Why Forever Canadian

And not Never More Canadian

A small group of Alberta REBOOTERS developed the FOREVER CANADIAN domain name for Thomas Lukaszuk’s Referendum Petition Campaign, and we reserved it for him.

We considered several possibilities to capture the spirit of the Referendum Petition question. We reserved several options but settled on FOREVER CANADIAN.

We considered Forever Canada as the domain name, but it had already been claimed. Besides, frankly, it wasn't good enough. We saw it as too generic and more like a label than a feeling. We wanted the campaign to stir emotions, not just be a name tag.

Canada is a nation-state. Canadian is a personal state of being. And as proud Albertans and loyal Canadians, we felt a dual identity. We believed that this was the same as most of our fellow Albertans.

Being asked to choose between being an Albertan and being a Canadian is unthinkable. We don't want to be forced into that untenable situation by a small group of grievance-driven amateur anarchists.

The hard-core Separatists are on a path with Alberta becoming Trump’s 51st State as their goal. There are other Separatists who are feeling more alienated from Canada. They have hurt feelings of disregard and disrespect from what they call the Laurentian Elites in Eastern Canada. They come off like some kind of anger-driven, revengeful, unrequited lover.

Then there are the Leverage Separatists. They want a better deal from the Federal government and are using separation as a negotiation tactic. That is where Danielle Smith plays her game.

She serves up nine toothless ultimatum demands on Trudeau, the detested Liberal Prime Minister, in her books. She perpetuates the bluster on Prime Minister Carney. Neither has taken the bait, nor should they.

Smith is two-faced and somewhat disingenuous in her personal positioning on Separation. That is no more evident than in her laughable political theatre posturing, Bill 1, the Alberta Sovereignty Act.

I won't list her nine demands because I don't want to give them credibility. Some are outside federal capacity and authority, some are mere taunts, and others are founded on blatant, intentional misinformation.

So here we are. The Forever Canadian Referendum Petition is scrambling for 300,000 in-person signatures of voter-eligible Albertans by October 28. This is a monumental challenge but an amazing opportunity, too.

Will enough Albertans show up and sign up to express their desire to Keep Alberta in Canada? I hope so. Not achieving that goal of 300,000 will send the wrong message about whether we are both proud Albertans and loyal Canadians.

Apathy and indifference about wanting to Keep Alberta in Canada are not options; they are copouts. A failure of the Forever Canadian Petition will embolden the Separatists and embed the status quo as the way forward in the minds of the rest of Canada. That is not the preferred outcome, either.

So show your Alberta pride and express your Canadian loyalty. Take the time to sign the Forever Canadian Referendum Petition. Let's make Believing in Canada, not Leaving Canada, a ballot question in the next provincial election.

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