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Colby Cosh: How Alberta separatism might solve itself

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On Wednesday morning the Canadian Press wire ran a story in which reporter Fakiha Baig talked to a few political scientists about the unusual nature of the Alberta separatist movement. Which is fair enough. I started reading the story half expecting a historian or two to turn up eventually, but those people are often off somewhere catching extinct respiratory diseases in dusty archives. Political scientists, by contrast, make it real easy for reporters to get hold of them. Oh, hey, look, there’s Duane Bratt again.

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Baig’s story commences with the observation that most separatist gangs start out in places that have a prior history of independent nationhood or at least some objective cultural differences from the central authority in the state. “There are no significant secessionist movements that hinge only on fiscal and economic grievances,” pronounces UOttawa’s Andre Lecours. This put me on alert, hoping someone or other would mention one arguable counterexample, one that is for my money the most significant historical parallel for Alberta separatism.

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