ATHABASCA – Athabasca's Travis Olson will lead the federal charge for Western Canada to secede from the rest of the country, after Wexit Canada reached the last step in becoming registered as an official political party June 23.
Olson, 36, was voted in as president July 2, and was a driving force in forming the party that so far encompasses northern British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, but may expand to include parts of Manitoba, the territories and rural Ontario. After the federal election in October 2019, Olson said he was not optimistic the Liberals would work with Alberta to fix what he calls “inequities that happened with the West.”
The final step to receive party status is to run a candidate in an election or by-election in one of the 107 ridings the party plans to focus on.
"The Wexit movement really took off when the federal election results came in," Olson said in a June 30 interview. "I reached out to (Wexit Alberta founder) Peter Downing and said, I'm a supporter. I'm at the point now, where I just say confederation is broken and Western Canadians are absolutely getting a raw deal,”
He added that even if the fall election had gone the other way and Conservatives were elected, he was not optimistic they would have made the necessary changes, noting that under Stephen Harper and then senior cabinet minister and current Alberta premier Jason Kenney, the equalization formula changed, but not in favour of Alberta.
“A lot of what I would call the inequalities that happened with the West were there even on Harper's reign,” he said.
Olson said Downing reached back out to him in March to establish a board and organize the founding convention to get the party building membership but, he stressed that even if a referendum to leave Canada failed, the Wexit Canada party will still vote in the best interests of the West, not unlike what the Bloc Quebecois' do for their province.
“We are going to vote in the interests of Western Canadians. In every vote, our consideration is not going to be 'is this good for Mississauga, Ontario,' or 'is this good for Atlantic Canada,' or 'is this good for Quebec.' We are interested solely in ‘is this good for the West,’” said Olson.
Olson said wanting a referendum on leaving Canada is a goal, but getting there may take some time.
“There's a lot of messy figuring out and we have to see where the public support is. It's approximately 70 per cent of Albertans feel like they're getting a rotten deal with the rest of Canada. And I've seen two independent polls by reputable pollsters that say Albertans would consider voting for a separatist party between 33 and 40 per cent,” Olson said.
He added that a new country could be made up of northern B.C. and Alberta, or Alberta and Saskatchewan, or any combination. It would depend on how the referendum vote went in each province.
“If independence was reached, and Western Canadians got their own sovereignty, it would be relatively important that we will get northern BC to come with us too; from a strategic standpoint access to tidewater is important,” he said.
A new provincial party called the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta also formed a week later, merging members of the Wexit Alberta party and the Freedom Conservative Party, but there are no ties with the new federal party, said Olson. He does hope their 255,000 followers make the move to buy a $10 membership. He also hopes restrictions due to COVID-19 will lift enough they can hold a founding convention and that a by-election is called so they can run a candidate.
“We don't become an official party or get tax deductible donations until we run a candidate so we need a by-election,” Olson said.
And for people who say leaving Canada would leave the new republic with a Swiss cheese nation with holes where federal land does not transfer, Olson reminds them of Canada’s founding.
“The country came together in chunks. Originally it was Upper Canada and Lower Canada and then people join onto it,” Olson said.
Olson said he is honoured to be chosen as party president by people he respects, but now the real work starts.
“It’s a real honour for me considering the people that are on (the board) who asked me to do that. I thought it was pretty exceptional. It's a huge undertaking to organize 107 different electoral district associations and all the apparatus,” he said.
Olson said the party will be inclusive of everyone because politicians should represent everyone.
“If you want to be a politician, you’ve got to represent everybody whether you agree with them or not,” he said.
He added he understands their will be many who will not agree with what Wexit stands for, but said that it is not an easy or knee-jerk decision to want to separate.
“It's not a small thing to say that you want to leave the country that you were born in, you have citizenship in, the hockey team that you cheer for, the passport that you have, but enough is enough,” he said.
Heather Stocking, TownandCountryToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @HLSox
