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By Dene Moore

They are a group of self-described concerned citizens. Their members come from all sectors and different backgrounds but they have one very important thing in common.

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They have had enough.

With talk of Western alienation and separation in Alberta and Saskatchewan, their Buffalo Project is gaining attention.

“There’s a lot of angst. There’s a lot of anger right now,” says Derek Robinson, spokesman for the recently formed group of Alberta and Saskatchewan businesspeople and former chief of digital strategy for ex-Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

“So how do we have a conversation about fixing Canada? And how do we force the federal government to take action? Because the deal that Western Canada has within Confederation, it’s always been slanted against the West.”

That is the underlying raison d’etre for the Buffalo Project.

The group’s board includes several high-ranking businesspeople from a cross-section of prairie sectors: Whitecap Resources CEO Grant Fagerheim; Stan Grad, president of Soderglen Ranches Ltd. and co-founder of Grad & Walker Energy Corp.; Dallas Howe, former chairman of Potash Corp.; Bill Turnbull, president of W.G. Turnbull and Associates

real estate developers; Don Chynoweth, international relations and logistics consultant, and Tim Hearn, former chairman and CEO of Imperial Oil Limited, current chairman of the consulting/investment management and philanthropic organization Hearn & Associates.