Jottings West, Day 8
March 23rd, Calgary, ‘Berta Strong the Free
There is one fact that nearly every Canadian citizen and business-person knows about Alberta, either from travelling through essentially any region of the province, or reading about it in a headline, brochure, or economic textbook. This is, of course, the fact that there is a high concentration of carbon-based energy, such as coal, natural gas, and oil underneath the Albertan ground. Typically, it is the latter that receives the most attention - and for good reason.
Oil, Oil, Oil. It is a commodity central to the maintenance of the modern world (evidenced by the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz), and has over several decades elevated Alberta to a position of primary importance within the Canadian economy and federation. It powers most of our automobiles, trucks and airplanes; it is an ingredient in many staples including plastics, fertilizer, and pharmaceuticals. Truly, oil is indispensable.
“He who controls the spice controls the universe.”
This quote comes from Frank Herbert’s Sci-Fi classic, ‘Dune’. Though I do not like the incessant focus on this singular metaphor in many analyses of the text (because there is so much more Herbert has to say!), it is nonetheless the case that oil is our version of space travelling, life extending melange (spice). Let’s just say, any further comparison between how the spice trade was controlled in the Dune (for example, oligarchic/dynastic collusion governed by mafia-esq principles of honour and blood loyalty) with the global oil industry, leaves us with rather dark implications as to the operations of our world.
On the drive from Medicine Hat to Calgary, there was visible from the highway over 100 pumpjacks working away, producing several litres of crude oil on each stroke, or, revolution. I decided to get a little closer.
{A pumpjack completes a full stroke, or revolution, near the town of Brooks, Alberta}
These southern Albertan reserves of conventional crude oil, however, pale in comparison to the vast Athabasca oil sands, an unconventional source of heavy and highly viscous petroleum bitumen deposited across the Central-Eastern region of the province. In 2022, the Albertan oil industry experienced a record year for both production and profits, with about 80% coming from the sands. This was a time of inflated prices, due mainly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent de-stabilization of world markets.
For as long as they’ve known about the existence of marketable oil here, the province and federal government have been engaged in a sort of cold war over its management and control. Of course, section 92 of the British North America (BNA) Act (the name of what could arguably be called Canada’s Constitution) states very clearly that provinces have full jurisdiction over their natural resources. Until 1930, however, Alberta and Saskatchewan were granted no such rights, as resources remained under the control of the federal government, until their respective natural resource acts.
If you ask many people, unrest between Alberta and Ottawa begins in the 1970’s. It was this decade that saw the price of oil increase by more than an order of magnitude, from approximately $3 to $35 a barrel, due to the two international shocks of 1973 and 1979. There is little doubt that the events of this era led to the formation of the modern relationship between the two governments, with Alberta entering the role as arguably the most powerful force opposing the various plans of Ottawa, such as the National Energy Program, Equalization, and the Carbon Tax. Before this, Alberta was hardly the most powerful government on the Prairies. In 1946, their population was around 803,000, whereas Saskatchewan's was 832,000. In 1976, these numbers had radically altered, to 1,838,000 and 921,000 respectively.
But, even in its status as a minor province (greatly shifting after Imperial Oil’s discovery of a major deposit at Leduc in 1947), Alberta advocated for reform, long before the party of that name rose to prominence in the 1980s. The Social Credit-led Provincial Government, for example, was elected in 1935 on a platform explicitly calling for changes to the country's banking system, following the financial meltdown of 1929 which hit the Prairies especially hard. If their banking legislation came to fruition, it would have granted Alberta the right to issue currency. William Aberhart (known as “Bible Bill”), the 7th Premier of Alberta and head of the party, was not only the moral but also the vocal leader of the social credit movement, pioneering radio as a medium for political communication. His speech over the airwaves leading up the election laid out their policy.
"The proposal is that the state credit house shall issue to each bona fide citizen of Alberta (the qualifications of citizenship will be prescribed), a monthly basic dividend credit (say twenty-five dollars) sufficient to purchase the bare necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, whether he works or does not work, and he will never be asked to pay it back”.
To this day, Aberhart's government could be plausibly argued as the most radical in Canadian history (if radical is defined in juxtaposition to the status quo), rivaled by the CCF of the same era, the contemporary nationalist and communist parties, and the various separatist groups that have come and gone.
In 1937, there was published a book by Russell Rogers Smith that, as a Canadian historian, has always fascinated me. It was titled ‘Alberta has the sovereign right to issue and use its own credit’, and essentially argued that the British North American Act had not been interpreted correctly.
“The provinces of Canada are completely autonomous today. Each province is a political unit, without a political superior”.
The arguments of Aberhart and Smith did not hold up in federal court. Social Credit plans to issue currency, as well as regulate newspapers, were overwhelmingly voted unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada.
