Putting the pancake pilgrimage in focus

It’s a simple enough recipe: one and a half cups all-purpose flour, one tablespoon of sugar, three and a half teaspoons of baking powder, one-quarter teaspoon of salt, one and a quarter cups of milk, one large egg and three tablespoons of melted butter.

That’s all you need, according to allrecipes.com, to make some “good old-fashioned pancakes.” The secret, apparently, is not just what you put in the bowl: it’s also knowing not to mix the ingredients too thoroughly and also knowing the exact right time to flip the pancakes.

Only a small portion of the total recipe is butter and even that ingredient can be substituted with a little kick of oil instead.

Of course, the recipe says nothing about political leaders trekking halfway across the country to flip the pancakes on a Calgary Stampede griddle, and often looking ridiculous in the process.

But in this country, oil and pancakes make for an interesting mix.

It happens almost every year, with prime ministers and opposition leaders heading to the Stampede to step up to the griddle, as well as wearing an obligatory cowboy hat and often being photographed awkwardly riding horses.

Yet it remains a political expectation in Alberta — one which federal leaders dutifully satisfy, year in and year out. And yes, it’s a good spot for a little glad-handing, with big crowds and lots of partying Albertans.

But why does it seem that the province gets more slavish attention, not only at the pancake breakfast table, but at the federal-provincial negotiating table as well? And why does Alberta always want more?

Because oil is money and money is power, Alberta has come to expect a kind of deference to its particular political desires that other provinces — outside of perhaps Quebec and Ontario — never seem to get.

Perhaps, as we head through the summer toward a fall referendum-on-a-referendum about Alberta separatism, it’s not the right time to point out that a lot of Alberta’s complaints about being ignored by federal politicians is being regularly abused by Alberta politicians to feather their own political nests.

After all, how many provinces believe they have a right to dictate and demand what is to happen in parts of the country that are clearly not under their jurisdiction?

How dare, for example, British Columbians use their own provincial rights and jurisdiction to decide whether pipelines should cross their province?

It’s like listening to your rich neighbour complain about the high cost of insuring their massive house and cottage while you’re trying to find enough money to insure your 10-year-old beater.

Hard-done-by Albertans complain about taxation on their inheritance of natural resources while paying lower levels of sales tax, personal income tax and corporate income tax than almost any other part of Canada.

They get far more federal attention than you would expect their population of five million — one-eighth of Canada’s population of 41 million — would get.

And they regularly demand more — with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith now essentially saying her preferred option would be what looks perilously like special status for Alberta within the Canadian federation.

“I have repeatedly stated that the position of the UCP caucus, and UCP government, is to build a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” she told Albertans earlier this year.

Sovereign, in case you’ve missed it, is defined as “having the highest power or being completely independent.”

That is not a recipe for a happy federation.

While we mostly hold our tongues and wait for the October outcome, it’s hard not to feel that, like dry pancakes, Alberta’s perennial complaints are perilously hard to swallow.

» Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun