Last year, we watched the Forever Canada folks pull off a bit of a miracle by getting the number of signatures needed for their petition. Almost methodically, they travelled from town to town, event to event, location to location, filling bankers’ boxes with pages upon pages of signed petitions. While there are questions as to how exactly they got all those signatures, at the end of the day Elections Alberta accepted them as submitted.

This year is our turn and barely two days in phones are blowing up all over the province with people asking who is doing what? Where are we meeting? How will this work? Who do we call? Where do we go? Where can I sign? In short, it is chaos.

Have you ever wondered why is it that those on the left seem to be so much more organized than those on the right? The answer is very simple. Because they thrive on being told what to do and how to do it. They have no problem waiting for and following instruction. We, on the other hand, do not do well standing around waiting for anyone or anything. It is the ‘get it done’ attitude that built Alberta.

The world is watching, literally, and it is very exciting. It also feels a little messy, which is part of the process and nothing to worry about. Within the coming days, order will displace the chaos. To help make that happen, let’s keep the following five things in mind:

1)      First and foremost, Mitch Sylvester is the proponent for the question that was submitted. He has to follow the Citizen Led Petition for a Referendum legislation under the guidance of Elections Alberta. Let’s thank him by supporting him and doing our best to make this as efficient as possible.

2)      Within the legislation that governs this petition are rules and processes that have to be followed.  If you do not like some or all of the rules and/or processes, suck it up and respect them anyway.

3)      If you have the means to support the drive for signatures, be it financially, with your time, or facilitating a meeting to educate others, please do. To get this across the finish line is truly going to be a team effort.

4)      Those for whom our success is akin to nails on a chalk board are going to come out swinging like never before. Also, mainstream media is not our friend. Expect it and ignore it.

5)      Lastly, and most importantly, everyone involved in gathering signatures and submitting the petition are your fellow Albertans. They are volunteering and doing their best. Be patient, be kind, and make some new friends.

There is a new website that has all the information, along with social media pages to follow. Here is the link Stay Free Alberta: Alberta independence referendum petition and canvasser. Share it far and wide, get to the events, bring a friend, and let’s get the question “Do you agree that Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?” on a referendum ballot later this year.  

Traveling the province means I get to meet the greatest people. Last week I was in a quaint little town called Delburne that has a restaurant called ‘Bistro’ where you can find the best dry ribs I have ever had. Not only was the hospitality at both the restaurant and the meeting top notch, the folks there taught me my greatest lesson to date. We have a problem that can only be solved by bringing generations together.

The crowd was a good size, very friendly, and most seemed to be onboard with Alberta independence. That is nothing unusual for rural Alberta. What was a bit unusual is who was in attendance. When I finished my spiel, the questions started and someone asked ‘where are the youth?’ It is a great question and one that we often wrestle with. That night we were treated to the best answer yet.

“Look behind you!”

There they were. Two young ladies, both around 20, standing at the back. It was glorious and we had questions. You are here, and we are so grateful that you are, now how do we get this message to your friends? Their answer is where my education began.

For years I looked at this issue as ‘for or against’ and did what I could to meet people where they were at. Then, thanks to a very wise friend, I realized women need to hear the independence message in a way that we can internalize and grasp. So, my presentation and conversations were tailored a little more. What I did not fully appreciate until that night in Delburne is that there is a third demographic that demands particular consideration in regards to messaging: our youth.

We know conservatism among the youth is growing. We also know they are warming up to the idea of Alberta independence. Yet, we rarely see our young ones at our meetings. The general consensus is that, for the most part, this generation is found online. However, these ladies taught us that while yes, that is true, most are just scrolling and not really taking information in. Her description sort of reminded me of how we used to scroll through the Sears catalogue.

Exploring it further, I realized there is a gap online that needs filling. Podcasts and short videos about Alberta Independence specific to this generation are not found. I know for a fact that there are some, but obviously they not being seen. This is a problem.

As we continued to listen, we learned about another conundrum, and it is a doozie. While it is no secret post-secondary institutions are very left leaning, we sometimes glaze over how awful it truly is for the scholars in attendance. We heard about a friend of theirs who brought up the idea of Alberta Independence in one of their classes at the UofA. Not only was this student unceremoniously shut down, the class was warned that if anyone brought it up again their marks would be affected. So much for freedom of thought and exploring ideas.