In my view, these were not simply battles over recession-economics and credit (though both are vitally important). On a political (and even psychological) level, as Smith suggested, the unrest within the Social Credit party, as with the Ottawa-critical governments that have emerged since, is really about sovereignty. Alberta has for its entire history felt a domineering force pushing against many of its strongest convictions. In the 1890s, the Montreal based Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) used its monopoly to charge exorbitant rates for shipping wheat, just as today the federal government seeks to enforce its net-zero goals against the provinces desire to remain an oil producing power house. In either case, and many more, there is a sense of injustice; that the deal isn't fair.
Hearing about the re-emergence of a separatist movement for much of last year, my interest was keen as I headed to CPR’s headquarter city since 2001 - Calgary. The CPR, like many other firms and individuals, migrated westward over the last few decades to capitalize on Alberta’s comparably sizable growth. The growth was immediately noticeable on the street level in a city such as Airdrie, about 30 kilometres north of Calgary. I looked out my window stunned to see endless blocks of suburban neighborhoods sprawling from the core of the old city centre. In 2001, the town population was just over 20,000. Today, it is 74,000.
I travelled to Airdrie after discovering that StayFreeAlberta, a ‘citizen initiative’ spearheading the cause of Albertan Separatism, was collecting signatures in the area. When I walked through the doors of their small, downtown store front, I was greeted by an older man and woman sitting behind a desk, with a large Albertan flag hanging from the wall. When asked about their goals, the man – named Murray Sondergard – told me that in order to legally generate a referendum vote for this fall, the initiative must first receive at least 177,000 petition signatures. In December of 2025, the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project officially filed with Election Alberta, beginning the signature gathering phase of their mission, which will end May 2nd.
{One of many directional signs pointing people towards signature sights in Airdrie}
When asked about his beliefs, Sondergard, who has worked in the oil and gas sector for many years, articulated a variety of issues that Alberta faces within contemporary Canada.
“We have very different views on the role of government”, he said, arguing that while provinces such as Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia are content with a significant public role in the economy, the Albertan attitude elevates the private sector. Ultimately, he believes that these provinces rely too much on government investment and welfare, especially since a portion of the public money comes out of the pockets of ‘have’ provinces in the form of the equalization program.
“This wasn't just people waking up and saying ‘I want to leave Canada’. This has been 50 years of trying to negotiate change within a framework, and being unsuccessful”, he stated further.
Echoing a type of Jeffersonian attitude towards the need for consistent change in politics, Sondergard evoked a quote that he attributed to Mark Twain (apparently, falsely).
“Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently, for the same reasons”.
He identified the federal election of 2021 as the moment that this iteration of the separatist movement took off, unable to reconcile the eastern preference for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with their own agenda. Significantly, he argued that, even if a Conservative government led by Pierre Poilievre were to be elected federally, the movement would continue strong. This is because even the Conservatives fail to address structural inequities within the Canadian federation, such as the distribution of senator seats, and equalization.
When asked about their loyalty towards Canada, the woman – named Sue Strickland – made a remark that had Sondergard agreeing profusely.
“We didn't leave Canada. Canada left us”.
Tanya, an administrator of the movement who submits the signatures of each day to Elections Alberta, said that even some who disagree strongly with their movement have signed the petition, and wish to see a referendum vote.
“People are signing just so that our perspective can be heard, even though they are going to say no”. She told a story of a more radical case. “There was somebody who said they were going to sign it because they ‘wanted to shoot’ people like me, during the civil war that would break out because of independence”.
Certainly, this is a movement of diverse interests and perspectives, with individuals choosing to sign for various distinct reasons. What is also notable is that there is an absence of clear leadership, with Tanya describing it as purely “grassroots”. Various questions about what a free and independent Alberta would look like once established – for example, if there would be a Central Bank – could not be confidently answered by the Sondergard, Strickland or Tanya, as they agreed that these details would need to be solidified after the establishment of independence.
Making it clear my commitment to Canada, and my status as an Ontario Boy, I nonetheless left their office on cordial terms, saying goodbye and “God bless Alberta” while exiting. My next stop was to see my friend and accomplished entrepreneur, Keith Clelland.
{Clelland and I at a Burger Joint in Calgary}
Born and raised in Calgary, Clelland is the CEO of a start-up developing an industrial-scale battery that can store sources of renewable energy efficiently and for comparatively long periods of time. Even he, however, as a man on the frontier of green technology, acknowledged the necessity of the world's most important commodity.
“We will still be using oil in 100 years”, he said. “It's not going away”.
On my way out of Calgary, I passed by a lone flag bearer, waving the Albertan emblem outside of a public library.
{The lone man walked up and down the street waving the flag, aided in its epic aesthetic by the strong wind}
And while on route to my final destination 100 kilometres south, seeing the gargantuan mountains of white to the west in anticipation of my entrance to the Rockies tomorrow morning, I realized I was in the famous Turner Valley, where the first sizable oil deposits in Alberta were developed.
Wherever I chose to land my glance, it appeared... Oil: Here, there, everywhere.
“We must totally destroy all spice production on Arrakis. The Guild and the entire universe depends on spice. He who can destroy a thing controls a thing”, Dune's protagonist said.
$100 per barrel, and counting?
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