Wexit

[Anonymous]

#Wexit trends after Liberals win minority government



The Alberta separatist group that gained more than 100,000 Facebook followers overnight after the Liberals won a minority government is taking steps to become a provincial and federal party.



Wexit, a term that combines Western Canada and exit, was trending on Twitter Monday night and the group now has just over 150,000 followers on Facebook.



"It was huge, it was absolutely huge," said Wexit Alberta and Wexit Canada Founder Peter Downing.



Downing created Wexit Alberta in June and Wexit Canada about a month ago. He now wants to turn the groups into provincial and federal parties.



"We have to do this," Downing said. "Right now there's no hope, there's no future ... no reason why we have to have Justin Trudeau governing us."



Unfairness'

Political Scientist Lori Williamson says separating from the rest of Canada would not fix Alberta's economy.



"The concerns that Albertans have will not be solved by separation. We're not going to get our oil to markets any better if we're not part of Canada."



However, Williamson understands why Albertans are frustrated by how Ottawa treats their province.



"There's an unfairness in terms of Alberta's recognition for its contribution to the Canadian economy," Williamson said. "Alberta has the sense, rightly, that it's giving more than it's getting in return—both in terms economic balance, but also in terms of appreciation."

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-have-to-do-this-wexit-alberta-separatist-group-gains-traction-after-liberal-minority-win-1.4650507">https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-have-to- ... -1.4650507">https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-have-to-do-this-wexit-alberta-separatist-group-gains-traction-after-liberal-minority-win-1.4650507



I knew Trudeau's reelection would divide this country. And it is my province that voted for the fraud.

[Anonymous]

Gullible voters may have split this county when they fell for Trudeau's fear mongering campaign.



By Lorne Gunter of Sun News Media



ALBERTA IS GOING TO PAY DEARLY

A Liberal minority is bad news for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion



I said before the election that a Liberal minority propped up by the NDP or Greens would be the worst of all possible outcomes for Alberta and I am prepared to stick with that.



But it is probably also the worst of all possible results for the country as a whole.



What this looks like more than anything, is provincial politics in Ontario for the decade before Conservative Doug Ford was elected premier.



The Ontario Liberals were not popular. Voters said they disliked their taxes, their "green" energy schemes, their huge deficits, their electricity rates.



But Ontario voters are also very cautious. They don't like change. And so they voted Liberal again and again despite the party's scandals and smugness (sound familiar?) because they were frightened into believing the Tories under a succession of weak leaders would be worse.



Not keen on Trudeau



It seems as though the same pattern has emerged on the federal level in Ontario. Voters are not real keen on Trudeau and his government, but they permitted the Liberal campaign to scare them about a weak Conservative Leader in Andrew Sheer and remain, largely, in the Liberal camp.



And now we're all going to pay for it.



A Liberal majority might – might – have built the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, even if they stopped there. (In the last Parliament they passed a law – Bill C-69 – that made new pipelines all but impossible.)



But now that Justin Trudeau and his party will need the support of Jagmeet Singh and his party to stay in power, there is a good chance the Liberals will refuse to move forward even with Trans Mountain (TMX).



Singh hasn't made cancelling Trans Mountain an ironclad condition for his support. Two weeks ago he laid out six prerequisites for getting behind the Liberals. Trans Mountain was not one of them.



But I'm not holding my breath. Right after the French-language leaders' debate, Singh said, "I've been really clear on this. I am very much opposed to this (TMX) project ... I'll continue to work against that, for sure."



Pipeline negotiations



Singh probably refused to say unequivocally that he would demand an end to TMX because he was hoping to win one seat for his party in Edmonton. And now that that concern is out of the way, there is probably no way TMX won't come up in his negotiations with Trudeau.



Besides, the Liberals themselves are not enthusiastic about TMX, either.



Never have been. Trudeau will be quite happy to let Singh twist his rubber arm.



I have maintained all along that the Libs bought TMX only so they could control whether it got built. If it helped their re-election, they'd build it. If it hurt their chances, they'd kill it. Their calculus was purely political.



Why would that change now? If the Libs need to axe TMX to retain power, they'll do it. In a heartbeat.



And all of that is bad for Alberta, for sure. But it is bad for the rest of the country, too. Even before this election, the federal Liberals and Alberta NDP scared away at least $100 billion in investment in oil and gas.



That money doesn't get replaced with investment in "green" energy or in barista supplies. When it's lost to the national economy, it's lost.



Of course that hits Alberta the hardest: jobs that are lost, houses that are foreclosed, vehicles that aren't sold, restaurants that close. But it also means companies in the rest of the country that provide trucks and crew buses suffer, as do companies that manufacture pipe and electrical controls and valves and planes and on and on and on. Workers feel it too with fewer high-paying energy jobs Canada-wide.



Blame a dismal campaign by Scheer, a clever Liberal campaign and the timidity of GTA voters for the results.

