A late-spring blizzard wasn’t enough to stop Parker Metz from coming out to take a stand for national unity on Saturday.
“It’s freezing cold, it’s April and it should be warm — but this is important,” said the 21-year-old student, sporting a Team Canada jersey and waving a Maple Leaf flag on a hockey stick. “I’m an Albertan and I’m proud to be one. I’ve lived in Lethbridge and I’ve lived here in Edmonton. Our province is beautiful.
“But, our country is better. I love Canada.”
There was more Canadian pride in the air than snow, as roughly 60 people set out to knock on doors across the Windemere neighbourhood, kicking off the “For Alberta, For Canada” campaign to rally supporters of confederation to be ready for a potential fall referendum on Alberta separation.
Spearheaded by the Alberta NDP, the campaign will be putting boots on the ground across Alberta all summer, with the goal of raising awareness of the potential threat of separation or possibly even annexation by the United States.
Metz said that wasn’t going to happen on his watch.
“I will always be a Canadian first and wherever Canada needs me I will be,” he said. “Canada means freedom, it means liberty, it means equality. It’s a cultural mosaic — you can be you and you can be OK, and I think that’s a wonderful thing.
“If we were on our own that would be a problem, seeing as how our government has shown they’re willing to push their agenda with things like the Notwithstanding Clause.”
This is the second official campaign to rally support from Albertans, following the Forever Canadian campaign led by former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk, which collected 456,365 signatures in 90 days, just shy of 10 per cent of the population.
Saying there’s enough love for Canada for multiple campaigns, Alberta NDP deputy leader Rakhi Pancholi said For Alberta, For Canada isn’t competition but adds to the work of the Forever Canadian movement.
“(Lukaszuk)’s done incredible work with Forever Canadian,” she said. “Those volunteers are incredible, but this is a group effort. We’ve seen thousands of Albertans sign up at our website. They’ve been engaging and sending emails to committee members for the Forever Canada petition. This is just the beginning.”
As a political party, Pancholi noted the Alberta NDP wouldn’t be hampered by third-party advertiser spending rules that may limit how much other groups can get the message out.
She added she was trying to avoid the mistakes made in other life-changing referendums in recent history, such as Brexit.
“The premier’s made it clear there’s going to be a referendum on Oct. 19, we imagine at some point there’s going to be one with the separatist question,” said Pancholi. “We want to make sure we’re talking to our neighbours right away. Being able to mobilize is really important — we haven’t had the referendum called yet but when it is called it might just be a few months to the referendum date.
“Separatists are going to be very mobilized, we know that. We need to make sure Albertans take this issue seriously, so it’s about getting people active as soon as possible, because by the time that date is called it will be a short campaign.”
Former Alberta premier and United Conservative Party founder Jason Kenney has also spoken in favour of preserving confederation. He is set to debate 2022 Freedom Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson on the subject May 1, one day before the deadline for separatists to collect 177,732 signatures. Separatist leader Jeffrey Rath says they already have the required signatures, but hasn’t presented any evidence to support his claim.
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