By Sheldon Spackman

Pushing for Alberta Sovereignty

Alberta separation movement gathers support in Red Deer

Aug 13, 2019 | 2:53 PM

Alberta’s separation from Canada was discussed during a meeting held at the Collicutt Centre in Red Deer on Saturday.

‘Can Confederation Be Fixed?’ was hosted by Wexit Alberta, which bills itself as a voluntary association of Indigenous Albertans and Non-Indigenous Albertans who share a commitment to economic liberty, social stability and Alberta sovereignty.

The group was founded in June by Peter Downing, a former RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces member, who says there are many factors were behind it.

“Bill C-69, Bill C-48, equalization, excessive taxation, being abused by eastern Canada, hundreds of thousands of jobs shed, nothing responsive, more regulations and more abuse of Alberta,” he exclaims. “So in February, 2019, we launched billboards across the province asking if Alberta should ditch Canada. Moving forward, the cries for separation have been increasing immensely.”

According to their website, Wexit Alberta would ensure the province remains sovereign and in no way subordinate to the Government of Canada, British Crown, or the United Nations. An Alberta Constitution would be citizen ratified via direct referendum. Head of state would be an elected President of Alberta with an appointed cabinet and an elected senate.

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Downing hopes to bring them the various separatist organizations that currently exist in the province. As such, he recently announced on Facebook that he plans to seek the leadership of the Alberta Independence Party.

“One party that the Alberta voter could vote on,” explains Downing. “Since they’ve given a clear mandate to Jason Kenney and the UCP to get pipelines, fix confederation, all these sorts of things with Ottawa, they’re giving him his chance. But if he fails, everybody is ready to vote for separation.”

In a statement released Tuesday, the Freedom Conservative Party, which has pledged to negotiating a good faith deal with Ottawa before exploring separation, says it currently has no plans to merge with any other political party or movement.

Wexit Alberta’s vision for “economic liberty” includes achieving an overall personal income tax rate of 15-19 per cent by abolishing all special interest spending, removing non-value added government services, abolishing Federal Income Tax and GST and delivering essential government services only.

There would be an end to public investment in what is described as ‘unreliable’ energy technologies such as wind and solar and offering ‘robust surface and subsurface land owner and property rights.’ Further incentives for the development of shale and nuclear technology would also be offered, with punitive measures to be taken against jurisdictions blocking Alberta’s economic progress.

Downing says Confederation simply no longer works for Alberta.

“We only have 34 seats in Alberta, federally,” he explains. “In Ontario there’s a 121, Quebec there’s 78, the city of Toronto alone has 25, Montreal alone has 10. Those two cities and their provinces who are completely politically and economically opposed to Alberta, they outvote us 35-34.”

Wexit Alberta’s next stop is on Aug. 24 in Lloydminster, where a joint meeting will be held with Wexit Saskatchewan.