When the Alberta government announced the makeup of what was to be an impartial panel examining the economic cost of independence, a couple of the names raised eyebrows.
Ted Morton would be taking part. The former provincial finance minister was a signatory to the infamous “firewall letter” that was published in 2001 and called for greater Alberta autonomy in Canada. Meantime, the panel was to be headed by Jack Mintz, a conservatively inclined economist who wrote a 2020 book with Mr. Morton (and Tom Flanagan) called Moment of Truth: How to Think About Alberta’s Future. In it, the authors said none favoured separation as a first option, “but we also see it as a viable last resort if all else fails.”
