Government overreach the true motivation behind Alberta separatism, not Canada itself, Poilievre says

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged Albertans to vote to stay in Canada in the province’s upcoming referendum, arguing that Alberta’s resentments are best addressed by doubling down on the values that the Canadian Constitution was originally meant to uphold.

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At a keynote speech in Edmonton, Poilievre made a classical conservative case for why the province’s deep resentments toward confederation are actually due to years of relentless government overreach rather than issues with the country itself.

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“What Albertans are complaining about is not Canada,” he told a gathering of Conservative supporters. “It is the government policies that are actually inconsistent with how Canada was meant to work in the first place.”

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At the root of the problem, Poilievre said, is that Ottawa has continued to expand its reach into areas of public life that it was never mandated to preside over, while trampling on the personal freedoms of citizens for political gain.

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“Simply put, the last decade the federal government has done terribly at the things that are actually its job: immigration, crime, military spending, borders, while intruding into things that are not its job: regulating our resources, going after hunting rifles which are private property, just to name a few examples.”

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“The problem with all of these things is not Canada,” he said. “Separation will not solve those problems.”

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Poilievre’s address comes as more pro-federalist voices have started to make the case for keeping Alberta within confederation just weeks ahead of the Oct. 19 referendum. The federal Conservatives have long opposed Alberta’s separation, and earlier this month launched a “Conservatives for Canada” campaign in an effort to sway public opinion.

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Support for separation on the Canadian prairies has reached new highs in the last few years, spurred on by frustration over everything from Ottawa’s over-regulation of its oil and gas sector to the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

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Notably, Poilievre’s speech never once mentioned the federal Liberal Party or Prime Minister Mark Carney, leaving aside politically-charged attacks in favour of a more statesmanlike appeal to the problem of government excess.

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The Canadian project was explicitly intended to give Alberta and other provinces control over its own affairs, Poilievre said as part of his address, with governments expected to intervene only within narrow and specified areas of public life. That means provincial governments sticking to matters like health care and education, and Ottawa focusing on matters like borders, national defence and criminal law.

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Canada’s founding constitutional document, the British North America Act, gives governments direct instructions to “mind your own business,” the Conservative leader said.