[Anonymous]

CALGARY — Not unlike during the 40-day election campaign, two key issues are sure to dominate discussion in Alberta following Monday's federal vote, according to one political observer: pipelines and climate change policy.



Mount Royal University professor David Taras said the two "explosive issues" are likely to be "major items on the table" come Tuesday.



"If the Liberals are dependent on New Democrat votes and on Green votes and on Bloc votes, then I think they would have to be much more aggressive in terms of climate change and the carbon tax," he said.



Despite some predictions of a Liberal majority government, the party was not on track to capture enough seats to form a majority Monday evening.



On the issue of pipelines, Taras doesn't see the contentious Trans Mountain expansion coming to a vote in Parliament, regardless of what takes place after the election.



"I think the Liberals aren't going to go there," he said. "It's like nuclear war. You know, who wants to press the button? And they know if they press the button, it could be disastrous for the country ... It would mean backtracking. It would mean publicly embracing the New Democrats, which I'm not sure they want to do. I'm not sure what stops the pipeline at this point, without a major national unity crisis."



But some in the energy sector will be watching the federal developments very carefully.



Gary Mar, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, said the election outcome could "determine what the future prosperity of the nation looks like."



Mar noted [size=150]25 per cent of Canada's exports are in the form of crude oil and bitumen, and there are about 450,000 jobs across Canada in the upstream energy sector and manufacturing sector[/size].



"If you have a Liberal minority government that has support of the NDP or an NDP-Green coalition, those pipelines may come to an end," he said. "And that would be a tragically bad outcome. Not just for Alberta but for all Canadians."



Others are less worried about any potential Alberta implications of a minority government.



"If there were to be a third-party motion, a private member's bill, saying let's not build the Trans Mountain pipeline, then the power of the Conservatives and the Liberals together will almost certainly be a majority to prevent that from happening," said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.



Martha Hall Findlay, president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation, said "there's no question there are a lot of people who are worried."



However, she said regardless of who controls Parliament, there are "underlying problems" that must be addressed.



"There's a message to whoever forms government: we need to address the underlying lack of understanding in the country of what the oil and gas industry's all about, how important it is economically, the incredible innovations that are taking place to address climate change," she said. "And that conversation is simply not being held."





Political observers will also be watching how both provincial and federal Conservatives address "regional angst" in Alberta following Monday's vote.



"As a political scientist, I'm looking to the Conservatives at the provincial and federal level to see what their response is," said University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley.



"It's almost like a 'Nixon goes to China' thing, where the only people that can stand up for Canada and stop this alienation from becoming a broader separatist movement are people who champion Conservative values that those same people possess."



Hall Findlay described Alberta and Saskatchewan as "once again the flyover provinces" during the election campaign.



"Not having anybody pay any attention to what's really going on here is insulting and frustrating for everybody here, regardless of how you vote," she said.



"The Conservative vote in Alberta and Saskatchewan is taken for granted, so why bother showing up, why engage in those discussions? The non-conservative votes are deemed to be irrelevant ... so the non-conservative votes, the fact that they're deemed to be irrelevant, is also insulting and frustrating. And so once again we're going to wake up, an election will have happened, and there will be a continued sense of frustration, regardless of how one voted."



But both Hall Findlay and Wesley cautioned against a move to greater regional fractures.



"I think Conservatives in



Western Canada should look at lessons like Brexit very carefully before they decide to go down a constitutional amendment road, because Quebec's already signalling that if Alberta holds a constitutional amendment on equalization, they've got one, too," said Wesley.



"That's the challenge with national unity, is that now more than ever, I'd argue, the partisan fault lines are falling along regional fault lines ... People are comparing this Parliament to 1972, but I look at it more like 1993. We may not have a majority government in the form of the Liberals ... but it's the regional fracture of the party system that ultimately led to the '95 referendum in Quebec and a decade or so of real, serious debate over national unity."



According to a recent Thinkhq public opinion survey, 71 per cent of respondents said federal policies over the past several years have hurt the quality of life of Albertans. However, if a provincial referendum on separation were held tomorrow, 59 per cent would vote for Alberta to remain in Canada.



"Despite recent rumblings in Alberta about separation and talk of a growing separatist movement, it's clear from these results that Albertans are far more 'frustrated federalists' than they are separatists; six-in-10 would never want to exchange their Canadian passport for an Alberta one," said Thinkhq president Marc Henry.



Wesley said he'll be watching for the "posturing" around who should form government, in the days and weeks to come.



"It's going to be an ugly battle, as we saw back in 2008, for the hearts and minds of Canadians as to who has the legitimacy to govern," he said.

[Anonymous]

I talked to my husband during my lunch break..



Eveybody at his shop is crestfallen..



Even where I work there is a sense of despair..



Canada elected a government at war with this province.

[cc]

Canada elected a government at war with this province.