Our current provincial government has been working hard to root out this sort of behavior in all of our schools. Unfortunately, the tentacles are deep, making the battle to return our centers of learning to what they should be quite a challenge. Some progress has been made, thankfully, but obviously there is more to do. We must also remember, our Premier and MLA’s only know what they are told. In light of that, I encouraged these ladies to help their friend write a letter to the Minister of Advanced Education and the Premier. If others in the class are willing to sign it as witnesses, the more the better. It sounded like they were ready to do that, which very much inspired the rest of us.

The younger Millennials, Gen Y’s, and now Z’s are discovering that almost everything they were taught is a lie. Not only was it a lie, they believed it and it got them nowhere. No job. No house. No money to raise a family with. And no real-life experience yet to know how to chart a path forward despite the challenges. Not to mention, unfettered immigration has only exacerbated the problem. It is not good and no wonder they are mad. I am, too.

There is a very strong youth presence in the Alberta independence movement and they have their own reasons for it. It is a grave mistake to think a ‘one size fits all’ message is going to reach them. Our meetings are not their jam. These young men and women know what they want and need and we have an opportunity to bring the generations together by helping them get the independence message to their peers in a way that works for their generation, not ours. So, let’s talk with them, not to them, and find out how.   

The federal government finally put together a budget, if you can call it that. Our Prime Minister warned us we were going to have to ‘make sacrifices’ while the talking heads continue call every aspect of our current economy a ‘crisis’. Sometimes even an ‘unprecedented crisis’. However, despite what they want you to believe, the economic disaster we are in is not a crisis. It is a strategic means to an end called managed decline.

Managed decline was originally a business term used to describe slowing things down in a managed way to mitigate loss and harm while trying to save as much as possible. When it comes to government, the definition is exactly the opposite. Policies are designed and actions taken that will lead to a deterioration of economic and social conditions in order to inflict as much financial pain and social chaos as possible. Slowing productivity to a crawl, increasing taxes, and over-regulating any possible growth and innovation is how it is done.

Sound familiar?  

It began with moving the goal posts for pipeline projects under the guise of environment, social, and governance; ESG for short. On the surface it doesn’t sound so evil, but it was and still is.

‘E’ is all about net-zero, carbon neutral, renewable energy. Bills C-48 and 69 come to mind. Given our provinces global greenhouse gas emissions amount to 0.5%, getting to zero would literally mean shutting Albertans down.  

‘S’ is all about giving someone a job who does not qualify for the job but they check a box (or 2 or 3) and help fill a quota. Throwing meritocracy out the window, these social policies are designed to fit hand in glove with DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), which not only stalls growth and production, it is an HR nightmare.

‘G’ focuses on executive leadership and basically how the company is structured. What it really means is the CEO and his team had better tow the party line and abide by whatever the government throws their way, or else. In short, via policy and legislation, the government is in charge of all future planning with a little built in self-censoring.

When the government takes over planning to become the ‘central planner’ that is not good and our federal government has embraced it with full force. They decide what comes in, what goes out, what gets built, and what gets shut down. This is why we have seen an exodus of investment dollars. That the federal government does not want another pipeline to the west coast is also not surprising. They bought one and do not want competition. As central planner, there is also a move toward nationalizing everything possible. Today they call it subsidies and capital investment; tomorrow they will call it nationally owned.  

As if that were not enough, the federal government took the added step of flooding us with immigrants and refugees from carefully chosen countries. Some came in dressed as foreign students or temporary foreign workers. Others just came. This week we learned that upon arrival, all claimants have to do is download an app, identify as a refugee, and come on in. Why does this matter? Because our already strained resources, including tax dollars, can not sustain this. Not to mention we do not even know who these people are!   

Managed decline and central planning are the friend of Ottawa and enemy of Alberta. What seems to go unnoticed is how resilient Albertans have been through it all, which is both good and bad. It is good because it confirms our strength and resolve. It is bad because that strength and resolve have worked against us. Our resiliency is causing us to take longer to hit the bottom, making it hard for many to see what is actually happening. 

The federal government is using managed decline to usher in a fascist state. Hence the term ‘nation building’, and that is not good.

Sometime in the Spring, we are going to have an opportunity, very likely our ONLY opportunity, to vote our way out of this.

We can't screw this up.