Hypocritical?

If the Parti Québécois wins, both Alberta and Quebec will have referendums in October. So why have I argued in the past that I understand Quebec? Do I not understand Alberta? Some might call my lack of support hypocritical. I’d argue they are not the same.

In 1979, I had just moved to Quebec from Toronto for my first TV job. It was just before the first referendum on independence. As a new resident, I could have voted no, but I thought journalism was more important; I didn’t feel I had the right to vote, it was for Quebeckers to decide. Now I’m being told the same thing by some in Alberta - lectures from Central Canadians are not welcome.

I’m a Central Canadian, but I pissed off a few fellow Anglos, too. Some were horrified that I stayed on the sidelines. 40 years later, Quebec has changed, francophones have won a lot, French is still in trouble, it always will be, but francos are treated with respect and dignity. I usually side with underdogs; now, I don’t see Quebeckers as underdogs.

I’ve just moved back, and if the PQ wins, I will vote to stay.

Not only will I vote, but I have opinions. Like my opinion on the “Love In”. Just before the ‘95 referendum, thousands of people from other provinces came to Montreal to say, “We love you, don’t leave!!” It was a very nice idea, but I agreed with many Quebeckers who said it backfired. “Who asked you?” they said. “This is not about you.” A week later, the remain in Canada side won by a squeaker; they almost lost, it was so close.

I’ve become a “Love In” wannabe; I’m sticking my nose in. If I thought the Alberta referendum was comparable, I would shut up. If it were all about the National Energy Plan, I could get it. The NEP was meant to share Western oil and gas with the East. Is Quebec to share its hydro? Saskatchewan its potash? It’s very nice as a policy, but it makes no sense.

It doesn’t help that I read Richard Warnica in the Toronto Star about returning to his Alberta roots, and learned that at least one of the separatist leaders is a crackpot. He actually thinks King Charles is plotting to kill him. That, and reading that Premier Danielle Smith posed the referendum question while saying publicly that she wants Alberta to stay in Canada. Maybe it’s true that she just wants to keep her job.

I’m obviously writing as a Central Canadian. I have a depth of understanding of Quebec, its culture being subsumed by another. I have never lived in Alberta; it’s driven by things that I don’t understand. Alberta’s appetite for separatism may be small, but people have been massively fed up for decades. Albertans are not underdogs–they are wealthier, and they speak English. I think the desire to leave is more economic than cultural. They are tired of others supposedly leeching off of them, of being told what to do by Ottawa.

Quebec did eventually get a lot more powers, with threats of “Or Else.” There’s even an old Quebec joke about trying to have it both ways, that Quebeckers wanted suspenders and a belt–two ways to hold their pants up. They won more powers, got control of immigration, and have their own taxes and pension. Now every province becomes a nation within a nation? What’s the point of a federal government? Ottawa really would be what Alberta Premier Smith calls the “Worst regime in the world.”

It’s an interesting time to have a PM like Mark Carney– Justin Trudeau was a lefty drama teacher, who was hated in Alberta, like his Dad, the father of the NEP.

Carney has put a lot of water in his environmental wine; some say he’s doing what Pierre Poilievre wanted. He’s agreed to a new pipeline - got rid of the carbon tax, reduced the emissions cap. It may not be like Quebec, but it’s a lot more power for Alberta!

Carney also had the experience of dealing with something similar when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in London. Pollsters and Prime Ministers said Brexit would never happen, and then it did. I remember how the Quebec referendums tore families apart, exposed wounds that may never heal. I don’t wish it on Alberta.

Just before he died of cancer, I asked then Quebec premier Bourassa off camera about René Lévesque. Did he really want to separate? Bourassa (granted, he was a federalist No leader) said no, that Levesque mostly wanted to change things. Unlike many independence-minded Albertans, he was ready to leave. Albertans want dignity, too, but they have it already.

Me? I didn’t vote then - but I will now. I like to think it’s because rights have been wronged, rights bigger than Alberta’s. Maybe just getting more is what it’s all about; dignity and power for Alberta, it’s not just about getting richer. Maybe Alberta and Quebec are more the same than I realised. I am biased, but I’m not hypocritical!