This is an entry by Barry Cooper, PhD, FRSC. Some of you will recognize the name from the two COVID books Haultain published in the last couple of years. Cooper is one of Canada's best-known and prolific political philosophers. He is based in Alberta. So, it is a treat and a pleasure to include Cooper exclusives once in a while for all our paid subscribers.
In the piece below, Cooper revisits the uneasy Alberta–Quebec alliance, showing why their shared frustrations with Ottawa can’t overcome deep structural divides. The Lougheed and Lévesque’s 1982 letters reveal enduring mistrust, rival visions, and Canada’s fragile federation.
Arguments for strong and close cooperation between Alberta and Quebec against the Government of Canada have grown into clichés. Most recently, they were articulated by Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a visit to Calgary early in September.
If one looks only at the politics of Canadian federalism, the argument may look persuasive. One must ignore, however, two structural issues between Quebec and Alberta that make any long-term alliance unstable. The first is the refusal of Quebec to permit its sacred soil either to be fracked, particularly by Calgary companies that have the expertise to do so, or to be penetrated by big pipe --for environmental reasons, of course, except for use in pumping raw sewage into the Saint Lawrence River. Second, although Premier Lévesque was not as great a cheerleader for Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program (NEP) as was his Ontario counterpart, Bill Davis, supporters of cooperation must forget how much Quebec benefited from the NEP. Let’s not yet mention Alberta’s outsized contribution to the Canadian fisc –Plamondon said, to his credit, that Alberta’s money came “with too much contempt,” and it increased his province’s dependence on outsiders, especially on Ottawa. Who could disagree?
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