Reform Party Founder Manning Urges Political Parties to Acknowledge Canada’s ‘Regional Character’

Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning at a conference in Ottawa on Feb. 9, 2018. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Reform Party founder Preston Manning says in a country as vast as Canada, federal parties need to recognize the unique aspirations of different regions, an issue he says hasn’t been a central focus in the current election campaign.

“It’s a huge, huge country. You have Atlantic Canada. You have the Laurentian region that’s made up of Quebec—which is quite distinctive—and Ontario. You have the Prairie region, you have the Pacific region, and you have the northern region,” Manning said in an interview with The Epoch Times.

“And each of these regions has unique aspirations and concerns that are distinct.”

Manning, who transformed his regionalist Western-based Reform Party into the official Opposition in 1997, recently penned a commentary warning about the growing risk of Western separation, saying the policies of the Liberal government over the past nine years have sparked the ire of Western Canadians. His commentary became a hot topic in the election campaign last week.

In the April 2 commentary published in The Globe and Mail, Manning said given Western Canadians’ angst against the Liberal government’s stance on the oil and gas sector and its focus on “identity politics and climate change,” voters in central and Atlantic Canada “need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession.”

Liberal Leader Mark Carney said on the campaign trail on April 4 that Manning’s comments were “dramatic” and “unhelpful.” He said the Liberal Party governs for all of Canada.

“I resile to no one in terms of my understanding of the West, my connection to the West, and I’m part of a government that governs for all of the country, and very much for the West,” Carney said, noting that he was born in the Northwest Territories and grew up in Alberta.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he doesn’t agree with Manning’s comments. He added that the country needs unity.

“We need to bring all Canadians together in a spirit of common ground,” Poilievre said on April 3.

Manning rejects criticism that he is “dividing the country,” saying that he is advocating for the country to unite, “but behind a new administration that has none of the baggage of the Liberal administration.”

On the issue of recognizing the characteristics of Canada’s different regions and governing in line with that, Manning says he believes the Conservative Party could accomplish it but noted that the issue has not been “effectively dealt with” during this election campaign.

“A new government needs to say we’re prepared to recognize these unique aspirations and concerns of each region, and we’re not afraid to talk about them, and we’re going to address them,” he said. But this should be predicated on one condition, Manning says: “That if when we address the regional aspirations and concerns of one region, the other regions would be supportive of that rather than opposed to it.”

This would include, for example, Ottawa and other provinces supporting Alberta’s oil and gas sector and facilitating the building of cross-country pipelines, and in turn the rest of the country supporting Quebec’s recognition of “distinctiveness of its linguistic aspirations” and the “West not objecting to that,” he says.

In the past, besides federal regulations and activist groups’ legal actions, pipeline projects to carry oil and gas from Alberta to Eastern Canada have faced opposition by Quebec, which opposes pipelines crossing its jurisdiction.

Pumpjacks draw out oil and gas from wellheads surrounded by Canola fields near Cremona, Alta., on July 15, 2024. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

‘The West Wants In’

The issue of Western alienation and independence isn’t a new concept—it dates back to shortly after Canada became a country. Besides the armed uprising of the Red River Rebellion led by Louis Riel in the late 19th century, there were other peaceful movements that sought to get more power for the West since the early days of Confederation.

One was the 1880s secessionist movement led by the English settler Charles Stewart of Brandon, Manitoba, who said he wanted to “obtain for ourselves that independence which is the birthright of every British subject.” However, the Manitoba and Northwest Farmers’ Union that resulted from this movement became more focused on advocating for the benefits of the West than for independence.

Among the many grievances that a population thousands of kilometres away from the people who governed them held at the time was Ottawa’s protectionist policy of imposing tariffs on U.S. goods.

The federal government wanted Canada’s fledgling industries not to be driven out of the market by American giants, as part of the young Canada’s nation-building effort. But Westerners felt it was unfair to pay non-market prices so that industries primarily located in central and eastern Canada could benefit.

And as the harsh life of farming for the Prairie pioneers was amplified by their grievances against Ottawa, a popular song went: “This country’s a regular fraud, O,/ And I want to go home to Mamma,” as chronicled in historian Richard Gwyn’s 2011 book “Nation Maker.”

After Alberta became a province in the early 20th century, it wasn’t long before it started clashing with Ottawa, including over banking control in the 1930s.

