Every one of us can remember the friend we had as a kid who would scream and stomp his foot when his mother made his sandwich wrong or didn’t pack his lunch the way he wanted. Then there was the kid who cried when he lost a game or wasn’t picked for the school baseball team. I guess we called them spoiled, but whatever we called them, every time I watch the Alberta separatists whine, I think of those kids in school.
I can remember my dad telling me from an early age that Alberta was burdened by “the Crow Rate,” and the unfair federal government that overcharged Alberta. The Crow Rate is long gone now. Before 1930, the big complaint was that Alberta did not have the mineral rights for the oil and gas under the ground. That was changed and Alberta gained a huge source of revenue, which has kept sales taxes away for almost 100 years.
Alberta is blessed with energy, fresh water, productive soil and, yes, an industrious and risk-taking population — all things to be proud of, without question. We should not forget the federal vision that brought us the Canadian Pacific Railway, or the TransCanada Pipeline or the TransMountain pipeline. I remember when the dream was that one day Alberta might export two million barrels of oil per day — right now, in 2026, that number is more than four million barrels per day.
With all those changes, with all that progress and investment, did any of our forefathers ever say, “Do this or we will leave Canada?” Growing up, did any of us hear that our fathers, mothers or grandparents wanted to leave the greatest country that the world has ever known? They did not.
This talk of separation is causing uncertainty, driving away investment and making Albertans sound like whining little rich kids who want more than anyone else in the country has ever had. Yes, there are constitutional changes to be made and, yes, Alberta needs a bigger role in Canada, but “separation”, for this writer, will never happen, and I will fight to the last drop of my energy to keep Alberta as part of Canada and to help Canada to remain the greatest nation on Earth.
We should fly our Canadian flags on Canada Day, wear our flag proudly when we travel and never lose our pride in what being a Canadian means. Proud Albertan, yes — proud Canadian, absolutely. George Brookman is the chair and company ambassador of West Canadian Digital Imaging.
