John Ibbitson on the CBC Saturday panel, putting Alberta’s current moment in historical perspective: “The west wants in. Preston Manning was saying. Well, the separatists are saying now the west wants out. At least Alberta wants out. It stretches all the way back to 1905, when Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Confederation without control over natural resources. It was perfectly clear that Central Canada aimed to treat the west as something of a colony… That grievance has been there for more than a century. We defeat this in the long run through accommodation, not through imposition… Just as after the near-death experience of the 1995 referendum, the federal government moved to accommodate the grievances of Quebec. We have to do that in this case in the same way.” Even a 20% “yes” vote doesn’t end the conversation—it entrenches it, the way the Quebec question has lived on for decades. The only durable fix is the same one that worked after 1995: actual accommodation of the underlying grievance, not just another round of central imposition @JohnIbbitson