Pierre Poilievre calls for a United Canada that embraces Alberta...

Speech in Calgary invokes our military history to make the case to stay in Canada.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was in Calgary today, his first time using a speech to make the pitch for Alberta to stay in Canada.

I know the polling shows that support for Alberta separation is low, but I think that like in Quebec, the polling won’t show the full picture. While at this point, I wouldn’t expect a vote on Alberta separation to win, I think it is more popular than the polling and Central Canadian sentiment would have you believe.

So I share this speech, both the video and the prepared remarks that were shared with journalists, to let you hear his thoughts and you can debate it all in the comments.

This building began 104 years ago as a clubhouse for the Great War Veterans’ Association; a place for Calgary’s heroes to gather, tell stories, support each other and mourn the brothers that never returned. The ghosts of Canadian heroes still walk these halls.

Among them were young men who left rural Alberta to fight for Canada in faraway lands. Farm boys put down their spades and picked up rifles. Their mothers kissed them goodbye at Alberta train stations in towns like Innisfail, Hanna, Olds and High Prairie and watched through teary eyes as the locomotive pulled them away across the prairie horizon, many never to return.

Those that did return from battlefield to farm-field would then survive the dustbowl, see their children fight another World War, pay off the country’s war debt and hand off to the next generation the freest and richest nation on earth. Century Farm Plaques at the end of rural Alberta laneways remain monuments to the legacies they left their great-great grandchildren who still plow the same soil. Those farms and this country are here today because, no matter the hardship, they never gave up on Canada and neither should we.

They fought for Canada and we must fight for Canada.

I was blessed to grow up in the province and the country they built.

Among my earliest memories of Canadian pride were the 1988 Olympics right here in my hometown of Calgary.

I remember standing downtown during the medal ceremonies as a nine-year-old boy watching Canadian athletes step onto the podium beneath our flag.

I remember Brian Orser winning silver in figure skating. And Elizabeth Manley delivering one of the most memorable performances in Canadian Olympic history.

Like millions of Canadians, I felt overwhelming pride seeing our country celebrated before the world. And, growing up here, I felt something else too: pride in Alberta; pride to be Calgarian.

Pride in the thousands of volunteers.

Pride in the entrepreneurial spirit that built this city from prairie grassland into a global energy capital.

Pride in the workers, ranchers, roughnecks, farmers and small business owners who made this province the engine of Canada’s economy.

My attachment to Alberta grew from long days playing on the prairie outskirts of Calgary.

The endless horizon.

The big sky.

The foothills rising into the Rockies.

The westward journey from Calgary on highway #1 from flat lands to smooth up and down foothills until, suddenly, you crest the hill and the full majesty of the Rocky Mountain range rises before your eyes.

Living on the southern edge of Calgary, where city met country, I grew up in the spirit of Alberta.

Independent.

Hard-working.

Generous.

Unpretentious.

Resilient.

The Calgary Stampede captured that spirit perfectly. As a kid I worked there clearing trash off the tables at one of the concessions.

The Stampede symbolized the free spirit of the west.

Earning success—not inheriting it.

Building things—not blocking them.

Taking risks—not asking permission.

Freedom—not freebies.

This spirit of freedom and opportunity that settled the west has, for most of Alberta’s history, thrived within a united Canada.

Alberta became a province in 1905 because Confederation promised to marry autonomy over local decisions with the shared strength of pan-Canadian trade, defence, population, and landmass.

The win-win of Confederation had been crystalized in the British North America Act–or BNA Act. The BNA is Canada’s DNA. Unlike constitutions of other countries, the BNA is not filled with lofty ideals or grand statements. It’s an org chart, a who-does-what summary that gave provincial and federal governments separate tasks in a common project. It was practical.

It was based on the principle that powers should reside closest to the people. What an individual can do, let him do it. What he cannot, let his locality do it. What the locality cannot, let the province. What the province cannot, then, and only then, the federal government steps in.

In the British North America Act, the provinces run hospitals, schools and natural resources and the federal government does borders, defence, criminal law, and the movement of goods and services across provincial boundaries.

Each level of government should only do what only it can do and nothing more. That approach kept government affordable and accountable and left maximum freedom for people and provinces to do what worked for them. It also kept us out of each other’s hair.

That all made sense. You don’t need the federal government to approve a mine, build a road, or run a hospital that is only in one province. You do need it to clear the way for a railroad that travels through many provinces and to buy fighter jets to protect the entire nation, for example.

