dailynewsnblog
We can all agree that last Friday’s opinion piece by NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi on Alberta separatism published by CTV News had an accurate headline: The threat to our nation is very real. After that mildly promising beginning, though, things went downhill.
I guess someone in the Opposition’s strategic brain trust reckoned Mr. Nenshi needed to be heard expressing deep thoughts about the fact the United Conservative Party has turned into a separatist party, with a few statesmanlike lines tossed in about the potential negative impact on the Alberta oilpatch of U.S. President Donald Trump’s too-easy non-invasive takeover of Venezuela.
Whatever was said, though, surely it’s doubtful a 1,000-word essay incongruously published on a broadcaster’s website will have much impact on the recent successes of the Alberta separatist movement, which has been carefully nurtured by Premier Danielle Smith and now appears to be significantly funded by people associated with the Trump Administration whose goal is surely not merely for Alberta to become a conveniently independent authoritarian petro-republic.
The next step, of course, would be to absorb Alberta into the Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue – although more likely as a quasi-colonial territory like Puerto Rico than as the 51st state, which is arguably the actual goal of most of the movers and shakers in the Alberta separatist conspiracy.
To be blunt, if this is the NDP response to a foreign-funded secession movement that is already bombarding Alberta with a Brexit-style disinformation campaign, it’s not likely to work. It’s too long, too professorial, too nuanced, too nice, and frankly naïve.
Mr. Nenshi’s op-ed also lacks a clear call to action. Such as it is, it wants us to show “Albertans and all Canadians that we can make this great country work better for all of us.” That’s nice, but how about some hints?
Worse, it naively assumes Premier Smith’s strategy is just to “use the threat of separatism (which she herself has strongly encouraged) to extract concessions from the federal government, then paint herself as Captain Canada and the one who saved the nation during a referendum.”
How sure can we be of that? The darker interpretation of our premier’s strategy that’s now become extremely dangerous to ignore is that Ms. Smith intends to be the willing enabler of the Trump Administration’s next big move after Greenland. The Don’s inside man, as it were.
So what did Ms. Smith really say when she raced down to Mar-a-Lago last year at this time?
That remains unknown. As I wrote at the time, though, whatever it was, it was extremely unlikely a “Team Canada” message and “may well have been contrary to the interests of Canadian provinces other than those like Alberta with a lot of oil.”
Now that we’ve had the chance to observe Ms. Smith’s separation machinations for a year – in particular her government’s willingness to twist the rules like a pretzel to ensure a separation referendum is on the ballot soon and no competing exercises in “direct democracy” are tolerated – the possibilities are considerably more sinister.
Can we still be confident that this wasn’t something more than just a fangirl visit.
Meanwhile, south of the Medicine Line, far-right “influencers” close to the Trump Administration are, as Alberta broadcaster Rob Breakenridge described it in a tweet, “saying the quiet part out loud.”
Take a listen to Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, and “geopolitical expert” Brandon Weichert having a chitchat about Alberta.
“The Albertans,” says Mr. Weichert, “are getting out of the Canadian union, they’re gonna become an independent state, an independent country, we’re gonna recognize them, and that’s gonna put them on the pathway to becoming the 51st state.” Well, the second American Samoa, anyway.
It’s because we’ve got a lot of stuff here in Alberta, Mr. Weichert suggests, that Mr. Trump wants us, just like he wants Greenland. Why, we’d be a pathway to the Arctic! (Which he also wants.)
A year ago, this kind of thing sounded like utter nonsense. In light of what we’ve seen in the last two weeks in Washington, and the last year in the Premier’s Office, can we still be so confident?
Alberta’s only pro-Canadian political party with a chance of forming government is going to have to do better than a repeat of “The Big Listen.”
Nicolaides recall petition flops – it was fun while it lasted
The first recall petition against a United Conservative Party MLA and the one arguably with the best chance of success, has flopped.
The attempt to recall Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides, MLA for Calgary-Bow and certainly a deserving candidate for a theoretical recall, fell more than 9,500 signatures short of the 16,006 that would have been required to succeed.
Too bad, so sad. Amateurish organization of the recall campaign certainly contributed. But it was never likely to succeed and nor are the other 25 recall petitions still out there. That said, it was fun while it lasted, and it as a civil society response to the depredations of the UCP it certainly put the government off its game for a few weeks.
As such, it was an excellent example of an asymmetrical response to an increasingly authoritarian government, and like any tactic in a political war, it wouldn’t be asymmetrical any more if it kept being used once it’s utility had ended.
So opponents of the government need to resist the temptation to continue to use a mechanism that has now been made even more difficult to use. That would be pointless nostalgia. It’s time for them to get back to the task of ensuring the UCP’s defeat in a general election.
