July 9, 2003
Splitsville soiree
By ROY CLANCY -- Calgary Sun

We'll find out this Friday whether you can fit all the separatists in Alberta into a phone booth.

No fewer than eight -- and possibly more -- separatist parties will converge on southwest Calgary to discuss "freedom and liberation."

So it's a safe bet at least that number of people will show up.

Organizers are more optimistic. They hope they won't run out of room in the Southwood Community Association Hall, where this coming together of separatist factions will take place Friday at 7 p.m. .

This is, after all, the first time these divergent organizations will ever be assembled in one room, they say.

Representatives of such obscure groups as the Republic of Canada Party, Separation Party of Alberta and the Alberta Sons and Daughters for Liberty will have a chance to share their "visions" of Canada and Alberta.

Anything can happen, admits Donna Ferolie, one of the organizers. "There are so many people headed in the same direction, but with splinter groups all over the place," she says.

"I can't predict what's going to happen, I'm just making an effort to bring them together and try to start communicating."

Ferolie says the fact that it is Stampede Week won't cramp their style either.

"They're sick and tired of being sick and tired," she says. "Of not having a voice and not having any representation."

With support for splitting from Canada creeping above single-digit percentages in this province for the first time ever, the response to this separatist soiree could prove revealing.

While it is tempting to label these political activists as cranks or extremists, I have to admit I once flirted briefly with the notion of western separation myself a couple of decades ago.

Ironically, I'd been a staunch federalist until I was recruited by the feds as a information officer to "disseminate information about programs and services in western Canada."

When I discovered that the job -- under the auspices of then-justice minister Jean Chretien -- was merely a propaganda ploy designed to placate the West, I was disgusted.

Disgust turned to nausea when I began to understand the culture of cynicism and waste that ran rampant in the halls of the federal government.

I came to believe that if the average taxpayer could see what went on with their own eyes, there would be a tax revolt.

While my own fervent patriotism eventually won out, I find it interesting that Ferolie, the main mover behind Friday's meeting, had a similar experience with the feds.

Ferolie is a former Ontarian who worked as a lobbyist for gun owners in Ottawa for several years before running as a Reform candidate in the 1997 federal election. She said it was her exposure to Liberal caucus disdain for the West that led to her disenfranchisement with federal politics, prompting her to move to Alberta and become a proponent of separation.

Although the Liberals are once again paying lip service to the issue of Western alienation, it is obvious they don't get it.

In fact, many Canadians east of the Manitoba border don't get it. They perceive Westerners as noisy, affluent whiners who won't accept the reality that the majority rules.

Grits like Paul Martin and John Manley have acknowledged lately that Westerners feel a sense of estrangement from the national political process.

Even Western leaders are not immune. As the premiers head to their annual meeting in Charlottetown, they mull the possibility of taking international relations into their own hands -- a reaction no doubt to the federal government's lacklustre handling of such issues as softwood lumber and mad cow disease.

There is plenty the Liberals could do to fix this sad state of affairs, but instead of action, offer only superficial sweet talk.

Their reluctance to embrace change will only drive more Westerners to meetings like the one being held Friday night.

By coincidence, a new federal commercial has begun appearing on TV the last few days. It plays on the "C-A-N" letters in the word Canada. As in, Canada "can" do it. Or the little train in the children's book that got to the top of the hill by chanting "I think I can" over and over.

I was impressed for a moment until I realized it was yet another multimillion dollar ad campaign designed to sell Canadians on our country without addressing any of the underlying problems.

Oh, Canadians "can" all right, as they've demonstrated countless times in the past.

All they require -- aside from the government to stop wasting their hard-earned tax dollars -- is to implement a few basic changes to restore this country's democratic equilibrium.

And set us on a free and true course to national unity and economic prosperity.