The problem lately is that the federal government has been terrible at the things that ARE its job, while sticking its nose in things that are NOT its job. For example, on defence, borders, immigration, criminal law, interprovincial pipelines, to name a few, the federal government has failed brutally–by its own admission. And yet has had the audacity to impose itself in provincial areas like taxing industrial carbon, seizing people’s hunting rifles and blocking local oil and gas projects. That has gotten in the way of Alberta’s biggest industry at enormous expense to the entire country.

While these intrusions drive our country apart, a destructive ideology has tried to erase the things that keep us together. Downgrading and denigrating our common history and identity by canceling our symbols, shaming our heroes, dividing us by group and promoting a post-national state leaves less holding us together and more driving us apart.

We must be prepared to have honest conversations about these mistakes.

You see, a country is like a family. And every family has problems. Families fail not because they argue about those problems, but because they sweep them under the rug and pretend they don’t exist. They don’t go away. They get bigger. Those who caused the problems in Canada today will tell us to pretend those problems don’t exist and denounce as unpatriotic anyone who speaks honestly about them. Doing that in this referendum would only drive people further away. If we want frustrated Albertans to vote for Canada, the absolute worst thing we can do is to dismiss their legitimate grievances and thus signal there is no hope of fixing them.

Here are the undeniable facts. Ten years ago, under the leadership of a great Albertan, Stephen Harper, there was no separatist movement in Alberta. When Mr. Harper left office, the Parti Quebecois had been defeated and the Bloc Quebecois had been reduced to a mere four seats losing party status. We thought that separation referendums were a thing of the past. Today, hundreds of thousands of Albertans have signed a petition to leave and polls put the separatist Parti Quebecois in the lead, running on an explicit platform of holding another referendum in that province.

So how did we get here?

Over the last decade, federal inflationary spending and taxes have forced an affordability crisis on Albertans–and Quebecers for that matter. The Liberal Party carried out a publicly-stated plan to phase out Alberta’s biggest industry, using anti-development laws that are all still in place. Big promises to reverse course are nice. But it will take shovels moving dirt and steel pipe in the ground to show whether Liberals have truly changed their minds on oil and gas. Albertans can be forgiven for demanding results not just promises.

I can say from meeting people in my own East Central Alberta riding of Battle River-Crowfoot, these policies did real harm in people’s lives. Grown men in tears after they lost their homes and jobs due to the federal attacks on their industry. Young people, whose parents once easily bought homes in their early 20s, now believe they will never afford one of their own. And anyone who doubts that the affordability emergency contributes to the political divisions has missed the plot.

Beyond that, the Liberal government intruded into provincial jurisdiction seizing the lawful firearms of law-abiding Alberta farmers, First Nations and rural people. And the federal government has become bigger and bossier than at any time in a generation. Outside of COVID, federal spending is now at its largest share of our economy in thirty years. That means too much of Alberta’s money goes to Ottawa and not enough returns. The government is rich and the people are poor.

These problems echo back through history.

Some of my earliest memories are of my parents losing their life savings—a home and two little rental properties that my mother had spent her 20s and 30s saving to buy. Interest rates and inflation combined with a Liberal recession—all driven by the Pierre Trudeau government—smashed all of that. Similar to today.

My folks had to scrimp and save and with a little help from my grandfather, get another loan for a downpayment on a house further out so we’d have a place to live. Hundreds of thousands of Albertans could tell the same story.

Amazingly, Albertans are not looking for an apology or compensation. They just want these things to stop happening. They are not looking for help from Ottawa. They just want Ottawa out of the way and off their backs; for the province to have true respect within confederation.

That is easy to do. We have done it before.

In the 1980s, Canadians elected a new government and over the following 30 years, we overturned the National Energy Program, adopted free trade with the United States, unlocked the oilsands, shrunk the size of the federal government by a third and unbridled Alberta to become one of the richest places in the world.

We can do it again.

The good news is that the problems are easily fixable.

Listen carefully to the concerns of those saying that they want to leave. And you will find that they do not have a problem with fellow Canadians or even with Canada. They have a problem with the federal government.

We do not need a different country in Alberta. We need different government policies in Ottawa.

Restoring affordable homes and food, unblocking resources and pipelines, respecting firearms owners, locking up criminals, relieving taxpayers, respecting provincial autonomy and personal freedom, unlocking free enterprise—we know that these are the things Albertans have been demanding.

The best news of all: It is not a zero-sum game. These steps would make every province better off.

All Canadians want these things.

The answer for Albertans is not to pull away from our friends in other provinces but to lock arms with them to make Canada affordable, safe, self-reliant and united here at home.

Lock arms with all Canadians for an affordable federal government that allows affordable lives for our people.

Lock arms with Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador to double oil and gas production, by replacing C-69 and 48, the anti-development and anti-pipeline laws, with fast permits and lower taxes on energy and building.

Lock arms with steelworkers in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie to eliminate the industrial carbon tax.

