Culture minister criticizes ‘Laurentian elites’ as Alberta celebrates her birthday

EDMONTON – Alberta celebrated its inaugural birthday party with Culture Minister Ron Orr criticizing the prime minister and “Laurent elites” while claiming that the province has received the short end of the stick in federation for more than a century.

“The family pact of the Laurentian elites has always skewed the deal in their favor,” Orr told assembled dignitaries, including Prime Minister Jason Kenney, indigenous leaders and the lieutenant governor. Salma Lakhani, on a sunny Thursday morning near the legislature grounds.

“There are many in our province who are frustrated … that Alberta has never really been given that fair and just treatment that was promised with the federal government.”

Orr said Alberta has been unfairly treated from the beginning, noting that it was not granted provincial status until Sept. 1, 1905, nearly 40 years after Confederation.

He said the injustice continued when Alberta did not gain control of its natural resources until the 1930s, then faced a federal challenge to those resources in the 1980s national energy program, followed to this day with other policies. considered detrimental to the industry of the goose that lays the golden eggs in the province. .

“The attacks by our recent (Justin) Trudeau administration on our energy, our resources, our wealth, our freedom – there are so many ways Albertans have fought for our full and just place in this Confederation,” Orr said. “But you know what? Albertans will succeed.”

He said Alberta has become one of Canada’s economic powerhouses “and we really are the envy of the world in many ways.”

“Happy birthday, Albert. That’s what today is all about,” Orr said.

Earlier this week, the province announced that it expects to receive a record $28.4 billion in revenue from non-renewable resources this year, generating a surplus of $13.2 billion for a province of 4.5 million people.

Kenney, who will step down as prime minister early next month once his party selects a new leader, recently announced the creation of Alberta Day, which is not a legal holiday, to celebrate Alberta’s heritage and culture. Province.

During the weekend events, concerts, activities and fireworks are scheduled throughout the province.

Thursday’s kickoff saluted Alberta’s indigenous history, with First Nations speakers and musical performers.

Kenney told the audience: “In expressing gratitude for those who have gone before us, of course we must start with the people who first inhabited these lands, the indigenous peoples… who created the first communities, who were the first entrepreneurs, who were the first custodians of this magnificent natural habitat”.

Kenney added that it is time to celebrate a province that has “a unique culture, history and geography, but is also proud to be part of the great Canadian federation.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 1, 2022.

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