Alberta and the Constitution: Additional Protection for Provincial Resource Ownership and Senate Reform

Perhaps the point to stress is that the 1982 Constitution Act brought to a successful conclusion Alberta's campaign to provide additional constitutional protection for provincial resource ownership. Indeed, Alberta secured more from the 1982 Act, with respect to economic protection, than did Quebec with respect to cultural protection. In any event, the stage was set for the second and more difficult act in the constitutional drama—the reform of national institutions, and more specifically the Senate.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 74.

Western Alienation Is a Political Ideology That Sees Central Canada as the Economic Exploiter

Economic discontent within Alberta, and within the broader western region, provides the foundation upon which the political superstructure of western alienation has been constructed. In an earlier work, I defined western alienation as follows:

Western alienation is best seen as a political ideology of regional discontent. [It] embodies a socially shared set of interrelated beliefs with some degree of cultural embodiment and intellectual articulation, with a recognized history and constituency, and with recognized spokesmen and carriers of the creed. Western alienation encompasses a sense of political, economic and, to a lesser extent, cultural estrangement from the Canadian heartland.

It is important to note that the dominant theme of western alienation, the belief that the West is always outgunned in national politics and as a consequence has been subjected to varying degrees of economic exploitation by central Canada, enjoys both deep historical roots and contemporary nourishment.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 70.

Western Alienation in Alberta

Albertans' preoccupation with their sense of place within the Canadian community leads us to western alienation, a sentiment by no means confined to Alberta but which often finds particularly virulent expression within the province. It also leads us to the heart of the constitutional strategies adopted by Alberta governments, strategies which have left their mark on the broader Canadian constitutional landscape. Alberta governments, and particularly those of the last two decades, have pursued two quite different constitutional objectives—the enhancement or at least protection of provincial jurisdiction and the reform of national institutions. Until the early 1980s, the two objectives found expression within a coherent constitutional strategy. In more recent years, however, this strategy has started to unravel as the two objectives have come into conflict with one another.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 67.

Alberta Fights for Equality with the Other Provinces

For the first 25 years of Alberta's existence, the provincial government tried to convince Ottawa to give it resource ownership. In 1927, agreement was reached in principle and three years later the Constitution was amended to incorporate the terms of the Natural Resources Transfer Act, 1930. A comparison of the Transfer Act with Section 109 of the Constitution Act, 1867, quickly reveals that its provisions are far more detailed and comprehensive. The preamble to the 1930 Act contains the following statement:

And whereas it is desirable that Alberta should be placed in a position of equality with the other provinces of Confederation with respect to the administration and control of its natural resources as from its entrance into Confederation in 1905.

--J. Peter Meekison, "Alberta and the Constitution," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 247.