(The Guardian)
Leyland Cecco and David Agren Nov 25, 2019 11.55 EST
The day after Justin Trudeau won re-election, Larry Kitz – a farmer in the western province of Alberta – went online and donated money to a political party with one central goal: separating from Canada. As Kitz tells it, secession was the only cause that matched his growing frustration with the country’s federal government.
“It’s like a bad relationship with someone that’s just draining you all the time,” he said. “On one hand they’ll take the money from you and the other hand they want to knock down [our energy industry]. Eventually you’re gonna have to just call it quits.”
Years of recession and a tepid energy market have helped fuel a growing separatist movement in Alberta, where a fossil fuel industry which once powered a boom is now dragging the economy into bust.
The region – often dubbed the “Texas of Canada” – has some of the world’s largest oil reserves, but a lack of pipelines has made it exceedingly difficult to move the oil to market.
The resulting glut has kept the price of Canadian oil significantly cheaper than other producers, and economists estimate Alberta has shed more than 130,000 energy jobs since 2014. Foreign companies have fled the region.
Anger at the ruling Liberals is palpable. In October’s federal election, Trudeau’s party lost all its five seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan, even though his government had paid billions to help along a controversial pipeline project.
Liberal policies focused on reducing carbon emissions and economic dependence on the oil industry, have only added to opposition in the staunchly Conservative region.