Alberta Fact Check: CPC Leader Poilievre says Albertans just want to see new policies in Ottawa
The Conservative leader called out the Liberal government for increasing separation sentiment.
The Conservative Party of Canada kicked off a new federalist campaign to sway Albertans to choose option 1 in the referendum coming in October. Pierre Poilievre gave a speech where he laid most of the blame for the unity issue in Alberta at the feet of the Liberal government.
Poilievre said “We do not need a different country in Alberta. We need different government policies in Ottawa.”
Poilievre leads a political party and it's to be expected he will always be pitching the election of his party. But the theme of his speech overlooks the depth and reality of what has caused so many Albertans to give up on the federation. It’s not just the policies of the day. It has been the futile attempts Alberta has made to garner respect and systemic change since the 1980s and that includes periods while the Conservatives held government.
Yes. It’s true that the Liberal government has ceaselessly assailed Alberta’s freedoms while in office. Poilievre pointed out many good examples of that.
It was a Conservative government that enshrined the current equalization formula which robs Alberta though. Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper were the architects of that. Harper’s strong case for Alberta’s sovereignty through the “Firewall letter” he penned in 2000 vanished when he became the prime minister. While Harper’s term in office was less bad than periods when Liberals were in power, he still made no substantive changes to the system in favour of the West.
Westerners expect Liberals to screw them. It infuriates them, but they aren’t surprised. It’s when the Conservatives screw the West that true, lifelong independence supporters are created. When Mulroney shunned a better bid by Manitoba for a CF-18 contract and gave it to an inferior bidder in Quebec, he created almost as much momentum for the independence movement as Trudeau Sr. did.
If Poilievre truly wants to defuse Western alienation, he must present a path to systemic changes. Nothing less than opening the constitution will put the issue to bed. Offering more band aid solutions through proposed policy changes won’t cut it. Albertans have learned through hard experience that simply changing the party brand in the prime minister's office doesn't lead to meaningful changes.
Further, it isn’t in Alberta where Poilievre should be speaking. There have been enough federal politicians telling the province how to think and what to do.
Poilievre should be speaking to the Laurentians in the Ottawa valley and convincing them of the merits of change. Albertans already know what they want.
Cory Morgan
Cory Morgan is an Alberta-based columnist, political commentator, and longtime advocate for Western Canadian independence. He is the author of the recently updated book The Sovereigntist’s Handbook, a grassroots guide for independence supporters and political activists.
http://sovereigntistshandbook.com/Featured Stories
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2026-06-09 20:07:44 -0400I know that if Pierre Poilievre became Prime Minister, he would have to placate the Laurentian mafia. We Albertans would never be free. It’s better for us to leave and shock Ottawa into realizing just how much we gave into Canada’s coffers.
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Beatty Matthew commented 2026-06-09 19:16:05 -0400Mr. Poilievre Is right, we do want change , it will never happen if don’t have the options to say smarten up, or there will be consequences.
Or vote, in October just is a warning if some critical changes are not made, the actual vote could be year or years down the road, but puts us in a position to push for change.
The big thing is that, we don’t sell ourselves short, at all.
I said before, it doesn’t matter where you came from or our political balance, liberal, NDP or conservative, this vote yes, says pay attention!! We mean this if you’re not fair.
Could you imagine, what a liberal provincial or NDP or conservative do if they had the power and wealth that an independent Alberta could have,, its would be amazing for everyone.
If we sell out short on this vote and fail, we are done, we have nothing and no further ahead, perhaps farther behind.
Don’t care who your , your an Albertans, forward think , make a difference.
This Octobers yes vote gives us power tho say ,,, hold on a minute,, we want fair play.
And Talks will start, ASP, bet on it. -
Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-06-09 12:12:01 -0400Mr. Poilievre, where have you been the past 40 or so years? We don’t want “new policies”. We’ve heard that line since the days of PET. We heard the same waffle from Mulroney. What have we to show for it?
We’re tired of being abused and exploited, treated as serfs in a distant colony. We want to keep the money we make instead of having it confiscated through “equalization” payments. We’ve had numerous opportunities to profit handsomely from our resources but all Ottawa does is to stifle, delay, and cancel any proposals to extract and utilize them.
Alberta can be a land of opportunity with potentially more than enough prosperity to go around for all of its citizens. Why are we being punished for it?
