A Changing Alberta Economy
There was less hostility toward the federal government in Alberta during the 1950s and 1960s than there had been in the lean years
prior to World War II. Western Canada, notably Alberta and British
Columbia, had undergone great change and development. In Alberta,
the discovery of oil at Leduc in 1947 transformed the province’s
economy. Consequently, while a great deal of the grievances from
the agricultural sector remained, Alberta society and politics
diversified, with a lessened agrarian focus. but also led to
increasing conflict with Ottawa.
While
the discovery of oil greatly altered and bolstered Alberta's
economy, it also resulted in additional conflict with Ottawa, so
much so that during the 1970s, sentiments of western alienation
rose to an unprecedented level.
In an attempt to put an end to the problems of Alberta's
boom and bust economy, the Progressive Conservative
Party had risen to power under Peter
Lougheed's platform of
"province-building." Lougheed promised to diversify the
provincial economy funded by increased royalty returns in the oil
and gas industry. In 1973, when the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the world's giant oil
companies banned together to dramatically increase the price of
oil, the revenue required for Lougheed's plan seemed assured.
The National Energy Program While
Premier Lougheed worked to use Alberta's oil resource proceeds to
help diversify the provincial economy, in 1980 the federal
government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau unveiled a program that
introduced a different use for those revenues—to subsidize gas prices
throughout the rest of the country. Outlined in the
National Energy Program (NEP) the federal
government unilaterally assumed responsibility over the Canadian
energy sector. Although the NEP was designed to promote the
importance of regulating the "energy" industry for the
good of all Canadians, it was concerned exclusively with oil and
natural gas and not sectors such as the hydro-electricity industry
in Quebec.
Albertans were particularly outraged by the revenue-sharing
scheme, which reduced the province's own share and greatly increased
that of the federal government.
Political Expression of Discontent and Western Separatism
The
implementation of the NEP was not the only federal action about
which Albertans were angry. By the early 1980s, Prime Minister
Trudeau had also implemented official bilingualism and
biculturalism, spent a great amount of time and resources
attempting to resolve Quebec's constitutional concerns, and had
repatriated the constitution. All of these actions were met with suspicion
from western Canadians and regional discontent escalated. Some in the province
even considered going it alone (or at least with the other Western
provinces) and in the early 1980s a degree of separatist activity
emerged, most noticeably expressed by the Western Canada Concept
Party (WCC). Bilingualism, tariff barriers, freight rates, oil
pricing and western under-representation in Ottawa were all at
issue, Failing the correction of the perceived injustice, the WCC
advocated secession from Canada. In the end, however, the party
did not foster much support and only managed to have one member
elected in a provincial by-election.
The Reform Party and The Canadian Alliance
While support for western separatism has since dissipated, the
perception of injustice concerning western Canada has continued to
fuel political platforms. Beginning
in the late 1980s, the electoral success of the Reform Party and
its successor the Canadian Alliance suggests that western Canadians
continue to have not only serious economic, but also
constitutional concerns. The birth of the Canadian Alliance from
the remains of the Reform Party reflects the ongoing concern of
many western Canadians concerning their common interests and the
desire for a strong conservative opposition to the Liberal Party
and the importance of western representation at the federal
level.
|
This digital collection was
produced with financial assistance from Canada's Digital
Collections initiative, Industry Canada.
)
)
)
![Senate](javascript:DynaPop('The Senate','images/glenbow/senate_det.jpg',' Even this cartoon taken from the "Eye Opener" in 1910 depicts scornful laughter at activities of Canadian Senate. Note that the people portrayed are all very old. ',2,2))
