My Home and Native Land June 28th 2026

    Upsetting.  That's life here in this corner of my home and native land.  Tell you what.  My province is not just beautiful in the three months of spring and summer we receive.  It is full of good and decent people.  Neighbours who help you when you need it.  People who smile and greet you.   Educated people who work hard.  Kind people who give their time to help those who need help.  Volunteers who work thousands of hours a year simply to make their community a better place.  Conservative people who are all those things I just described.  But recently we have busted our butts convincing the rest of this wonderful beautiful country that the opposite is true.  

   Albertan's are not dumb.  But I think it has been proven repeatedly that even smart people can be more than a little naive when it comes to having  A) Their ego stroked,  or B) Being convinced that they are being used.    And here we are.   In this corner of my home and native land, our people are nothing if they are not A) Conservative and B) loyal.  Not so lovely a combination these days. 

   The number of Albertans who currently want to strike it out on our own is a minority.  There is no denying that.  But we are currently finding ourselves in a situation created where majority or minority may be irrelevant.  Cause (and this is where I would loose most of my conservative friends)  Our current leadership is oblivious to the rules,  especially the law.  

   The myths of our oppression are greatly exaggerated.  Last Tuesday at my golf league I was enjoying a pint with my foursome.  We were discussing cars and traffic and comparing the busiest highways in Canada to to the Q.E. II.  Our freeway running  between our two largest cities and what is referred to as the economic corridor of our province.  I mentioned that I once drove the 401 in Ontario from Hamilton to Windsor and found it less busy than the Q.E. (which in my former career we referred to as THE DUCE).  That's when it was pointed out to me by a local businessman of significant means that the duce was not sufficient for the amount of traffic because it is a federal highway and all decisions about size, use, and maintenance were made by the federal government based on Ontario traffic.  

   Highways are a provincial responsibility.  Traffic is also a provincial responsibility with exception to a few criminal code jurisdictions.  The feds have nothing to do with any part of managing the duce.  Everyone knows that and fact checking is easy.  My foursome partner should know that.  He is not an unintelligent man.  He is slightly older than I and lived here all his life.  From day one he has heard about the neglect Albertans have suffered at the hands of the eastern liberal evil doers.  My whole childhood I heard the same kind false examples of abuse.   As a young man I was led to believe that all Japanese vehicles that arrived in British Columbia were transported to Ontario before being sent back to Alberta with us paying the transport.   I was more than willing to believe it.  It is never very hard to convince people they have it rough.  

   While it is true that Albertans pay more income tax, it is also true that across the board Albertans have larger incomes.  Well except for those on minimum wage.  They have the lowest income in Canada.  Because of words like transfer payments, and equalization separatists have rally points for a separatist revolution.  Groups like foreign workers (the bulk of whom are not European if you get my drift)  are now the reason our schools and our health care is underfunded.  Doesn't matter that people in our private sector wanted workers brought in.  Or that our Premier made no secret that she wanted the population of Alberta to double.  But recently the separatist rebellion will tell you secession is not just about economics.  It is about ideology.  And that is where things get dangerous.

   Our leaders have turned the far right corner.  They are currently spending our tax dollars promoting votes in a referendum no one asked for that would require tax paying foreign workers to acquire their own health insurance rather than being covered by provincial health care.  You now have your nationality on your provincial drivers licence.  We are making scape goats of people we invited here to cover some of our least attractive jobs.   There are many many more examples but I am not ranting here.  

   The thing is, those of us... the majority of us here in this corner my home and native land who truly love my home and native land are currently up against it.  The separatist revolution is better prepared,  in complete and total disregard for the law,  foreign funded, and organized.  Worse yet, they are completely government backed.   My tax dollars are being used to break up my country.   

   Rebels are pumped.  They have the current government bending, breaking, and rewriting laws in support of them.  They have government funding disguised as public services supporting them.  They are allowed to use information from major security breaches to disseminate information and propaganda among the willing.  And like any good campaigner they have discovered two things that may provide them with the tools they need to promote total complacency among those who support my home and native land.

   Firstly, polls show that interest in an independent Alberta has dropped to 18%.  While appearing to be a sign of security for the federal side, it may put them exactly where the rebels want them.  No need to go out there and vote status quo when there isn't a real threat.  

  Secondly, and this is the real threat:  The rebels have a campaign slogan used to confuse the ultimate goal.  SEND OTTAWA A MESSAGE.   There is no message there.  If the rebels get their vote,  under this current government there will be no turning back.  It matters not the message,  merely the result.  And although the current complicated question in two parts buried under a stack of referendum questions designed to boost pirate insurance companies while turning the public against new Canadians who are fairly visible is not binding,  it certainly will be interpreted as such by those who see it as a victory.

  Remember the current government has appealed the courts decision prohibiting a referendum on independence.  It is highly unlikely they will win the appeal.  Should that happen,  and should the rebels be victorious on the current non binding question,  you can bet the victory will not be considered a message to Ottawa.  Nor will it be considered non binding.  What we will witness is our country torn apart in such a manor that someone my age, my children"s age, and possibly their children's age will never see it recover.  

   There is a certain amount of urgency in the rebels time line.  It certainly would be advantageous to get things rolling while the Trump administration is in power.  Cause I don't think the rebel side really sees the advantage to being a land locked country that requires heavy exports.  I strongly suspect that the glitter, and the rhetoric of our southern neighbours, not to mention the gun laws of lack thereof is very attractive to those who embrace the wild wild west perception. 

   It's upsetting.  And my loyal Conservative friends and fellow citizens who do not believe in an independent state need to do something just once.  They need to hold their nose and cast a ballot in the next election.  They need to give the Conservatives in this province a chance to take back their party.  And we all need to get on with working together.  After all it isn't JUST my home and native land.