[Military & Weapons Subsection] Author: Taibai

In early May, the Premier of Alberta, Daniel Smith, held a special press conference to announce that he had submitted a bill aimed at lowering the threshold for Albertans to hold a referendum.

▲Daniel Smith

In a sense, this move by Daniel Smith is both an effort to fulfill promises made to voters and also a form of "declaration of war" against the newly elected Canadian Liberal Prime Minister, Carney. Previously, Daniel Smith had repeatedly stated in public that the Canadian Liberals have always hindered Alberta's development of its natural resources. If the election results again favor the Liberals, she will reconsider the attitude of Albertans toward the Canadian federal government and initiate negotiations based on survey results. If all Albertans support "secession" from the Canadian federation, she will "follow public opinion."

▲Alberta Independence Movement

With such a premier's support, the situation has indeed become uncontrollable. After the press conference, a large number of people gathered in front of the Alberta Provincial Legislature to jointly call for "independence" from Canada. Among the crowd, many waved the Alberta provincial flag, and a few even raised the American flag. Undoubtedly, Daniel Smith's approach was quite clever.

As a member of the government, she naturally could not openly express her support for the independence movement. Thus, she claimed to support public opinion and be responsible to the people, stating her intention to fulfill the promises made to the voters who elected her. This is absolutely "politically correct" in the West, and no one can criticize it. Under the joint efforts of the leader and the citizens, the "independence of Alberta" poses an actual threat to the Canadian federal government: because the provincial premier has significantly lowered the conditions for holding an independence referendum — previously requiring 600,000 signatures within 60 days, but now reduced to 170,000 signatures within 120 days.

▲Carney

In fact, many Canadian media outlets had earlier analyzed that if the Liberal Party's Carney were elected as prime minister, the separatist trend across the country would undoubtedly intensify. These predictions have come true, with Alberta being the first to feel the impact. To understand the power struggles and conflicts, we must trace back to history. Ultimately, we will find that these seemingly irrational deep-seated contradictions have existed since the inception of Canada's national construction.

As we all know, today's Canada was established in 1867 through the British North America Act, with only four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Quebec is very unique among these four provinces; it is the only province that speaks French, practices Catholicism, and follows the civil law system. The other three provinces all speak English, practice Protestantism, and follow the common law system. To persuade Quebec to join the other three provinces in forming a unified federation, the latter had to offer Quebec many special privileges. For instance, Canada has various laws stipulating that the number of Quebec MPs in parliament cannot be less than 78. By normal standards, when the population changes, the number of Quebec MPs should also decrease accordingly. However, Quebec has been given special status.

Besides the number of MPs, Quebec also has its own independent immigration system, pension system, legal system, and carbon tax calculation system. Even today, the elites of these two provinces still hold significant positions in Canada's elite circles, known as the "Laurentian Elite."

▲Alberta

As mentioned above, Alberta did not exist at the time of Canada's founding; it was merely part of the vast impoverished "Northwest Territories." There was no provincial government or MPs. It wasn't until the late 19th century, with the extension of railways into western Canada, that Alberta gradually took shape. It wasn't until 1930 that Alberta gained the right to independently develop its natural resources through the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement. After decades of development, Alberta has grown from an economically struggling and sparsely populated region into a province of great significance. The province has made energy exports its primary industry, accounting for more than 80% of Canada's total energy exports. Despite its remarkable economic influence today, Alberta remains politically weak.

The reasons for this situation are mainly two-fold. First, its population is relatively small, corresponding to fewer MPs in Canada's Parliament. On the other hand, Canada's upper echelons have long been monopolized by the "Laurentian Elite," whether party leaders, federal civil servants, or major media institutions. This has further marginalized many of Alberta's political demands.

▲Alberta Industry

The political weakness of Alberta has brought about obvious negative impacts — eastern political elites use unreasonable legal systems to extract revenue from Alberta's sale of natural resources, which is then used to subsidize other provinces. According to statistical data, over the past four years, Alberta alone contributed 244.6 billion Canadian dollars in tax revenue to the Canadian federal government, far exceeding other provinces. The problem lies in the fact that Quebec's economic income capability is not poor either, but due to privileges, they have never contributed as much money as Alberta.

However, Quebec does not seem grateful. On one hand, they spend lavishly using the wealth Alberta earned through hard work by destroying resources to extract oil and minerals. On the other hand, they stand on moral high ground, fiercely criticizing Alberta on environmental protection and low-carbon issues. For example, previously, Embra Energy Company needed to construct a new energy pipeline to transport oil to eastern refineries. However, Quebec strongly opposed it, causing the pipeline to detour through the United States before returning to Canada and finally entering the local refineries in eastern Canada. Such incidents are unimaginable in any other country in the world. Therefore, Quebec's behavior of "both doing and forbidding" is unlikely to elicit good tempers from anyone.

▲Alberta Independence

In fact, Quebec also has abundant natural resources, but they choose not to exploit them due to "irrational" environmental policies. Of course, things are not so simple. They believe that exporting natural resources is a "dirty and exhausting job" unworthy of their elite status, so it should be left to the "barbarians" in the west. More importantly, as long as they do not engage in resource development, they can continue to play the role of the "poor province" and "province needing aid," otherwise, how would they continue to "siphon off blood" from Alberta?

In fact, for the eastern provinces, they have already reaped benefits, yet they still promote various legislation at the national level to obstruct the construction of large enterprises in Alberta, especially requiring them to meet reviews on environmental protection, low-carbon emissions, energy conservation, and other aspects. This undoubtedly makes the construction of new energy facilities increasingly difficult.

▲Alberta Independence

From all of these behaviors, it can be seen that Alberta has long been very dissatisfied with the "dictatorial" actions of the Canadian federal government. Whether through referendums, protests, or negotiating politically with the federal government, all peaceful and civilized methods of seeking benefits have been exhausted by Alberta. After the election of the new federal government, the newly appointed prime minister is still from the Liberal Party. Although a different prime minister is in place, the cabinet members are almost entirely the same as those from Trudeau's era, truly "changing the soup but not the medicine."

If this trend continues, it is clear that the worst-case scenario is that the tense relationship between Alberta and the Canadian federal government will not improve at all. The confrontation will intensify, and ultimately, the relationship will disintegrate. A better outcome would be that Alberta and the Canadian federal government reach a compromise of interests, with the Canadian government willing to grant more autonomy. If the situation develops to the worst degree, Alberta might really secede from Canada. In fact, this might be better:凭借自然资源开采这一项，他们就足以成为世界上人均GDP最高的国家之一。比起留在加拿大内部，各种权利得不到重视，还被各种“劳伦琴精英”用法律武器剥削。成为一个独立国家，对于阿尔伯塔省来说，或许不是一个坏的选择。

Original Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507196831688868392/

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