From: Action Alberta [email protected] Subject: ActionAlberta #155 - PLAY THE BALL WHERE IT LIES! Date: November 7, 2020 at 4:25 AM To: Robert J. Iverach, Q.C. [email protected] ACTION ALBERTA WEBSITE: Click here TWITTER: Click here FACEBOOK: Click here PLAY THE BALL WHERE IT LIES! We are a proud lot here in Alberta and Saskatchewan. We believe in hard work, we believe in sharing, we believe in doing the right thing and we want government to leave us the hell alone and stay out of our way. We are somewhat unique in wanting government to leave us alone. Generally, our country is left of centre in its politics and “free” stuff is the order of the day. We are pissed with the way every politician kowtows to Quebec (including the Conservatives) but would we not be better off accepting the reality that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and learn from Quebec? They have played us brilliantly. $13.1 billion in equalization payment this past year, special rules that apply only to them (see their Bill 21 as an example) and a veto over pipelines even Erin O’Toole supports (Click here). We may not like his politics but we could sure use a guy like Blanchet in Western Canada. You know where he stands and he makes no apologies. He could care less about the rest of Canada – he only cares about Quebec. Applying the rule in golf that you have to – “play the ball where it lies” - to our political situation, we have to accept it for what it is and try to figure out a realistic way to deal with it. I see our reality as follows: • If an election were held today, the Liberals would likely win a majority (current poll – Liberals 36.6% Conservatives 30.9%) and if not a majority, at the very least a minority that will get propped up by a combination of the NDP, the Bloc or the Green Party. The Liberals are masters at the game of politics. No matter the scandal, they just brush it off and it goes away. We may not like it but you really do have to give them credit. • The Conservatives will not win. Erin O’Toole seems like a nice guy but there is no path to victory for him and, on the remote chance that he does win a minority, how does that help us? He has already thrown us under the bus when he told Legault that Quebec would have a veto over a pipeline. He knows that Alberta and Saskatchewan will support him no matter what so throwing us Alberta and Saskatchewan will support him no matter what so throwing us under the bus comes with little risk for him. There is no difference between the Liberals ignoring us and the Conservatives throwing us under the bus to appease Quebec. Either way we have no say. • Quebec runs the country. Politicians are so afraid of upsetting them that they just keep doing what Quebec wants. Not that Quebec is going anywhere – it doesn’t get any better than it is for them. Rather than be critical of that, we should give them full marks for putting themselves into that position and wonder what we can do to get ourselves into a similar position? • Although there may well be 25% of Albertans that want to separate, the odds are extremely long that it will be possible to get it done. We have played around the edges of this for some 40 years and we are still nowhere. • We are being naïve if we think other regions of Canada will “come to their senses” and realize how much Alberta and Saskatchewan contribute to the Canadian economy. Many in Eastern Canada think we are just a bunch of whiners. Assuming that is our reality, are we not better off to follow Quebec’s lead and vote for a party that is focused on what is good for Western Canada? A party that only runs candidates west of Ontario and a party that this time does not try to spread its wings to the rest of Canada? I do hear some rumblings about the Maverick Party and the Buffalo Party but so far it is awfully quiet. We have some great MPs in Western Canada. In an ideal world they would form the nucleus of a regional party. It’s a lot to ask but I suspect most of them know that as long as Quebec calls the shots, Erin O’Toole will have no choice but to go along and we will continue to have no voice. Speaking of great MPs, there are currently 71 Conservative MPs in Western Canada (out of a total of 121 Conservative MPs). Some 60% of the Conservative Party MPs are here in Western Canada and yet we kowtow to Quebec where there are 10 Conservative MPs. If all 71 MPs joined a regional party it would today be the official opposition. Wouldn’t it be great if someone like Michelle Rempel Garner was able to grill Trudeau or if we could convince Pierre Poilievre to move west to represent us. What a win. There is no perfect answer and perhaps a regional party will prove not to be There is no perfect answer and perhaps a regional party will prove not to be the answer either but until we accept that separation has no reasonable chance of success and that the Conservative Party of Canada has no choice but to be more focused on Quebec than Western Canada, we are not going to get anywhere. We have a card to play in Western Canada – we should play it. By: Dick Van Grieken Calgary, Alberta OUR READERS' COMMENTS SECTION 1. From a Reader: It is interesting that people like Drew Barnes find it necessary to qualify their support for a separate Alberta/Western Canada by first trying to convince us that it is necessary to continue to try and "save" Canada, before we attempt to save ourselves. It is not. Canada does not work. It never has and it never will. It is a vast geographic area with a major concentration of population centered in two provinces. Those two provinces and that concentration of population expects the outlying hinterlands to be subservient to them, and to work to support them. That is the way Canada was structured from the get go, and that is how it has always worked. Changing that fact is impossible because we need their permission to make those changes. What incentive do they have to do so? We can either continue to stoically defend our right to be subservient to the interests of those who control Canada, or we can wake up and put ourselves and our families first. Those are the options we face. It is time to make a choice, without apology! 2. From a Reader: The distance by which Trudeau is out of touch with the frustrations of Albertans is surreal. That he accepts no responsibility for those frustrations is more surreal, if that is possible. This is all very strange. It is difficult for me to get my head around it. Is he lying, or does he actually believe that we would love him if only Jason Kenney were not premier? Either way, how can this be what we get from a Canadian prime minister? And yet his way of looking at Alberta consistent with that of my friends in Ontario. We do not belong in this country. 3. From a Reader: Alberta had her chance to avoid being dragged into the maelstrom of the national debt that will now plague us for generations. The World Economic Forum has been looking for this opportunity for years, and now the plandemic has presented itself to the globalists who have seized on this opportunity to carry out the "Great Reset". It is just sad that more people are not awake to what has actually been in the making for decades. A friend from Quebec explained to me yesterday (he was in Ontario at the time) that Quebec has essentially scuttled the entire restaurant business, and that people from Quebec are flocking to Ontario to eat out. Border restaurants are doing a booming business like never before. These are the kinds of disruptive economics that will require a "reset". And reset they will undergo, as governments shift priorities and re-program themselves and the people they "rule". We have lost our say in the political and legal arena, and the social environment is rapidly undergoing dramatic alteration as neighbours are turned against neighbours. I've now heard it said that this will take hundreds of years to "correct". Not exactly what we "planned". 4. From a Reader: Socialists, "progressives" and the left wing constantly preach that everyone needs to be equal..... and then (hypocritically) spend all their time encouraging people to identify with as many "special" groups as they can so they can receive special funding and privileges in exchange for voting for the left wing. This results in a perpetual game of leap-frog as the social engineering unfairly tilts the playing field and needs constant "correction" by the all-knowing left. This is good for the left as it creates a dependence on them to "save" the people, while eroding the collective and individual character of the people and the country. It is a shell game that (hypocritically) creates division, unfairness, inequality and eventual destruction of the nation as they race to the bottom of mediocrity while stroking the ego of the pompous and sanctimonious left wing.