Canada’s future is being built in Alberta

Some of the best education scores in the English-speaking world. A well-built demographic pyramid, with the youngest average population of any province — and a growing population too, with the highest fertility ideals. High average earnings, coupled with some of the most generous people of any province. High volunteerism and strong regular church attendance. Leaders in affordable housing and in entrepreneurship. And a strong pride of place and culture.

Who would have guessed this could all be in one province?

Well, anybody who has been tracking Alberta for the last decade or so already knew.

I’ve had the privilege, as a small-town Ontario boy, to visit Alberta, both large cities and small towns, on many occasions, and reflect upon the incredible success built by Albertans in recent years. Any of these stat lines on their own would be plenty to brag about, but in combination they point to something more than just exciting talking points or opportunities for measuring contests between premiers.

The rest of Canada has much to learn from our Albertan neighbours. That was the thesis of my Oct. 9 talk in Calgary: to share my belief, in the lead-up to the referendum vote, that the future of Canada lies west. Alberta will lead Canada in the years to come not simply because these statistics are true, but because of what they enable.

In the words of St. Augustine, “to observe the character of a particular people we must examine the objects of its love.” More than its GDP growth or its voting patterns, the true lifeblood of Alberta is the character of Albertans themselves and the cultural patterns emerging from that character. These patterns reveal an extraordinary cultural strength, a prerequisite for a society’s capacity to build for the future.

What is that strength? Put simply: Albertans are a people committed to family, community, and nation-building; to the core prerequisites for prosperity; to a deep sense of identity and place. Albertans are a people, in essence, formed for the common good, and that formation shapes a unique Canadian culture which builds the structures necessary for its own growth and success.

Take schools, for instance. Alberta’s pluralistic approach to education is the envy of parents in many other provinces, especially my own Ontario, for enabling actual choice and delivering far better results with a lower spend per student.

Other pragmatic Albertan policy decisions — on addiction treatment and restrictions on medical assistance in dying, for example — were quickly proven to be the right course of action. Instead of navel-gazing with special-interest groups or seeking out the most politically optimal route before proceeding, Alberta did what was right, and decisively.

Alberta’s cultural advantage didn’t feature much during the separatism debate. With that debate put to rest, at least for now, my hope is that proud Albertans with their heads held high will resume the hard but important work of telling Alberta’s story and establishing her leadership within Canada. Alberta shouldn’t just be calling Canada’s families and skilled workers — it should be calling with meaningful advice for other provincial governments, if they are willing to hear it.

Even if they aren’t, time is on Alberta’s side. While the math within Confederation may seem against Alberta in influencing its peer provinces, thanks to Alberta’s young population, its interprovincial migration and immigration numbers, and its leading fertility rates, Alberta’s prominence within the country can only rise. While there’s more to influencing the other provinces than straight population numbers, politics is downstream of culture and cultural change is already underway.

It’s inevitable that the provinces Alberta has so often found itself at odds with will be looking to Alberta as a blueprint in the future. If that’s true, she could be the hope and inspiration for the rest of our struggling country, an example other provinces might choose to follow. One day we could well be living in a Canada that looks much more like dynamic Alberta than its most stagnant peers, and this would be for the better.

Michael Van Pelt is the CEO of Cardus. He is a 30-year veteran of Canadian public life and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Since co-founding Cardus in 2000, Michael has helped build the organization into a leading public policy think tank and one of the most high-profile and respected faith-based operations in Canada.