{"id":45959,"date":"2026-05-15T01:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45959\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T01:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:54:19","slug":"canada-is-one-of-historys-most-successful-countries-heres-a-look-at-whos-trying-to-destroy-it-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/45959\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada is one of history\u2019s most successful countries. Here\u2019s a look at who\u2019s trying to destroy it, and how"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A separatist supporter at a rally near the Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton.HENRY MARKEN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The recorded history of Canada stretches back more than 500 years; the unrecorded history, many thousands. <\/p>\n

It is one of the world\u2019s oldest continuously existing democracies, with a Constitution whose principal features \u2013 monarchical, federal, parliamentary, with an independent judiciary and (ahem) an unelected Senate \u2013 have remained unchanged since 1867. <\/p>\n

It has the second-largest land mass in the world. With a population of nearly 42 million, it is in the top 20 per cent of all countries. It ranks in the top decile for standard of living, for social development, for civil rights, for the rule of law, for educational attainment, for life expectancy, and more.<\/p>\n

In a world that seems to grow more unstable by the week, it stands as a beacon of stability, safety, and sanity. For all of its imperfections, it remains one of the highest achievements of human statecraft \u2013 among the most successful societies in all of history.<\/p>\n

And in a few months it could all be blown apart. As of October, we may be staring at the end of the Canadian experiment, with the abrupt detachment of one part of the country, possibly followed by another, forcing the remaining fragments to consider how to carry on, separately or together, independently or as applicants for admission to the United States. Divided, indebted, consumed with the details of our own dismemberment, we would have little to offer investors, even less to our young. <\/p>\n

Editorial: Looking beneath the myths of Alberta separatism<\/a><\/p>\n

But, you see, we would have no choice.<\/p>\n

There was a vote. A vote of all Canadians, a national decision to pack it in? No. A referendum in one province. A few thousand votes either way might decide it. And the rest of us, well, we\u2019d just have to accept it: accept the destruction of our country, the impoverishment of its people, the end of our long national story.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A separatist supporter holds a box during a rally in front of the Elections Alberta headquarters as boxes of signatures are submitted in the hope of triggering an independence referendum.HENRY MARKEN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That, at any rate, is the ambition of the people behind the current campaign for a referendum on secession in Alberta. Recent events have given us all a good look at these modern-day Bolivars, their aims and methods. <\/p>\n

There was the scandal over the alleged leaking of the province\u2019s voter list, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of nearly three million of its citizens, to the Centurion Project, which has been gearing up as the organizational and technological \u201cground game\u201d of the separatist movement. Several thousand people<\/a> are now thought to have had access to the list, for who knows what purpose. <\/p>\n

Nearly 600 people had unauthorized access to Alberta\u2019s electors list, watchdog alleges<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta judge throws out petition for separation referendum<\/a><\/p>\n

Already hopelessly compromised, the petition has been thrown into legal limbo by an Alberta Court of King\u2019s Bench decision<\/a> this week finding the government had failed to consult with the province\u2019s First Nations on how the transfer of sovereignty over seven per cent of the territory of Canada would affect their treaty rights. <\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the report<\/a> of a group of internet researchers finding the online campaign in support for secession was aided by a network of fake \u201chomegrown\u201d YouTube accounts, peddling propaganda intended to \u201cnormalize the prospect of secession and U.S. annexation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another report by another group found<\/a> evidence of substantial efforts by U.S. and Russian sources to spread disinformation, again with the intent to \u201cnormalize separation, amplify distrust, portray Canada as internally divided and politically unstable, and create uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

And of course there were the earlier reports<\/a> that separatist representatives had been clandestinely meeting with officials in the Trump administration, some of whom have openly encouraged<\/a> the separatist cause.<\/p>\n

Foreign actors exploiting Alberta separatist debate to stoke discord, researchers say<\/a><\/p>\n

What has been the response to these various developments from leading figures in the separatist movement? Police are investigating the data leak, as is Elections Alberta and the provincial privacy commissioner. The organization\u2019s founder, David Parker, is refusing to co-operate<\/a> with the Elections Alberta investigation. <\/p>\n

Mr. Parker is no stranger to controversy, legal or otherwise. Take Back Alberta, another organization he founded, which has successfully infiltrated the province\u2019s United Conservative Party and converted it to its various causes, was previously fined<\/a> more than $100,000 by Elections Alberta for multiple violations of provincial election-finance laws; Mr. Parker himself was fined<\/a> for knowingly making false statements on financial reports and exceeding contribution limits. <\/p>\n

