Alberta separatism is on the rise.
The Alberta Prosperity Project gained traction just before the new year, after its petition for Alberta sovereignty was accepted.
Mitch Sylvestre, CEO and key signatory, submitted the application in mid-December, and Elections Alberta approved the referendum drive a week later.
Signature collection began in early January — and ends on May 2.
Edmontonian Thomas Lukaszuk, head of the seemingly counter-group, Forever Canadian, and a former member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and cabinet minister, believes the damage could be “irrecoverable” if the Alberta Prosperity Project were to achieve sovereignty.
Lukaszuk left Poland when he was 12-years-old in 1982.
He says Canada welcomed him and his family and even paid for their plane tickets when they entered the country as refugees.
“Individual Canadians were so helpful to my family the first year or so to give us the ability to integrate and become self-sufficient,” he said. “There isn’t a day that I’m not grateful for that.”
Emotion was the main factor driving Lukaszuk to reject Alberta sovereignty.
Lukaszuk knew the Alberta government planned to lower the bar on the citizens’ initiative act requirements.
The plan was to nearly half the 293,976 signatures needed and give an extra month to gather the now 177,732 signatures.
The legislation would become law on July 4th.
Lukaszuk learned that separatists would be waiting with a filled-out application ready to file under the new requirements.
Lukaszuk took a risk. He filed before July 4th under the old rules.
“Maybe some people still think I’m crazy, but I can tell you we got nearly half a million signatures,” he said.
According to the rules at the time, the earliest applicant would be considered first. If successful, no one else could file the same or a similar application for five years.
Lukaszuk was successful and collected 438,568 of the 293,976 necessary signatures, which meant the Alberta Prosperity Project could not file its application for another five years.
However, the governing UCP passed Bill 14, paving the way for the Alberta Prosperity Project to begin its own signature collection.
Economic considerations
Lukaszuk draws parallels to Quebec.
“In the 70s and 80s, if you went abroad and said, name a city in Canada, Montreal would be the first city people would name,” he said.
Montreal was the business and cultural centre of Canada. Lukaszuk said Quebec’s toying with the idea of separatism caused major businesses to move their headquarters to Toronto.
“Toronto became the epicentre of Canadian business, and it still is,” he said. “Montreal and Quebec never recovered.”
Lukaszuk also points to Brexit and the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. After that, many financial institutions left London for continental Europe.
“Once those institutions move, they’re gone,” he said.
Even though separatists make up a small percentage of Alberta’s population, Lukaszuk said showing the United States there is internal division within our country may put us at risk. He said that “President Trump views geopolitics as a real estate transaction.”
“Unfortunately, we have a president of the United States right now that is very unpredictable,” he said. “It’s like sleeping with an elephant. It could be the nicest elephant in the world, but if it rolls over in the night, you’re in trouble.”