News

Our Executive Director Josh Andrus was a guest on "The Canadian Story" podcast with David Parker and Zach Gerber.

In a wide-reaching interview, Andrus outlines Project Confederation's vision, what we stand for, the policies we promote, and some of the background of Project Confederation.

Just a few minutes ago, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 6-3 in favour of the federal government regarding the constitutionality of the carbon tax.

The federal carbon tax requires provinces to introduce carbon taxes and, crucially, also allows the federal government to impose a special federal carbon tax on any province that refuses to do so.

Yesterday, the Alberta government introduced Bill 51 - the Citizen Initiative Act.

This is a fundamental democratic reform that Project Confederation has been at the forefront of the fight for over the last 18 months.

Project Confederation supporters and volunteers called thousands of Albertans about this issue, encouraging them to reach out to their MLAs and push them to take up this legislation - a huge thank you to you all!

Our Executive Director Josh Andrus was invited to speak at Freedom Talk's "Essentials Of Freedom Conference 2021 - A Referendum On Alberta's Future".

After many hours of being stuck at home over the past twelve months, it was fantastic to have an opportunity to address a live audience about the issues that we have been advocating for since our launch in 2019.

As promised, newly inaugurated President Joe Biden brought the axe down on the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office.

Short of a highly unlikely major policy reversal by a popular newly-elected President, or a court process that could take years, the permit’s cancellation effectively puts an end to any hope of completing the pipeline expansion.

Sadly, as the chances of Keystone XL faded, so did the hopes of Alberta energy workers and businesses, who have been crushed by wave after wave of bad news in recent years and were clinging on to Keystone XL as one of the very few remaining lights at the end of the tunnel.

The refrain from Ottawa this year has been that “we’re all in this together.”

Three stories from last week make it clear that this is not the case.

On Monday, 19th October, Project Confederation's Executive Director, Josh Andrus, made a presentation on Citizen Initiated Referenda to the Select Special Democratic Accountability Committee

The following is a transcript of the presentation.

It's been one year since we launched Project Confederation and what a year it has been.

We launched our campaign prior to the 2019 federal election, where we predicted Western alienation would come to the fore, and I think it's fair to say we were clearly proven correct.

2020 kicked off to more headlines about the economic malaise that has dominated our mindsets for the past five years, and then we received even more bad news that the Teck Frontier Project had been shelved because the federal government kept moving the goalposts.

Next, not just Alberta, but the entire world was shut down by a pandemic.

Finally, as we entered into a period of already unprecedented uncertainty, oil prices collapsed again, devastating many of our already bleeding energy companies.

Through it all, Project Confederation has not wavered in our fight.

“The only time in the Speech from the Throne that Saskatchewan was essentially mentioned was in the phase out of our energy industry workers.”  

That was Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s response to the massive shift in direction signaled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Throne Speech on Wednesday. His words rang true across the West and the fight for the heart of the energy industry has ramped up yet again.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney described the Throne Speech as a “full-frontal attack” on the constitution.

When Western Canada’s economy weakens while the federal government turns a deaf ear, history books show Western Canada’s discontent will bubble and Westerners begin looking for a strong political voice that Ottawa can’t ignore.

The upcoming session will be a defining one for the Trudeau administration. His Liberal Party is still reeling from the fallout from the WE scandal and looks towards the upcoming fall session to make a dramatic shift in policy – one designed to win voter-heavy Ontario and Quebec while leaving the West gasping for air.