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| The Separation Party of....Alberta? - Thursday, July 22, 2004 at 19:42 | ||||
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The Separation Party of....Alberta? Bruce Hutton is 58 years old and admits he is getting on in age. But that doesn't mean he is just going to sit by and watch his home province of Alberta become a "have-not" province. Years of frustration and feelings of alienation spurred him to create the Separation Party of Alberta - a political party that plans to run candidates in the upcoming Alberta election. It may not seem like a massive political force now, but by 2010, Hutton believes Alberta will no longer be part of Canada. This week, we asked him a bit about the latest political party on the Canadian scene and why it was formed in the first place and what its chances for success are. The Interview with the Interim Leader of the Separation Party of Alberta (SPA), Bruce Hutton SCN: Mr. Hutton, can you tell us how became involved in the SPA and what your role is? Mr. Hutton: I'm actually the founder of the party. A year and a bit ago, the federal government put 12 Alberta farmers in jail for selling grain to the United States, which is something that Eastern and Central Canadians farmers can do without anyone else's permission. And really, I've been dissatisfied for a long time, but the imprisonment of those farmers is what pushed me off the fence and got me into action. I met with a couple of the fellows that had been to jail - we all threw $500 in the pot and that was the start of it. Initial response to the formation of the SPA suggests some people believe it has been created as a result of sour grapes over the recent election results. Is this true? On the contrary, there are many disgruntled westerners and quite frankly, it's the economic drain that is the major motivating factor for the formation of the party. We frankly can just not afford to be Canadian. What do you mean by that? Well, the net transfer payment for 2003 from Alberta was $11.1 billion - that's what it cost Alberta to be Canadian. In 2003, it was 9.98 billion. Since 1961, it has been $230 billion - that's money that has gone to Ottawa with no return on investment. The money has been squandered by irresponsible, no-brain policies like the HRDC boondoggle and the gun registry, which will do nothing to reduce crime and violence in Canada. Is the SPA, then, just a knee-jerk reaction to feelings of alienation by the government?
You must be aware of the disdain many Canadians have for the word "separation" and Canada's other separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois. When we formed the party, we talked about other names and I am the one that insisted on the word "separation". I am sick of politicians lying to me. I am 58 and I've heard the lies all my life. I didn't want to come forth with a name like "The Alberta Party" or something like that. I wanted to tell people exactly what the intent of the exercise was. While I don't admire the BQ, at least they have been honest about being separatist from Day 1. Quebec has played the separatist card for years and they are the net recipient of $250 billion in those same 40 years. It's ridiculous. Alberta pays, Quebec receives. And yet Quebec purports being able to be a self-sustaining economy, so why do they need transfer payments from Ottawa? As far as I am concerned, they are taking advantage of the Rest of Canada, raping us and taking money that they are not entitled to. Geographically, how would this work? Won't this make it difficult for Canada to exist as a whole and functioning country? I don't care. I don't care if it's selfish - we have been paying since 1961 and no one cares. Once oil and gas are gone, Ontario won't give a rat's ass what happens to Alberta - make no mistake about that. I have friends in Ontario that can't believe that the West has put up with his for as long as we have. I was once a proud Canadian, I am no longer. It's time for Alberta to look after Alberta. What about resources such as water? How would a separate Alberta deal with those issues? And what about trade? We have a number of rivers in this province that we control. But look, we don't want to build a wall around Alberta. We want to manage the future of Alberta so there is a future for other Albertans. I've got snow in my hair - I'm going to be dead before these things become really serious problems, but other Albertans will still have to deal with it. We envision forming some kind of Confederation of Regions, like an economic union, not unlike the one they have in Europe. The barriers of trade would come down, not go up.
One of the main gripes people have with the BQ is they want to have their cake and eat it too. Is there any danger of this happening with SPA? Absolutely not. We don't want Ottawa. "Life in Alberta will be a SPA when we get rid of Ottawa." That's a fact. Last year, 11.1 billion dollars that would have stayed in this province and fixed roads and such was instead wasted by the federal government. Do you believe you can win the upcoming provincial election? Yes, when we educate Albertans to the true numbers. In the past two years, it has cost Albertans $20 billion to be Canadian. Albertans know how much they pay, but they don't know how much 20 billion dollars is - who does? $20 billion puts $1,258 on every single foot of the centered line of the Trans-Canada Highway from Victoria to Halifax. Albertans can understand that and when they do, they'll see the need to do something drastically different. Our chances of success are excellent. We're organizing in 25 constituencies out of 83 right now. We're getting calls almost every day. We're looking to field quality candidates for the upcoming election. We're probably won't have 83, but we don't want 83. We want to be well organized in a number of constituencies. We're moving ahead - we've got a plan and we're staying the course. It took the BQ 16 years to get where we are in 16 months. So what do you expect the upcoming election results for the SPA to be? To be honest, we anticipate only 5% of the vote the first time out. We don't anticipate earth-shattering results. But at the same time, we expect to form the government in 2010. This could be very, very interesting. It's going to be a long, hard struggle but I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The country could look very different in ten years then. Yes, yes it could. ------------------------------- Source:
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We've been alienated for years. But I think the party is starting to make inroads. We are registered and there will be candidates running in the next election. We'll be successful if we can explain to Albertans what the cost is to be Canadian and the fact that there is not a return on that investment.
My neighbour raises Buffalo, but he can't sell them to Ontario because of the inter-provincial trade restrictions. But he can sell them to a broker in Montana, who in turn sells them to Ontario. They get shipped to Ontario and never once go to the United States. That's the kind of idiotic trade barriers we have in this country and it's one more good reason for Alberta to get out.