Lock arms with Toronto communities for tougher criminal justice laws to end the wave of violence and theft that has washed over both their communities and Alberta.

Lock arms with indigenous hunters and rural communities across the country to fight the federal gun grab, so Alberta’s farmers, hunters, and sport shooters can keep their lawful property.

Lock arms with Quebec to restore the constitutional autonomy of the provinces—so Albertans can make decisions for themselves on things like immigration. Both Quebec and Alberta—and probably others—agree that the provincial governments that pay for the social services and housing of newcomers, must have more control over how many and which people enter.

Locking arms with other provinces is the practical, realistic path to a Stronger Alberta within a United Canada.

As we have this debate and as we fight for a united Canada, we must remember another thing. Those who might vote to separate from Canada are not our enemies. They are our fellow citizens. Family members. Loved ones. Business partners. Neighbours. Friends. Demonizing people who have lost hope is no way to restore it. Name calling, fearmongering and ostracizing will only worsen and broaden the divide. A better way is to listen, understand, persuade and address the easily-solvable problems that they are asking us to fix.

Nor will threats work. We should not just tell Albertans how bad separation would be. Let’s show how much better it could be for all us within a united Canada.

Just as I speak with Bloc Quebecois MPs in Ottawa all the time, I will speak with Albertans on both sides of this referendum to hear their thoughts and make the case for Canada.

The goal should not be to “beat” one another in the referendum. It should be to unite when it is over; To show our fellow citizens—all of them—that they belong in Canada; that they are part of our national family.

We need a project hope. Not a project fear.

Hope that this province, within this country, can be the richest, safest and most affordable place in the world; that its young can have the greatest opportunities in the world; that we can be the most united country in the world. And that making Alberta stronger should be part of our great national project.

Now if I could speak to fellow Canadians from other provinces: I encourage you to reach out to Albertans and tell them how much you appreciate and love them. Really listen to them, and support their ambitions, because our destinies are intertwined. One for all, all for one. The whole of Canada should wrap its arms around Alberta and its people.

At the same time, we should reignite our patriotism; no more tearing down statutes, libeling our heroes, canceling our history. We will bind this country together with our love of our common history, our common achievements, our common heroes, and our common belief that we are the best country in the world. We must be a country that sings its songs, tells its stories and waves its flag. Alberta belongs at the heart of those songs, those stories and that flag.

Now, to my fellow Albertans, let me speak directly with you. In the midst of all our legitimate complaints, let us not forget what we have here and what we helped build together.

Sometimes in life we do not know what we have until it’s gone.

Look around the world. Where else would you rather live?

Canada is a VERY special country.

And a very rare one. It took 800 years of gradual evolution of our Parliamentary system to build the democracy we have today. We are heirs of the British Magna Carta, the first law ever designed to restrain government rather than restraining the people.

Did you know Canada is the 4th oldest democracy on Earth? Its foundations are solid.

There is a reason millions of people from all around the world leave behind their ancestral homes, families, jobs and countries to flock here. There is a reason why millions more would if they could. That reason is that there is no better country than Canada.

Sure, we can and should complain about our government. But Canada is more than a government. It is:

A land.

A flag.

A common defence.

Laws.

Borders.

Folklore.

Stories of heroes and hardship.

A people, and a promise.

A promise passed down from those who came before, upheld by those here now and handed to those who come next.

A promise of a government that is servant and not master.

A promise of free people, free speech and free markets.

A promise of meritocracy, not aristocracy.

A promise that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything.

A promise for which the soldiers, sailors and airmen of Canada sacrificed.

A promise that is precious and rare.

Making Canada was hard.

Before we risk it, let us remember the Albertans who sacrificed to provide this inheritance. The people who, through hardship and heroism, never gave up.

The brilliant engineers and roughnecks who extracted the miracle molecules out of muddy bitumen to power our lives. They never gave up, and neither should we.

The traders who followed winding rivers across the unmapped prairies to build the lonely forts which became our early cities. They never gave up, and neither should we.

The pioneers whose calloused hands plucked the weeds and moved the rocks to turn raw dirt into fields of golden grains. They never gave up, and neither should we.

The mothers who fought starvation so their babies would survive the Great Depression and the prairie dustbowl never gave up, and neither should we.

The Cree code-talkers from Alberta who saved countless Canadian lives in the Second World War by relaying battleplans in their language to outsmart Nazi interception–they never gave up, and neither should we.

The Veterans at the Wainwright Legion told me to do as they had done and fight for Canada and never give up.

And the warriors who built this legion and haunt its hallways and their brothers who did not return, never gave up. And neither should we.

The Canada for which they died is the Canada for which we must live.