OTTAWA — A political titan in western Canada is vowing to examine all options for the region’s future, including “independent-oriented proposals,” after Monday’s federal election result.
It’s part of Preston Manning’s plan to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, after the federal Liberals secured a fourth consecutive term in power.
“Polling is currently being done to ascertain whether the election of yet another Liberal government has increased the growing estrangement of western Canada from Ottawa and the Rest of Canada,” the founder of the defunct Reform party said in a statement released on Tuesday.
He did not provide further detail on efforts to gauge public opinion on the issue, such as who is funding that project.
Throughout the campaign, the former leader of the federal opposition warned a Liberal win could trigger a wave of western alienation, going so far as to call Liberal Leader Mark Carney “a threat to national unity” in a Globe and Mail op-ed.
Speaking by phone to National Post on Tuesday, he framed Carney’s ascent to power an existential threat.
”Carney can throw on an Edmonton Oilers jersey and call himself an ‘Alberta boy’ as much as he wants, but the fact of the matter is that he’s fronting the same cast of characters that drove a wedge between east and west under (his predecessor, former prime minister Justin) Trudeau,” said Manning.
Manning added Carney still hasn’t committed to reversing some of Trudeau’s most regionally divisive policies, such as the federal cap on oil and gas emissions.
His statement did raise the possibility of a policy shift, while doubting the Liberal leader will seriously pivot Ottawa’s approach to the west.
It references Carney’s “assurances that his minority government will make a 180 degree turn on climate change, pipelines, unregulated immigration, proliferate deficit spending, and other distinguishing characteristics of the discredited Trudeau regime.
“The first test of the truthfulness and believability of those assurances will come via the content of the June Throne Speech and the follow-up actions of the federal government,” he wrote.
Manning told National Post the stubbornness of regional divisions was visible from the electoral map.
”All you have to do is look at the swath of blue cascading from Manitoba all the way into British Columbia.”
Manning said that he was in the early stages of putting together “Canada West Assembly” to deliberate next steps, adding he hoped to bring in participants from all four western provinces and the three territories.
He added the assembly would most likely meet for the first time in the summer, after Carney had a chance to give his first throne speech.
The assembly would “provide a democratic forum for the presentation, analysis and debate of the options facing western Canada (not just Alberta),” he wrote.
Those options could range “from acceptance of a fairer and stronger position within the federation based on guarantees from and actions by the federal government, to various independence-oriented proposals, with votes to be taken on the various options and recommendations to be made to the affected provincial governments.”
Manning said that the initiative is “operationally independent” from the post-election panel being put together by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, but added that he welcomed the participation of members of the panel.
Smith said on Tuesday that she was “deeply frustrated” with the Liberal win but would let the people of Alberta take the lead on how to respond.
The Liberals picked up seats in three of the four western provinces, and looked poised on Tuesday to win the same number of seats in Alberta that they did in the last federal election in 2021.
National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com
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