He has a long history of using apocalyptic language to describe relatively mundane political controversies and abrasive insults to describe his enemies. It was Mr. Parker who allegedly demonstrated the wonders of the voter list to his followers by putting Jason Kenney\u2019s name and home address<\/a> up on a screen. He railed against Alberta Health Services for its \u201chostile and communist ideology\u201d \u2013 over a COVID masking directive<\/a>. He has attacked Pierre Poilievre in particularly ugly<\/a> terms.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre during a rally in Edmonton.HENRY MARKEN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mitch Sylvestre, leader of Stay Free Alberta, which is behind the referendum petition, is promising to appeal the judge\u2019s decision invalidating it. <\/p>\n

Mr. Sylvestre is an adherent to many strange beliefs, beyond separatism. As reported by the Toronto Star\u2019s Richard Warnica, he is convinced, among other things, that King Charles is \u201crunning a multibillion dollar transnational criminal enterprise that is systematically stripping the Canadian state of cash,\u201d which he would say more about were he not afraid the King would have him killed.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sylvestre also has interesting views on immigration. He told a Didsbury, Alta. audience in January, in the words of the Edmonton Journal<\/a>, that the APP \u201cshouldn\u2019t apologize for being a white movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to apologize for this room being filled with white people,\u201d he is reported to have said. \u201cThis used to be what Alberta was. We\u2019re not apologizing for being ourselves.\u201d He pronounced himself a believer in \u201creplacement theory,\u201d the conspiracy theory that federal immigration policy is designed to replace white Canadians with other races.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to replace the people of Alberta,\u201d he told the crowd. Whereas, \u201cif we have control over immigration, we can control who comes here.\u201d In an independent Alberta, he said, citizenship rights would be granted \u201conly to people who are born here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel to the Alberta Prosperity Project, shows his support for Mitch Sylvestre as he submits signatures for a separation referendum.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

And of course, there\u2019s Jeffrey Rath, legal counsel to the Alberta Prosperity Project: cited by the Law Society of Alberta over several incidents, including one in which he threatened federal and provincial health officials with war-crimes charges<\/a> for having approved COVID vaccines; peddler of wild conspiracy theories<\/a>; and enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump\u2019s hemispheric ambitions<\/a> (\u201cIf the United States is creating a new world order, we want to be part of that order. We don\u2019t want to be on the outside.\u201d)<\/p>\n

These are the people leading the charge. These are the people at whose behest Canada would be obliged to dismantle itself. But of course they couldn\u2019t be doing any of this without the help and support of Danielle Smith, the province\u2019s Premier.<\/p>\n

It was Ms. Smith who slashed the number of signatures required to trigger a referendum by two-thirds. It was Ms. Smith who changed provincial legislation, after a previous court ruling that the proposed referendum on separation would violate the province\u2019s existing referendum law, to allow it. <\/p>\n

And it is Ms. Smith who now rails against the most recent adverse court ruling as \u201canti-democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is perhaps the tell of tells. Had she the slightest inclination, Ms. Smith could have taken the occasion to announce that the secession question would not be added to the October referendum ballot, clogged as it is with nine questions<\/a> of her own. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at the annual ‘Canada Strong and Free’ network gathering in Ottawa last week.Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Some would empower her government to do things it already has the power to do, such as deprive recent immigrants of social benefits. Others would assert her government\u2019s claims to powers it does not possess under the Constitution, such as the power to appoint what are now federally appointed judges. <\/p>\n

So it would have been the easiest thing for the Premier to declare that the court had settled the matter. To her separatist supporters, she could have said it was out of her hands. Instead, the betting line is that she will add the question to the ballot on her own initiative.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Premier Danielle Smith leads a separatist party<\/a><\/p>\n

At which point the question becomes: Why should anyone pay any attention to this madness? No one voted for Ms. Smith\u2019s party in the expectation that it would hold a referendum on separation, as they might for the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois in Quebec (actually, people generally vote for the PQ in the expectation that it will not hold a referendum, though that might be about to change).<\/p>\n

So she has no mandate to put the province, or the country, through this ordeal. Probably the referendum would fail, but by then enormous damage would already have been done. And for what? To satisfy the demented ideologies and vainglorious personal ambitions of a relative handful of malcontents \u2013 anti-vaxxers, white nationalists and separatists \u2013 who have been able to take control, by means of the usual lax membership requirements, of much of what remains a nominally federalist party.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of a quote Mr. Parker gave to a sympathetic interviewer<\/a> a couple of years back. \u201cI always had this \u2013 my wife calls it a messianic complex,\u201d he allowed. \u201cPerhaps. But I always had the idea to be great.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my boyish, childhood mind \u2026 I wanted to be a great knight, a general, a hero-like character. And obviously the modern world doesn\u2019t provide very many opportunities for people to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a personal level, one can sympathize. But why on Earth should the fate of the country be put at the disposal of one man\u2019s psychological need for self-affirmation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A separatist supporter at a rally near the Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton.HENRY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3679,17,3118,3680,3119],"class_list":{"0":"post-45959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-andrew-coyne","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-column","11":"tag-coyne","12":"tag-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}