As talk of Alberta’s separation from Canada once again bubbles up in certain political circles, as it tends to every decade or two, rarely discussed is the idea of regions separating from Alberta.
Just over one hundred years ago, a movement sprung up in the Peace Country to have the region split off from Alberta and British Columbia to form its own province.
According to a report from The Globe on Nov. 26, 1927, the proposed Province of Peace River would be larger than either British Columbia or Alberta and would include all the Peace River drainage basin in Alberta, in addition to the Lesser Slave Lake region and the City of Prince Rupert, with the Pacific terminus of the Canadian National Railway.
Its most enthusiastic cheerleader was former Peace River mayor Charles Frederick, who, in 1927 published a signed letter in support of Peace Country secession in the newspapers he published, the Peace River Record and Grande Prairie Herald.
In his letter, Frederick stated that public opinion in the then-booming Peace Country favoured “drastic measures to either secure the railway development demanded for years, particularly with respect to an outlet to the Pacific coast, or to demand an opportunity to undertake its own development.”
“So far as Edmonton and Calgary are concerned, these cities ‘view with alarm’ at the prospect of the North country being given he opportunity that should be afforded through the provision of an outlet to the Coast,” Frederick wrote of the region of approximately 30,000 people.
“The remainder of the Province of Alberta is interested in the Peace River country only to the extend of its purchases of goods through Edmonton and Calgary wholesale houses. Vancouver is interested in the Peace River country only as another source of supply for its elevators, and as an outlet for the wholesale trace of its merchants.”
Frederick maintained in his letter that the promises made to Peace River settlers were not kept. “Dominion and provincial governments alike,” he wrote, “have neglected the claims of this fertile northern district.
Pointing to the Peace Country’s region’s rich soil, he then claimed the region would become “wealthier, more populous, a more valuable contribution to the nation of Canada than either of the mother provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.”
Earlier that year, the world’s prize for wheat at the Chicago international fair was reported to have been won by a Peace Country farmer.
“Let the Peace River country paddle its own canoe,” wrote Frederick.
Dismissing the idea of Peace River secession outright was local United Farmers of Alberta MLA Hugh Allen.
Allen spoke about the issue in the Legislative Assembly in Feb. 1928.
In his opinion, the idea was more of a “publicity” stunt than anything else, according to a report by the Edmonton Bulletin. Allen told the Assembly that there had been some serious thought given the subject in sections of British Columbia, but “the majority of deep thinking Peace Riverites had never taken kindly to the proposal.”
Premier John Brownlee was also an enthusiastic opponent of the idea of the Peace Country leaving Alberta. He toured the region numerous times in the following years to appeal to demonstrate the Alberta government’s commitment and investments in the Peace Country.
Frederick’s Peace River secession movement did not get the political traction it needed to actually form a new province, which would likely involve a complicated constitutional process, but it is also likely that this was not a top priority during the Great Depression that followed only a few years later.
Since then, there have been a handful of calls by locals elected officials in northern British Columbia for the largely conservative voting region to join Alberta, but the provincial boundaries established in 1905 remain in tact.
2 replies on ““Let the Peace River country paddle its own canoe” – Province of Peace River was newspaper publisher’s vision”
Interesting history. I suppose Peace River probably feels as distant from the rest of Alberta at times, as some places in the deep south do. It is definitely its own region. This reminds me of the statement made when Quebec separatism, or sovereignty if you prefer, was a big topic of public discussion, to paraphrase – if the country was divisible, so was the province.
Now, Alberta is not geographically as large as some provinces, but the distance – particularly north to south is large and as we are reminded from time to time our province is larger than a number of European countries. Of course, Alberta was established when long distance travel was becoming more common, so we do not have the local historical or cultural divisions that places like Europe does. However, geography and distance can still be challenging.
In politics people often talk of Edmonton, Calgary and the rest of Alberta, but perhaps there is a bit more to the rest of it than that.
Firstly, there are several typos, most notably the use of “succession” when you undoubtedly meant “secession”. There’s also at least one use of “he” when the context clearly calls for “the”.
More substantively, there are indeed times when there appears to be more in common between BC’s “Peace Block” — which encompasses such communities as Fort Nelson, Fort St John, Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Tumbler Ridge, & Pouce Coupé — & Alberta’s Peace Country, than there is between the Peace Country and the rest of Alberta. But secession from Alberta & BC is a non-starter for a zillion reasons. It is, however, an amusing historical footnote.