Leave Me to My Good Life

A journalist crony from decades back called the other day from Ottawa. He’s doing a long retrospective on the political and economic forces that gave rise to the Reform Party, and wanted my thoughts as a supporter and mid-level party functionary during what amounted to the party’s teen years in the early 1990s. He wondered if anything like Reform – perhaps even western separatism – could happen again. It made me reflect on the immense changes in Alberta and the West over the past 30 years.

Briefly recall the main historical triggers. First was the inveterate looting of the West’s wealth – at a time when that wealth was scarce – to subsidize the East. This helped finance a barrage of Quebec-appeasing policies that infuriated or damaged the West, from distorted unemployment insurance criteria to the CF-18 aircraft maintenance contract. Even as it bled us dry, the federal government actively suppressed the West’s main cash-generating industries. There were regulated energy prices, foreign investment barriers, export restrictions, high taxes, regulated grain prices and transportation (anyone remember the Crow rate?) – a web of bad policy.

Enabling this was the lopsided political environment. Quebec MPs would march upon Ottawa, passionately advance their province’s interests and get results. Western MPs mainly showed up for indoctrination in how to rationalize ruinous federal policies to their voters. I well remember the rage at our supine “Conservative” MPs who colluded in suppressing the West, for I shared it. Little surprise that such a milieu produced the Reform Party. Surprising, really, that separatism didn’t rage out of control.

The main difference today, I explained to my buddy, is that things are simply far better. The Western provinces, Alberta especially, have soared by every empirical measure: population, per capita income, gross domestic product, investment, employment numbers and the range of jobs available. In 1961 Alberta had just 1.3 million of the world’s 18.2 million Canadians – or 7.3%. Today it’s 3.7 million and 11%. The West accounts for one-third of the nation, far more than Quebec. Numbers matter. So in their own goofy way the University of Alberta’s Gateway newspaper crew were onto something back in the late 1980s in their spoof issue of the “Alberta Retort” magazine, which quoted Reform Party leader Preston Manning declaring, “Sperm are the warriors of regional equity!”

Politically, we not only have a Conservative federal government that’s more to our liking, but vastly more representative MPs, some of whom personally watched the old crew and swore never to be like that. Ottawa is still prone to eruptions of silliness, even with an Albertan as prime minister. But the bad things are much smaller, or seem that way. The looting goes on, but there’s plenty to go around, so we yawn at the latest aerospace contract or “technology research grant” for Bombardier. A billion bucks just ain’t what it used to be. And there’s enough left over that we can buy our way out of trouble. Think of the provincial government’s response to the United States’ border closing to Alberta beef because of the BSE scare: loads of cash for multiple bailouts. Thirty years ago, such a thing would have been devastating.

You’ll recall Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s destruction of the income trust sector (except for the mostly eastern-based real estate investment trusts). A generation ago, something like that would have spelled catastrophe for the energy sector and triggered unappeasable anger, becoming one of the main drivers of the Reform Party. Back then, ending bad policy through political action was the only option. Nowadays, the radio call-in shows briefly flare up and there are a few rounds of lobbying. Meanwhile, our incredible Western economic engine absorbs the damage and chugs on, and we go back to life as we know it.

Complementing the economic changes are less visible but powerful psychological and sociological factors. Because we’re better off, we have far more to lose. Notwithstanding today’s recession, life in Alberta has been awfully good for over a decade, and it has changed the collective mindset. Politics has faded for many. Lifestyle is everything. We don’t want to be disturbed in our pursuit of the almighty buck or our enjoyment of its results, and we’re terrified of anything upsetting our economic equilibrium.

Thirty years back, the risk-reward balance was different. We had far less to lose, each federal outrage hurt far worse and each potential gain was more meaningful. Since the Reform Party’s rise in the late 1980s, Alberta alone has grown by a million people. Most of the newcomers hail from parts east, and most came here to make money and frolic in the Rockies, not to stir up trouble – and they don’t like those who do. Calgary and central/southern Alberta, the former hotbeds of separatism, have evolved from frontiers into mercantile cultures focused on enjoyment of an enviably comfortable and varied lifestyle.

Society as a whole is more risk-averse. Alberta isn’t the buccaneering, devil-may-care culture of yore. Problems are not solved through political confrontation; rather, “issues” are “addressed” using bureaucratic process, consensus-building and money. Huge government and corporate departments are devoted solely to safety or risk management. Serious political reform, let alone separatism, is nothing if not risky and unsafe.

Finally, there simply is no “Western” consciousness today, if there ever was. It’s doubtful whether there’s even much of an Alberta consciousness. Separatism is simply not in the cards, and another federal reform/protest movement is only slightly less remote. But getting our own political house in order is another issue entirely.

George Koch is a Calgary-based freelance writer and commentator. More of his writing can be found at www.drjandmrk.com. Send your comments to feedback.

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