Alberta—the Old South in the Cold North

Reading the book All God's Children, I encountered a section about the relationship of the American South to the Union just prior to the Civil War. As I read on, I realized it was remarkably similar to the relationship of Alberta to our federation today.

Prior to the Civil War, cotton was king. It was the country's major wealth-producer, particularly for the South—America's richest men lived in the Mississippi River valley—but also for the North, from textile mills in New England to banks in New York.

But by the 1850s, the Southerners felt they were under siege. They saw the economic and population growth in the North as a threat to their interests. Most troubling, the North paid undue attention to the trouble-making abolitionists. The cotton industry was founded on the also very profitable slave industry. By challenging slavery, the abolitionists threatened both the economy and the way of life of the Southerners who in turn saw this threat as huge ingratitude for all they had done for the nation.

Furthermore, as the 1860 election approached, the South feared the Republicans would elect their nemesis, Abraham Lincoln, who had famously said, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." When Lincoln was indeed elected, the South saw the betrayal as complete, and secession became the only answer.

The South was solid. Ending slavery threatened every white man. As the Edgefield Advertiser stated in 1850, "It is African slavery that makes every white man in some sense a lord." Southern politicians had for years exploited the issue to fire up their constituents. As one planter put it, "You have to say but nigger to the south to set it on fire, as one whistles to a turkey to make him goggle." In the words of a wealthy planter's wife, "nobody could live in this state unless he were a fire-eater."

Substitute "Alberta" for "the South," "oil" for "cotton," "global warming" for "slavery," "environmentalist" for "abolitionist," "Trudeau" for "Lincoln," "Kenney" for "Southern politicians" and "conservative" for "fire-eater" and you've got the relationship between Alberta and the rest of Canada today. History does indeed seem to repeat itself, if in strangely related ways.

Southern distrust of the North was fully justified just as Alberta's distrust of the rest of the country is justified today. The abolitionists did intend to shut down slavery and environmentalist do intend to shut down fossil fuels. In both cases the economies, to say nothing of the ways of life, of the two societies were and are seriously threatened. Unfortunately, the threats were also fully justified, both on the right side of history. Slavery was long overdue for its demise and fossil fuels are long overdue for theirs. But, like the Southerners of the day, most Albertans are exhibiting little introspection. They see the assault on their prize industry, but they refuse to recognize that it is justified and demands accommodation, and all they've got for a leader is a fire-eater. Change can be hard, and change of this magnitude is very hard indeed. So we hear angry voices and talk of secession.

Serious Albertans don't take secession seriously and serious Canadians wouldn't go to war with them if they did. Canadians have a gift for compromise and that is required here, yet you can no more morally compromise with global warming than you could with slavery. Prime Minister Trudeau's challenge is as daunting as Lincoln's.