'The boss has changed': Rookie Calgary Liberal MP says he's ready to fight for Alberta's place in Canada

OTTAWA — Rookie Liberal MP Corey Hogan says he’s ready to speak up for the “No” side, in the event of a referendum on Albertan independence next year. Hogan, who narrowly won the riding of Calgary Confederation in April’s federal election, told the National Post that he won’t sit on the sidelines in the coming debate over Alberta’s future in Canada. “Try to stop me from being a spokesperson for this country,” said Hogan. “One of the main reasons I ran is I wanted to be both a strong Alberta voice and a strong pro-Canadian voice.” Hogan didn’t shy away from the coming national unity crisis as a candidate, adopting the cheeky slogan “Confederation is worth fighting for” — a phrase designed to send a clear message to those fanning the flames of Alberta separatism. Hogan believes that the pro-Canada message helped him edge out Conservative opponent, ex-provincial cabinet minister Jeremy Nixon. “One of the reasons I was elected… is because of this moment we’re in,” said Hogan. “The main thing I heard on the doors was Donald Trump, Canada’s existence, all of that… residents said over and over that they wanted someone who would fight for this country, and that’s what I’m going to give them.” He also said that Nixon’s association with Premier Danielle Smith, whose cabinet he sat in from 2022 to 2023, may have cost him votes. “Alberta separatism is an issue that divides Conservatives in a way that doesn’t divide Liberals,” said Hogan. Hogan said it will be vital in the coming months to confront separatist arguments head on, after Smith dramatically lowered the bar for triggering a referendum on the province’s independence. He wrote in a recent blog post that there is little reason to believe that Alberta would have a better go of building pipelines to tidewater as a sovereign state that can enter into international treaties, as Smith herself has claimed in the past . “(Treaties) guarantee rights of access but they do not guarantee the right to build infrastructure across another country’s territory,” wrote Hogan. Yuan Yi Zhu, a Canadian-born professor of international law at the University of Leiden, says he agrees with Hogan, pointing to the plain language of the United Nations’ law of the sea. “The relevant section says that landlocked and transit countries may, by agreement, define pipelines as a means of transport to the sea… it doesn’t say that they have to,” said Zhu. “This is one of those rare issues in international law that’s actually pretty straightforward.” Hogan fully accepts that the Liberals have a long way to go to build up credibility in Alberta, after failing to grow their seat count in the province. He adds that one silver lining is that Ottawa-Alberta relations have nowhere to go but up from their dismal state under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. “Anybody who’s ever worked at a job where the boss has changed, can see that sometimes what happened was largely driven by the former boss,” said Hogan. Hogan said that he’s interested to see how Alberta and the other western provinces are represented in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first post-election cabinet, set to be announced Tuesday. National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.