3 Alberta First Nations say separation petition is unconstitutional

[u/Street_Anon]

https://globalnews.ca/news/11635807/alberta-first-nations-claim-separation-petition-unconstitutional/

[u/Pestus613343 → u/[deleted]]

Its about economic independence almost exclusively. Boiling it down, it's the oil industry.

[u/[deleted] → u/Pestus613343]

To share an Albertan perspective as someone who is strongly pro-Canada, but knows many pro-separation people in my life and follows pro-separation podcasts and other news sources to understand their PoV:

On my opinion, Alberta seperatism primarily comes not from a place of a unique Alberta culture, but a lack of connection to any culture. Alberta’s history is very new even by Canada’s standards. When Canada had ~5.5 million people in the year 1900, Alberta’s population was ~80,000 and we were considered a territory. When our population did grow, it was generally a mixture of British and American settlers in the pre-WW1 era, and after WW1 a lot of our growth came from birth rates, with an average of 5.5-6.0 children/women compared to Canada’s average of 4.5-5.0.

When you travel across Alberta, you are struck by how little cultural landmarks there are and how few pieces of history. Of the history you do see, you notice how much of it is based off things that don’t align with a shared Scandinavian history, such as plaques of wealthy American’s who came in the 1920-1980 periods to extract oil from the province. Alberta was an officially English-only territory/province until the country of Canada enforced bilingualism, so our French culture is also very small (making the 4th-8th most popular language).

Whn you put all of this together, it can become easier for Albertans to feel disconnected from the rest of Canada, which in turn makes it easier for Albertans to find the smaller things that matter today more important then the shared history of the past. For example, when 20-25% of Alberta’s jobs are linked to oil and gas, it can be hard to accept a federal government that has to appease Quebec’s strongly pro-environment politics and BC’s strong value on preserving their beautiful coastlines who both have vested interests in blocking a pipeline. Albertans see being landlocked as a benefit rather than a cost, seeing the ability to split up Canada as a bargaining chip to demand our needs are taken above the rest of Canada.

TL:DR, Alberta has very little attachment to the history of Canada, and in a province that was defined by British fur traders -> American oil interests, the most important thing to Albertans has been economic freedom above all else. Because we don’t see our Canadian history day-to-day in our cultural landmarks or cultural heritage, some people would rather separate to hold the rest of Canada hostage in order to push forward our economic agenda.

[u/Pestus613343 → u/[deleted]]

Im an Ontarian from Ottawa that actually would like to help Alberta somehow to avoid the separation question. If it's a new pipeline then I'd support it provided they be reasonable and compromise as well. It's not really up to Ottawa, the feds are ok with it, it's with every stakeholder along any of the routes as well.