When mainstream national media columns begin casually debating the logistics of passport use after a potential Alberta separation, it is clear that Canada’s conversation over domestic unity has veered dangerously off course. For frustrated federalists inside Alberta alone, this rhetoric is exhausting.

It treats separation like an inevitability rather than a symptom of a systemic, structural failure. The hard truth is that if we do not intentionally strip out the built-up toxicity within the federation, the relationship will inevitably boil over.

As a veteran facilitator who has spent decades mediating multi-stakeholder agreements in deeply polarized environments, I recognize this paralysis. My career has been spent managing high-stakes friction, from supporting national health policy development to co-contributing to complex agreements in the farmed animal health and welfare sectors.

In the biological world, unaddressed contamination spreads quietly until the entire system collapses. Our........

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