The Alberta Agenda was presented by the Alberta Residents League to then Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein, urging Albertan Premier Ralph Klein to fully exercise Alberta's constitutional powers. The Alberta Agenda proposed a "new vision" for the province, which focused on "More Alberta, less Ottawa" and set out a "five-point "firewall" policy to "protect Alberta" from the alleged "intrusions by the federal government". The five points were laid out in what the media called—the Firewall Letter—which was sent sent on January 24, 2001 to Premier Klein. It was composed by Stephen Harper, who later served as Canada's Prime Minister for three consecutive terms from 2005 to 2015. In 2001, Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition. The letter was signed by 2006 Alberta PC leadership candidateTed Morton, and 4 other Albertans. The letter was written in the wake of the Alberta-based Canadian Alliance's defeat in the 2000 Canadian federal election. It was published in its entirety in the National Post on January 27, 2001.
On January 24, 2001 Stephen Harper composed a letter which was signed by six others and sent to then Premier of Alberta, Ralph Klein. At that time, Harper was president of the National Citizens Coalition. Others who signed the letter were three University of Calgary professors in public policy—Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton and Rainer Knopff; Andrew Crooks, then-chair of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation; and Ken Boessenkool, who had previously served as Stockwell Day's former policy adviser. A 2015 National Post article summarizes the Firewall Letter as a plea for Albertans to insulate themselves against an "increasingly hostile government in Ottawa." Proposals in the letter included "creating a provincial pension plan ; a provincial police force ; collecting its own provincial income tax ; forcing Senate reform back on to the national agenda; and taking over complete provincial responsibility for health care." The letter recommended that the province should let its contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police expire in 2012, and establish a provincial police force to replace the RCMP. Alberta had a separate police force from 1917 until 1932. The letter recommended that Alberta withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and establish a separate Alberta Pension Plan. It called for a separate collection of the province's income tax, as opposed to letting the Canada Revenue Agency handle tax collection. Alberta, like all the other provinces and territories collected its own corporate tax. The letter has been referred to as the Firewall Letter from its use of the phrase "build firewalls around Alberta," a reference to the computer softwareprograms which block unwanted intrusions from outside sources. Premier Klein's personal response was published in the Edmonton Journal on responded to the letter, but rejected implementing the authors' requests for the duration of his premiership.
