Canada Forever

I love Canada, and I know that you do too. Now is the time for us to show it.
Thomas A. Lukaszuk

I never really thought I’d have to say this: I am steadfast in my belief that Alberta should remain in Canada and that Canada should remain strong and free as an independent and proud nation.

I find it deeply troubling that in these difficult circumstances, we have a government and Premier in Alberta that seem more interested in finding what divides us and stoking separatism than working to find common ground and building on our shared interests. I share Mr. Lukaszuk’s sentiments that we are weaker and poorer alone than we are in a united Canada.

And I can hardly think of a time in our recent history where it’s as important to be united as a nation. Canada has difficult challenges to solve in an increasingly multi-polar world and one it which it will need a more guarded position vis-à-vis the United States. As two successive Trump administrations have shown, that country is moving in a different direction that is not aligned with many of Canada’s long held values like pluralism, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and parliamentary democracy.

Canada is not perfect; I write this on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which is a painful legacy of our collective past treatment of indigenous peoples. But therein also lies one of Canada’s strengths: its willingness, sometimes in fits and starts, to grapple with its past and to do better by its people and the world within which it lives. We have to put in the work, but it’s worth it. Each generation needs to rediscover and recommit to the values and the legacy passed to us by those that came before and build on it better.

That is why I was proud to sign the petition from Forever Canadian, and I hope you do, too. They need to collect 300,000 signatures from Albertans by October 28 and I encourage you to join me as one of the signatories.