EDMONTON — Alberta celebrated its inaugural birthday party holiday with Culture Minister Ron Orr bashing the prime minster and “Laurentian elites” while asserting the province has received the short end of the stick in the federation for more than a century.
“The family compact of Laurentian elites have always skewed the deal in their favour,” Orr told assembled dignitaries, including Premier Jason Kenney, Indigenous leaders and Lt.-Gov. Salma Lakhani, on a sunny morning Thursday near the legislature grounds.
“There are many in our province who are frustrated … that Alberta has never really been granted that full fair deal with the federal government that was promised.”
Orr said Alberta has been treated unfairly from the start, noting it wasn’t granted provincial status until Sept. 1, 1905, almost 40 years after Confederation.
He said the unfairness continued with Alberta not gaining control of its natural resources until the 1930s, then facing a federal challenge to those resources in the national energy program of the 1980s, followed to this day with other policies deemed detrimental to the province’s golden goose industry.
“The attacks of our recent (Justin) Trudeau government on our energy, our resources, our wealth, our freedom — there are just so many ways that Albertans have struggled to achieve our full and our fair place in this Confederation," Orr said. "But you know what? Albertans will succeed."
He said Alberta has become one of Canada's economic powerhouses "and we truly are the envy of the world in so many respects."
“Happy Birthday, Alberta. That is what today is about," Orr said.
Earlier this week, the province announced it is projecting to take in a record $28.4 billion in non-renewable resource revenues this year, delivering a $13.2-billion surplus for a province of 4.5 million people.
Kenney, who is stepping down as premier early next month once his party selects a new leader, recently announced the creation of Alberta Day, which is not a statutory holiday, to celebrate the province’s heritage and culture.
Events, concerts, activities and fireworks are scheduled throughout the province over the weekend.
Thursday’s kickoff saluted Alberta’s Indigenous history, with speakers and First Nations musical performers.
Kenney told the audience, “In expressing gratitude for those who have gone before us, we of course must start with the people who first inhabited these lands, the Indigenous people … who created the first communities, who were the first entrepreneurs, who were the first custodians of this magnificent natural habitat.”
Kenney added that it's time to celebrate a province that has “unique culture, history and geography, but is also proudly part of the great Canadian federation.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 1, 2022.
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Orr couldn't find his ass
Orr couldn't find his ass with both hands. He's an embarrassment and also happens to be my MLA unfortunately.
Culture Minister seems like a
Culture Minister seems like a mighty big stretch for this guy.
Oh, now we're acknowledging
Oh, now we're acknowledging indigenous people? That's new, this government refused to do that before, even though it has become customary.
And why not blame the Liberals for plain old geography as in THAT'S where more people live since it's where settlement began AND stick them with the natural evolution of provincial history that's tied to that.
Will the conservative gong show of the "United Clown Posse" never END?
Indeed.
Indeed.
“In expressing gratitude for those who have gone before us, we of course must start with the people who first inhabited these lands, the Indigenous people … who created the first communities, who were the first entrepreneurs, who were the first custodians of this magnificent natural habitat.” -- Jason Kenney
Wow. Just a year ago he was pushing massive open pit coals mines in the pristine mountain and foothill landscape, something that united First Nations, conservative ranchers and "liberal urban elites" alike in opposition.
Just what we need, more
Just what we need, more whining and complaints mostly unjustified, from over a hundred years. Manitoba did not get into Canada until 4 years after confederation. Alberta went bankrupt in the 1930s and without the feds what would have happened? The federal Liberals saved Syncrude in 1973 by investing 300+ million at that time and that Conservative Premier of big bad Ontario thru in a 100 million. Be thankful. Who guaranteed the financing of the first pipeline from AB to Ontario in the 1950s? The feds, in fact the Liberals and they lost an election to John Diefenbaker's Conservatives for just a guarantee, didn't spend a cent. The reason Alberta is wealthy is support from our feds, like it or not , believe it or not, it's simple facts, but then who in Alberta believes facts. And I live in Alberta
How many short weeks ago was
How many short weeks ago was it that Kenney was howling bloody murder that the Feds should give them bigger "equalization" payments because they were so poor???
Dear Alberta,
Dear Alberta,
Please, have your referendum on separation already. It's been 60 years of bitching and whining, like a spoiled child who is never happy with his position in the family. Even winning national government for a decade under a powerful Alberta-rich cabinet didn't satisfy the malcontents. We're tired of the never-ending cost of appeasement. The 30 billion dollar golden pipeline that forces another province to assume the majority of your environmental risks is just one of the latest manifestations.
Enough already. Take it to the people. Or do you lack the courage of your over-stated convictions?
Keep the question simple. None of this "sovereignty association" or wordy, irrational partial withdrawal bullshit. It's all or nothing. Let the people of Alberta decide for themselves whether they want to give up their Canadian citizenship or not. Live with the predictable consequences.
One thing, though. The separatists will have to come up with something better than Canadian citizenship, something that at least four and a half million people among a pool of a billion++ immigrants out there would willingly risk their lives for.
Which begs the question: Why would Canadians choose to remain in a jurisdiction that is actively trying to diminish itself, to shrink its own world?
With (tested and strained) love,
Canada.
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