Sask. government not in favour of western separation

While the idea of Western Canada separating from the rest of the country has been talked about in some corners of Saskatchewan and Alberta since the Liberal party won the federal election Monday, the Saskatchewan government said Thursday it’s not interested.

“I’m happy to make a categorical statement saying we are not in favour of separation, period,” said Government House Leader Jeremy Harrison, but he continued: “What we are deeply concerned about though is a national government that have repeatedly disrespected our province, that has repeatedly shown massive disrespect to the energy and resource sectors.”

Harrison said the election showed that people are frustrated. He pointed to the fact that the Liberals were completely shut out of Alberta and Saskatchewan, with all but one of the seats in those provinces going to the Conservatives.

“People are deeply frustrated. They’re deeply frustrated with the national government’s policies, they’re deeply frustrated with the carbon tax, the lack of ability to get our energy to market. In my area, which is highly dependent on the energy sector part of the province, there is a huge amount of frustration, there is a huge amount of concern,” explained Harrison.

He said the Liberal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau need to take a serious look at what happened in the election, then sit down in a “respectful way” and talk to Premier Scott Moe about what the way forward is.

Harrison said he has seen some commentators saying that somehow the rhetoric coming out of the west is illegitimate and the grievances aren’t based on anything, but he said that’s a grave mistake to make.

“This is real, this is genuine,” he said. “People are angry, people are frustrated, people demand change, and we saw that at the ballot box.”