Not an exaggeration

[Anonymous]

Albertans turfed Trudeau's partner Notley, but now they have her boss Singh, holding the balance of power in Ottawa. And Jagmeet Singh hates Alberta's economy and the $100 billion in investment that province used to  attract before Trudeau and Notley decided to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. And so called green energy investment is not pouring into this country.



The premier of Alberta is a staunch federalist, but he will be forced to listen to growing support for a new arrangement with Canada. The situation is the same for Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe. But, opening up constitutional talks is a risky business that did not go well for Trudeau's father or for Brian Mulroney. Trudeau let the genie out of the bottle.

[Anonymous]

Outside Saskatoon and Regina there is a lot of support and growing for Saskatchewan and Alberta forming a country. Our current place in Canada is not sustainable.

[Anonymous]

Say what you want about Stephen Harper, but during his ten years in office there wss national unity.

[Berry Sweet]

Canada elected a government at war with this province.

Not an exaggeration

Yep.  Alberta is fucked.  And BC is slowly going down the tubes.  



Canada is not united, it's being divided.  As long as they keep over populating in the east, there is no point in voting in the west.

[Berry Sweet]

And if anyone here did not vote, then you have no say in the matter.  The voter turnout was pathetic.

[Anonymous]

A referendum in Alberta  and Saskabush on independence. How would I vote. I would take my sons to a video game arcade that day.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Since Washington, D.C. is only a district, it is not a state. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory so it is also not a state. As such, the USA only has 50 states. Let's celebrate when Alberta becomes the 51st state in the great ole U.S. of A.! Hey, hey! Woohoo! Who's with me, eh?! Ra ra ra sis boom bah!  ac_toofunny



 :23tfup5:

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Say what you want about Stephen Harper, but during his ten years in office there wss national unity.

I agree with these wise words.

[Anonymous]

Say what you want about Stephen Harper, but during his ten years in office there wss national unity.

I agree with these wise words.

Stephen Harper is MENSA. True Dope is not even a man.

[Anonymous]

Justin Trudeau, you did this. If this county splits, it is your fault.



'Havoc and chaos:' Alberta separatist group gains support



CALGARY — There's been a surge of support for an Alberta separatist group since the Liberals secured a minority government Monday night, and while political scientists say a split from Canada may not be a real possibility, the anger underlying the movement is serious.



"The idea of Canada has died in the hearts of many, many western Canadians," said "Wexit" Alberta founder Peter Downing, a former soldier and RCMP officer.



The Liberals managed to hang onto seats in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, but Alberta and Saskatchewan ended up Conservative blue except for one NDP riding in Edmonton.



The Votewexit Facebook page with its motto, "The West Wants Out" went from 2,000 or so members on Monday to nearly 160,000 and counting by Tuesday afternoon. Downing said his group received more than $20,000 in donations and membership fees overnight.



A separate online petition calling for a western alliance and for Alberta to separate was backed by more than 40,000 people.



Downing got the idea for "Wexit" — an apparent play on Brexit in the United Kingdom — late last year when he heard United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney warn of rising separatist sentiment if the Liberal government didn't back off from policies he said were hostile to the energy sector. Those include the overhaul of environmental reviews and an oil tanker ban off B.C.'S north coast.



"Justin Trudeau is obviously the fuel for it, but Jason Kenney was the spark," said Downing.



He said his group is pushing for Kenney, who describes himself as a staunch federalist, to call a referendum on whether Alberta should separate. If successful, that would result in the province replacing the RCMP with its own police force and having control over immigration, taxation, firearms and pensions, Downing said.



The idea is getting interest from people in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and parts of British Columbia, too, he added.



In the meantime, Downing wants to get "Wexit" representatives elected to Parliament.



"We're going to push into Canada and cause havoc and chaos until the grounds are right and the conditions are set to have that referendum on separation and become an independent nation."



David Taras, a political scientist at Calgary's Mount Royal University, said he doubts people in Alberta would back separation if they understood the practicalities. Would they need a visa to take a ski trip or wine tour in B.C., for instance?



"The vast majority of Albertans



love being in Canada and have a deep emotional attachment to Canada, so I don't think that will be severed easily," he said.



"But the anger and frustration is real."



Taras said he'll be curious whether Kenney chooses an "endless war" with Trudeau over energy policy, or decides on a more conciliatory tack.



Ted Morton, a former Alberta Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, said the angst may not lead to separation, but it could propel Kenney's efforts to exert pressure on Ottawa.



The premier has already said Alberta will hold a referendum on equalization — a federal program meant to even out fiscal disparities between "have" and "have not" provinces — along with municipal elections next October if there's no substantive progress on building a market-opening pipeline.



Morton, now an executive fellow at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy, has said he's heard calls to do it sooner.



He suggested increasing "Wexit" talk is a barometer of the anger and fear western Canadians feel. People in the energy sector are losing their jobs and, in many cases, that leads to domestic strife and addiction, he said.



"Pipelines aren't just an infrastructure and finance issue in Alberta and Saskatchewan," Morton said. "They're a people issue."