The issues were exacerbated after the start of the oil and gas boom in the province in the second half of the 20th century and came to a height with the creation of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program in the 1980s. The policy sought to nationalize oil and gas and implemented price controls, to the chagrin of Albertans whose prosperity depended on the sector.

It was in this environment that Manning’s upstart Reform Party gained momentum in the late 1980s. During that time, people in the West had become disillusioned not only with the Liberals, but also with the Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives (PCs) over its perceived prioritization of Quebec over the West.

A breaking point was the PC government’s decision in 1986 to give the maintenance contract for CF-18 fighter planes to Bombardier in Quebec instead of Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg. At the time, the federal government was attempting to get Quebec on board with constitutional reforms, which were doomed to fail in the subsequent Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords.

Manning says that although secessionist sentiments were high back then, similar to now, there was the populist Reform Party to serve as a “relief well” with its “The West Wants In” message.

“There was real anger at what the National Energy Program did to the West, the Mulroney government’s decision to take the CF-18 contract from Winnipeg to Montreal. The difference [compared to now] is that Reform perceived that and identified with it, but then tried to persuade people that there was another option than talk about secession,” he said.

“If you could reform the federation in certain ways, then the West’s concerns and aspirations could be taken care of.”

This time around, Manning says, there is no Reform Party and therefore there is higher risk to the unity of the federation.

He says that’s why he recommended in his April 2 commentary that following the federal election, Western leaders create a democratic forum such as a “Canada West Constitutional Conference” to “provide a mechanism for recognizing and addressing the growing support for Western secession in an orderly and democratic manner,” and to ensure the issue doesn’t get surrendered to “extremists or eccentrics.”

“I think the current unrest is more dangerous [compared to the 1980s] from the standpoint of the federation, and that’s why I proposed at least one possible mechanism for dealing with this and dealing with it openly, not denying that there’s a concern,” Manning said.

Reform Party Leader Preston Manning speaks to a rally in Mississauga on June 12, 1991. The Canadian Press/Bill Becker

By the Numbers

A survey by Angus Reid released on April 6 indicates that almost the same proportion of Albertans as Quebecers say they would vote “yes” in an independence referendum.

The survey said 25 percent of Albertans support the province becoming independent of Canada, compared to 28 percent in Quebec. Saskatchewan took third place at 20 percent, and B.C. fourth place at 9 percent.

The survey adds that a Liberal victory in the April 28 federal election would increase the support for separation to 30 percent in Alberta and 33 percent in Saskatchewan.

Amid Trump’s talk of wanting Canada to be a part of the United States, 22 percent of Albertans favour the idea, while 17 percent of Saskatchewan residents agree. Nationally, 11 percent of people in Canada want to join the United States, the survey suggests.

Alberta independence advocates have started campaigns to hold a referendum on independence, and some of them are also planning to send a delegation to Washington this year to discuss the possibility of joining the United States.

‘A Lot of Frustration’

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Albertans have “a lot of frustration” with the federal government.

Among the contentious issues she has cited are the Liberal government’s policies impacting the energy sector, such as the Impact Assessment Act and the emissions cap on the oil and gas sector. Her government has also clashed with Ottawa over personal liberty issues such as gun control legislation.

In 2018, Ottawa banned oil tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast, which blocked the export of Alberta oil to overseas markets. As well, the Energy East pipeline to carry Alberta oil to the East Coast was cancelled in 2017, with the company behind the pipeline citing regulatory blockages.

Smith has said that after the election, she plans on creating a panel to discuss what Alberta’s next steps should be if the federal government doesn’t meet the province’s demands.

Smith was asked at an April 1 press conference what her response is to the claims that the panel may be associated with the independence movement.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at a press conference in Calgary on Feb. 19, 2025. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

She replied that she “loves Canada” but that her province is being neglected.

“I’ve been on Team Canada from the beginning,” Smith said. “But I’m also premier of Alberta, and quite frankly, at some point Canada has to start working for Alberta, and it’s not right now.”

The federal government has said that its policies are meant to fight climate change, and that this is within its jurisdiction. It has also argued that its purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline in 2018 when it was at risk of cancellation shows the Liberal government’s support of Alberta’s energy sector.

Carney has said that while he will keep the Impact Assessment Act and the emissions cap on the oil and gas sector, he’ll remove redundancies in environmental regulations and create national energy corridors to ensure energy projects such as pipelines can get built promptly.

“There is a lot of opportunity for Alberta, for Canada, and my government will work—will spare no effort—to make sure the people of Alberta, the people of Canada, realize those opportunities,” Carney said on April 8.