Paper 1: The New Alberta
I remember the golden goal, the I AM CANADIAN commercial, and putting a flag on my backpack when I traveled Europe.
I remember talking to my grandpa about fighting in World War II. I remember the minute of silence in school on November 11 at 11am as we remembered all the soldiers who died, including those in the Somme and on Vimy Ridge.
Independence does not question your pride in what Canada was. It questions whether that Canada still exists. It does not. What you valued - sound institutions, the rule of law, a government that answered to its people, is not Canada anymore. It is what an independent Alberta can be. The values are not different. They are the same. The work now is building institutions that preserve them, for our children and grandchildren, before it is too late.
Independence is not radical. A Free Alberta comes from the natural rise and fall of Nations. Over 50 other countries have been established in the last 50 years and Albertans can establish a country. Countries form when a people are no longer represented by a controlling party in another land. Alberta is that people. Albertans' votes don't matter. Countries fail when government overspending drives inflation and immigration goes unchecked. Canada does both. (Ray Dailio, “Rise and Fall of Nations”).
We are writing the monetary policy to put a strict limit on government spending and the immigration policy to preserve stability and safety. We are planning major projects in energy, agriculture, healthcare, education, and defense. We are building alliances, establishing trade deals, and attracting investment (“land locked” is not a problem). We are also working on two peaceful paths in parallel to ensure a smooth, practical transition.
From a position of privilege you might not see the failure, until it’s too late. Out your window the grass is green, the sun is bright, and the flowers are blooming - but this is a rare view, since 2000:
Homelessness is up 88% to over 235,000 people, impacting each unhoused person and detracting from cities for all people
Cost of housing is up 330%, without a similar rise in wages - leading to high anxiety and parents who can’t spend time with their kids
Depression and anxiety are up over 200%, 41 million scripts per year for anxiety medications
Defence spending up about 180% to $33 billion yet it’s questionable if we could prevent an attack
$54 billion on debt service alone
Total spending up $355 billion annually, yet services are worse
What could we do with an extra $355 billion annually - or even Alberta’s proportion of the increase since 2015, for simplicity say $36 billion annually.
Remove income tax entirely - $16 billion collected annually in Alberta
Seed capital for major projects that create jobs - $15 billion in total spent on Starship development since its inception
Eliminate all healthcare wait times and double nurses pay - $14 billion annually currently on hospitals in Alberta
Commission beautiful art in public spaces - $0.7 billion in total to develop the inspiring Sagrada Família Church in Barcelona
Independence is only hard work. We certainly have the money and resources to create a massively better quality of life than Canada gives us.
We are building for the 300,000 who already signed the petition and for all Albertans who want to choose optimism. We are the Independence Writers, a team of young men and women: students, lawyers, historians, and business leaders who see that Alberta can be the best new country in the world and we are excited about that idea.
It is a dramatically better future we see - not a more efficient status quo.
The rest of the papers go deeper, one paper per topic, including how to get involved.
Let's get to work.
A note on figuresSpecific dollar figures (Alberta's net contribution to Canada, healthcare budgets, federal debt, pension assets) come from public sources: Fraser Institute, University of Calgary School of Public Policy, Government of Alberta budgets, LifeWorks pension report, Statistics Canada, Department of Finance Canada.
