Article content

STRATHMORE, ALTA. — Here in Wheatland County, the very heartland of a troubled Alberta, when the clearest official marker on the province’s possible separation from Canada was finally thrown down, it came not from the hand of some cantankerous old sourpuss nursing ancient grievances.

No. Instead it arrived courtesy of a young man; one who could so easily be featured as a Canadian Prairie symbol of a life being lived honestly and productively, here in this tightknit community of small towns and hamlets, nestled among the grain fields and feedlots of the northern plain, on the eastern side of the Rockies.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or How one 22-year-old sparked a Wexit prairie fire in the heartland of Alberta alienation Back to video

The first part of the fateful resolution 22-year-old Jason Wilson presented to his six colleagues at Wheatland County Council on November 5 was toughly worded, calling on the Alberta government to leave the Canada Pension Plan and create its own provincial scheme.

It went on to reiterate more of the same demands that a younger Stephen Harper, then leading the National Citizens Coalition back in 2001, along with a group of like-minded university academics and political thinkers, had presented in a letter to then Alberta premier Ralph Klein (although Klein responded with hostility to the ideas).