Commentary
In the 1980s, Western secessionist sentiment was raging in Canada. Fury over Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program led to the election of a separatist in Alberta, and rage only grew when it became clear that the Mulroney government wasn’t addressing Western concerns.
Then something happened that tempered the independence movement and directed the energy of frustrated Westerners into a new direction. A conference called A Western Assembly on Canada’s Economic and Political Future was held in Vancouver in 1987. The roots for the Reform Party of Canada were set there, and it dominated the Western political scene for nearly a decade….