CHARBONNEAU – Will Alberta be happy with another pipeline through B.C.?

THEY WEREN’T HAPPY after we bought the first one for them. It cost Canadians $34 billion and took six years to build.

We received little thanks for our gift.

Albertans moaned that they already paid for the pipeline through decades of resource revenues; that it should have been completed privately despite the fact the original owner, Houston-based Kinder Morgan, gave up on completing it.

Some of Alberta’s grudges run deep and others are manufactured through social media.

Distrust in Ottawa began in the beginning when the province was formed in 1905. At the time, the federal government controlled Alberta’s public lands and natural resources to fund railway expansion. Alberta was not granted equal control over its resources until the Natural Resources Acts of 1930.

Now they complain that they make too much money. Let me explain.

They complain that Canada’s Equalization Program takes money from Alberta and gives it to “have-not” provinces such as (gasp) Quebec.

Since the formula is on fiscal capacity, including the ability to raise tax revenue, Alberta pays into the program. Alberta’s underlying wealth generation remains too high to trigger the formula for federal assistance.

In other words, they complain that they are too wealthy and possess too many valuable resources.

But the program is fair. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper supported and revised it.

Layered on top of the historic grievances are those generated by social media. They are often referred to as grassroots movements or “populist.” Like the Freedom Convoy movement, they are generated and amplified through social media.

The agitation is stirred up, in part, by Russian bots designed to make trouble wherever it can be found.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) warned that Russia deepens existing political divisions, reduces trust in democratic institutions, amplifies extreme viewpoints on both sides of contentious issues, and encourages Canadians to see one another as enemies rather than fellow citizens.

Researchers have identified foreign and automated accounts for creating hashtags such as #Wexit and #WesternSeparation.

Not all agitators are malicious at heart. They just want to make a few bucks.

Some of them such as Nieta Aqila. When reading her numerous Facebook posts, you would assume she is an Albertan who supports separation. She is part of a popular Facebook group called Alberta Independence that promotes separatism and has more than 100,000 members.

In one of her posts, Aqila said she was harassed and had rocks thrown at her as she canvassed for petition signatures.

In fact, Aquila actually lives in Indonesia and makes a few dollars from Meta’s monetization program to supplement her meager income. It rewards creators for engagement and solicits subscribers on her personal page.

Aqila was among 14 overseas accounts that the CBC identified in four popular Alberta independence Facebook groups. The accounts have posted politically divisive content about Alberta separatism, Western alienation and other hot-button Canadian topics.

A second pipeline running through Kamloops will probably not quench the flames generated through social media that torment users. They live in a particular hell, fundamentally angry and discontented in a seething outrage.

Rational Albertans will welcome a second publicly built pipeline and see it as an effort to settle the score of old historical frictions.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.