Former Liberal cabinet minister Stéphane Dion is lambasting the brewing separatist movement in Alberta and demanding that Premier Danielle Smith clarify her position and lay out the next steps depending on the outcome of a possible independence referendum.
“I have no patience for separatist blackmail,” Dion said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live airing Sunday morning. He served as intergovernmental affairs minister under Jean Chrétien and tabled the Clarity Act after the 1995 Quebec referendum.
“[Smith] needs to be clear,” Dion told host Rosemary Barton. “Is she indifferent about the fact that Alberta is in Canada or not? Does she care? And if she cares, then she should say so.”
The Alberta premier has maintained she doesn’t want her province to leave the country. Instead, she supports “a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”
But her government has taken steps that have made it easier for Alberta separatists to force a constitutional referendum, including lowering the number of signatures from 600,000 to 177,000 — a move that separatist organizers told CBC News was a “big gift.”
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Dion called that decision “irresponsible” and said it’s “completely wrong to split the country.” He also argued that if Smith is opposed to separation, she should explain why she lowered the bar to have a referendum on the issue.
The former Liberal minister also said the Alberta premier needs to explain to her province what could come next depending on the outcome of a referendum — namely who will lead negotiations for Alberta.
“If she doesn’t believe in separation, does it make sense that it would be her that would go in these tough negotiations for something she does not believe in? It’s a mess. And she needs to clarify what that means for Albertans and Canadians.”
Dion also took aim at separatism in Quebec, saying “people full of skills and talents, instead of working to improve the situation of Quebec and Canada … they are trying to split the country and they are wasting their energy in it.”
“That’s very sad for Quebec,” Dion said. “I don’t think Alberta should emulate that.”
Last month, an official with the U.S. State Department confirmed that meetings were held with Alberta separatists, saying the department “regularly meets with civil society types” but adding that “no commitments were made.”
Dion denounced those actions and said “we know that President [Donald] Trump is somebody very difficult to predict what he will do, but he has clearly expressed his view about annexation of territories in order to get the resources of these territories.”
He also noted that the U.S. government has much more control over natural resources within its borders — unlike in Canada, where provinces have responsibility for energy and natural resources within their own boundaries.
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“It would be a good deal for Trump, but completely bad for Albertans,” Dion said, arguing that five million Albertans will need to share the dividends of their natural resources with about 350 million Americans.
“It’s completely irresponsible to have done that from the point of view of Albertans and, of course, of all Canadians.”
Alberta separatist Jeffrey Rath has said at least one of those meetings with U.S. officials was held in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), a room purpose-built to defeat sophisticated foreign intelligence eavesdropping.
Rath has also said that “statehood is not on the table. We’re not fighting tooth and nail to get out from the clutches of the CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] to have to pay federal income tax [to Washington].”
Earlier the week, former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper called on Liberals and Conservatives to come together in the face of U.S. threats and Alberta separatism.
“In these perilous times, both parties, whatever their other differences, must come together against external forces that threaten our independence and against domestic policies that threaten our unity,” Harper said on Tuesday.
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“We must preserve Canada, this country handed down to us by providence, preserved by our ancestors and held in trust for our descendants. We must make any sacrifice necessary to preserve the independence and the unity of this blessed land.”
Harper’s comments came after a long period mostly out of the public eye. He’s endorsed Conservative candidates and causes, but until this week he’s spent most of his post-parliamentary career building a consulting business.
John Ibbitson, who wrote a biography on Harper, told CBC’s The House earlier this week that the former prime minister could play “something of a ‘Captain Canada’ role” in Alberta — his home province.
“I think for Stephen Harper, the sacrifice would be going back into public life. It’s not something he would want to do, but I think it’s something he would do if he felt he had to do it for the sake of the country,” Ibbitson said.
