could be double.
It now seems certain we will vote on independence on Oct. 19, after Jeffrey Rath, leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, this week announced the separatists have enough signatures to force that referendum. They needed 177,723 and, with a month before the cut-off, Rath says they have surpassed that number.
Finally, something definitive will take place in this country. That alone is cause for some celebration.
After the past 12 months in which we've been inundated with grandiose announcements and endless waffle with no real change to the suffocating status quo in our province's relationship with Ottawa, we're finally getting down to the nitty-gritty.
Unlike much of what has gone before, this matters. Yes, it might be nerve-racking, but at least a separation vote is real. It has consequences. There will be a result, one where the idea of this province going it alone will either die for at least another generation or spring to life in a history-making moment.
Premier Danielle Smith has certainly given Carney a lot of rope since he was elected prime minister, signing a memorandum of understanding aimed at transforming Alberta into an energy superpower.
Yet, how much further along that promised road have we actually travelled? With the entire planet now crying out for more oil and gas because of the ongoing war in Iran and its effect on energy supplies, Canada still appears stuck in its starting blocks.
Ottawa seems much more enthusiastic about the environmental aspects of any accord with Alberta, such as limiting methane emissions or moving ahead with a massive carbon capture project, than talking seriously about the rapid construction of another oil pipeline to the
West Coast. And, in a rather bizarre twist, that carbon capture plan is itself now running foul of a coalition of farmers and Indigenous groups who are demanding a federal review of the $16.5-billion Pathways project, led by a coalition of oilsands companies.
“We will voice our concerns, and we will make sure this project gets a thorough environmental review from the Canadian government,” said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is part of the Alberta No CO2 Pipelines coalition.
Meanwhile, other Indigenous groups also claim Ottawa didn't properly consult them about carbon capture, and that this pipeline could threaten nearby communities.
Oh, yes, more consultation. That's become Canada's calling card. It's all we do these days.
There is no leadership, responsibility or courage. Everything is buried beneath a blanket of dreary, endless consultation in which everyone is asked for an opinion so that nobody has to make a decision.
Come Oct. 19, the consulting will be done. It is D-day for Albertans. There will be no one to pass the buck to. It's all on you.
After 120 years, that seems only fair.
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