A land of the free
Pierre Lemieux - Monday,14 November 2005
Western Standard
For most of the history of mankind, countries have been jails. At times, those who want to get out are shot. At other times, more subtle ways are used to increase the cost of escaping, often with the help of other states. Martha Stewart, the monstrous American felon condemned for lying to Securities and Exchange Commission praetorians, needs a special visa to come into Canada. Canadian gun resisters who end up with a criminal record won't be able to travel to the U.S. "[A]s if," wrote Lysander Spooner, the American individualist anarchist of the late 19th century, "an enslaved and subjugated people . . . could be said to have any country" (The Constitution of No Authority, 1870). Poor Spooner, what would he say now?
Some people, like most Quebec secessionists, want to change a larger jail for a smaller one. Most Alberta secessionists, I understand, want a country as a space of liberty: this is the sort of secession that needs to be supported.
The main drawback in an eventual secession of Alberta is that the libertarians there would no longer help us slow down the progression of Leviathan in Canada. But is there any realistic hope of recovering our traditional liberties in the country as it is? One can have serious doubts.
Should Alberta join the United States? This is a dangerous mirage. It is sad to say, but the American state is becoming the model of soft tyrannies in the western world. Joining the U.S. would be like going out of the frying pan into the fire.
There is no valid economic objection to Alberta's becoming an independent country. The province already ranks 8th in GDP per capita among the 60 U.S. states and Canadian provinces (the next province is Ontario, in the 44th slot). Oil is not the main cause of wealth in Alberta. There is no oil in Switzerland, there was none in Hong Kong, and oil does not prevent poverty in Nigeria. The main cause of Albertan wealth is less government intervention and expenditure.
With more--much more--of the same, Alberta could become the richest country in the world, and a beacon of liberty. The recipe is more economic freedom, tighter constraints on the state, liberalization of financial markets, protection of private property, unilateral free trade (let any Albertan export or import as he wants), and the liberty of adults to consume what they choose--in two words: individual liberty.
There would be dangers, which we already see among Canadian and American conservatives. It is tempting to increase the power of the state in the name of law and order, but this encourages the state to create more crimes and paper criminals. A related danger--call it "the American danger"--consists in glorifying the state as the sacred, iconic defender of liberty. In a free society, the state should be viewed instead as a humble agency that tries, more or less well, to do what nobody else does and which appears, for the moment, indispensable to social co-ordination.
The state should be minimal and unconcerned with "society's welfare," which, in practice, means nothing but favouring some subjects and harming others. If the poor do not want to live in the new country, let them move to Quebec, and live off the poor here; they would soon discover that the welfare state can only thrive if there is no easy escape for the self-reliant.
But in reality, the poor would flock to the golden door of Alberta to escape the shackles that trap them in poverty elsewhere. Many individual lovers of liberty would also move to a free Alberta, including from Quebec (I know at least one such person): Ubi libertas, ibi patria--"where liberty is, there is my country."
Other western provinces might join an independent Alberta. But again, the only defensible justification of secession is to create an enclave of liberty.
In February 2003, federal minister Stéphane Dion pompously wrote to Premier Ralph Klein, "Nowhere in the world is the spectre of secession raised with regard to an international protocol on the environment, or a wheat board, or a firearm registry program." Well,
Mr. Dion, something happened in America two centuries ago for similar, albeit milder, reasons; and it's about time it happens again. Vive l'Alberta libre!
Pierre Lemieux - Monday,14 November 2005
Western Standard
For most of the history of mankind, countries have been jails. At times, those who want to get out are shot. At other times, more subtle ways are used to increase the cost of escaping, often with the help of other states. Martha Stewart, the monstrous American felon condemned for lying to Securities and Exchange Commission praetorians, needs a special visa to come into Canada. Canadian gun resisters who end up with a criminal record won't be able to travel to the U.S. "[A]s if," wrote Lysander Spooner, the American individualist anarchist of the late 19th century, "an enslaved and subjugated people . . . could be said to have any country" (The Constitution of No Authority, 1870). Poor Spooner, what would he say now?
Some people, like most Quebec secessionists, want to change a larger jail for a smaller one. Most Alberta secessionists, I understand, want a country as a space of liberty: this is the sort of secession that needs to be supported.
The main drawback in an eventual secession of Alberta is that the libertarians there would no longer help us slow down the progression of Leviathan in Canada. But is there any realistic hope of recovering our traditional liberties in the country as it is? One can have serious doubts.
Should Alberta join the United States? This is a dangerous mirage. It is sad to say, but the American state is becoming the model of soft tyrannies in the western world. Joining the U.S. would be like going out of the frying pan into the fire.
There is no valid economic objection to Alberta's becoming an independent country. The province already ranks 8th in GDP per capita among the 60 U.S. states and Canadian provinces (the next province is Ontario, in the 44th slot). Oil is not the main cause of wealth in Alberta. There is no oil in Switzerland, there was none in Hong Kong, and oil does not prevent poverty in Nigeria. The main cause of Albertan wealth is less government intervention and expenditure.
With more--much more--of the same, Alberta could become the richest country in the world, and a beacon of liberty. The recipe is more economic freedom, tighter constraints on the state, liberalization of financial markets, protection of private property, unilateral free trade (let any Albertan export or import as he wants), and the liberty of adults to consume what they choose--in two words: individual liberty.
There would be dangers, which we already see among Canadian and American conservatives. It is tempting to increase the power of the state in the name of law and order, but this encourages the state to create more crimes and paper criminals. A related danger--call it "the American danger"--consists in glorifying the state as the sacred, iconic defender of liberty. In a free society, the state should be viewed instead as a humble agency that tries, more or less well, to do what nobody else does and which appears, for the moment, indispensable to social co-ordination.
The state should be minimal and unconcerned with "society's welfare," which, in practice, means nothing but favouring some subjects and harming others. If the poor do not want to live in the new country, let them move to Quebec, and live off the poor here; they would soon discover that the welfare state can only thrive if there is no easy escape for the self-reliant.
But in reality, the poor would flock to the golden door of Alberta to escape the shackles that trap them in poverty elsewhere. Many individual lovers of liberty would also move to a free Alberta, including from Quebec (I know at least one such person): Ubi libertas, ibi patria--"where liberty is, there is my country."
Other western provinces might join an independent Alberta. But again, the only defensible justification of secession is to create an enclave of liberty.
In February 2003, federal minister Stéphane Dion pompously wrote to Premier Ralph Klein, "Nowhere in the world is the spectre of secession raised with regard to an international protocol on the environment, or a wheat board, or a firearm registry program." Well,
Mr. Dion, something happened in America two centuries ago for similar, albeit milder, reasons; and it's about time it happens again. Vive l'Alberta libre!
Comment