How the US Atlas Network Built Alberta Separatism - The Tyee

Listen to this article 26 min Separatism has gone from an idea on the margins of the conservative movement to one at the centre of Alberta’s government. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERS Take a Trip with Us: VIFF’s Documentary Series Spans the Globe ‘Insights’ takes audiences far and wide with stories of struggle, triumph and renewal. Over the last decade, a cadre of libertarian think tanks has been instrumental in bringing Alberta separatism into the mainstream, promoting the idea through research, conferences, social media and the press. They’ve helped craft government policy to prepare Alberta for independence and to make the threat of secession a powerful “or else” in the province’s standoff with Ottawa. Connecting this web of institutes and academics are their ties to the U.S.-based Atlas Network, and the revolving-door relationship between members of the network and the administration of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Atlas Network is a U.S. non-profit that acts as the hub connecting a global network of about 500 libertarian think tanks in more than 100 countries. The separatist timeline The separatist story can be seen as two related but distinct timelines divided by a crucial federal election, said historian Mack Penner, “the most pressing one being the post-2015 timeline.” Penner is a post-doctoral fellow in the history department at the University of Calgary whose research has focused on the history of neoliberalism and conservatism in Alberta. Penner said there has been a shift among prevailing conservative academics, who “have their fingers all over various nodes of the Atlas Network.” With aspirations for constitutional reform and sweeping deregulation dashed at the federal level by the election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, attention turned to fortifying a libertarian stronghold in Alberta. “Maybe the horizon should be closer to home, and we can have the kind of state that we want in Alberta by wielding this threat of separatism as we see fit for those goals,” Penner said. “Call that state whatever you want: the radicalized version of the neoliberal state, the market state; I’m quite fond of calling it an antisocial state.” Sociologist Melinda Cooper has used the term “antisocial state” to describe U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s dismantling of public welfare protections and increasing concentration of state power. “I think it works quite a bit here too, indicating that this…