TagAlberta Autonomy
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Continue Reading →: Remain and do what? Take 2
Remain and do what? Take 2
Seven weeks, ten questions and a million early ballots later, the structure that brought Alberta here is still standing, and the attempts to answer what was asked have fallen short. The complaint heard most often about Monday’s referendum is that it amounts to a protest. Critics mean it as a dismissal. In their telling, a…
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Continue Reading →: What Quebec Has, Alberta May Not Ask For
What Quebec Has, Alberta May Not Ask For
A prime minister came to tell Albertans this week. We have been told. Fewer than a hundred people gathered at Bridgeland Riverside Community Association Park on Thursday morning, many in Maple Leaf red. The Prime Minister worked the line and shook hands. “I like the red,” he told them. Then he said what he hadn’t…
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Continue Reading →: The Constitution is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps breaking
The Constitution is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps breaking
As Alberta prepares to vote, Ottawa might remember that constitutional obligations work both ways. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a good occasion to think about promises. Families and friendships rest on them. Countries are no different. On October 19, Albertans will answer ten referendum questions. Four concern changes to Canada’s Constitution. The…
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Continue Reading →: Democracy Is for Losers
Democracy Is for Losers
A Commentary on Wesley and Boessenkool Most of our state institutions are worth defending, but they are not perfect, and sometimes the people who populate them fall well short of expectations. When they do, the electors are justified in keeping the elected on a tight leash. In Alberta, that reflex is Wednesday. Twenty-five days before…
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Continue Reading →: Remain, and Do What?
Remain, and Do What?
The case against separation, and what its advocates propose instead Text prepared for the Alberta and the West Assembly · September 19, 2026 · Marco Navarro-Génie · written version, revised September 21, 2026 Good morning. Thank you, co-chairs Preston Manning and Gordon Campbell, for the opportunity to contribute to this Assembly. Thank you also to…
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Continue Reading →: An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions
An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions
Folks who readily accept qualifying other people as “racialized” are the most frequent users of the “racist” accusation. This is the second part of a multi-part series leading up to the October 19 Alberta Referenda. I arrived in this country as an adolescent, with two languages to learn in a new country and a revolution…
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Continue Reading →: Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing.
Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing.
The 1980 referendum didn’t empty Montreal. It was the socio-economic program. On Epiphany (January 6), 1978, Sun Life Assurance announced that it was moving its swanky head office to rented space in Toronto. Someone spray-painted “Bon débarras,” good riddance, on their Dominion Square massive granite building in Montreal. Montreal Exchange brokers called the day Black…
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Continue Reading →: Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915
Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915
This is the first essay in a series that begins today, 1 September 2026, the 121st anniversary of Alberta’s founding, and runs until after the referendum of 19 October. The series will cover the questions on that ballot, arguments of Albertans voting yes and no, key features of Alberta political culture, and how Albertans have…
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Continue Reading →: The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong
The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong
An anonymous infographic claims Alberta separation is constitutionally illegitimate because treaties and Confederation came first. This brief argues otherwise: Canada’s Constitution permits secession negotiations, treaties include land cession clauses, and constitutional arrangements have repeatedly changed through negotiation and democratic consent.
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Continue Reading →: Break the Fences, Keep the Frontier
Break the Fences, Keep the Frontier
Alberta leads Canada in prosperity by dismantling barriers, but old guilds and new obstacles—subsidies, DEI mandates, and debanking—threaten progress. To remain the frontier, Alberta must keep tearing down walls and driving economic freedom forward.