After the Conservatives’ federal election loss, some Albertans frustrated with Liberal government policies are rallying for separation from Canada. Recently, hundreds of separatists held a rally at the Alberta legislature, angered at the province’s place within confederation.
It’s not the first time Albertans have pushed for sovereignty. There were upswings in separatist sentiment during the National Energy Program in the 1980s. More recently, separatist agitators gained steam in the dying years of the 2010s, angered over Liberal legislation that targeted the energy sector and a general downturn in the petro-province’s economic fortunes. This culminated with the now-defunct Wexit movement.
Now, separatist sentiment is back. And Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government has made it easier for separatists to get a referendum on the ballot by reducing the threshold necessary to do so. She said if Albertans want it, her government will hold a referendum on separation. Here’s what you need to know about the likelihood of that and the strength of the Alberta separatist movement.
Have separatists ever had any success in Alberta?
Not much. At least not electorally.
Just once was a separatist elected to the Alberta legislature. Gordon Kesler, an
oil scout and rodeo rider
, won a byelection in 1982. He was elected by voters in Olds, Alta., who didn’t like bilingualism, the metric system, gun control and then prime minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program. Kesler won, but he sat only for two-and-a-half months, before running in the general election and losing solidly.
But it turns out Kesler wasn’t a true believer: By 1983, he was vowing to leave the Western Canada Concept party unless it dropped separatism from its platform.
When did the Alberta separatism movement begin?
Despite the deep admiration that conservative Albertans tend to express for Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister can also be identified as the first prime minister to put the needs of central Canada over the needs of the west. His 1878 National Policy was crafted specifically to force east-west rather than north-south trade, to the outrage of those in what was then the North-West Territories.
“The people of the North-West are allowed but a degree more control of their affairs than the serfs of Siberia,” wrote Frank Oliver, the publisher of Edmonton’s first newspaper, in August 1885. Ottawa’s rule, he wrote, is “despotism as absolute, or more so, than that which curses Russia.”
This sentiment has ebbed and flowed over the years (and also existed beyond Alberta’s borders, in other parts of the Prairies). There was anger in some parts of the west over the 1885 execution of Louis Riel, a Métis leader who is now recognized by many as the founder of Manitoba. Preston Manning, the founder of the federal Reform Party, traces the origins of alienation back to that event, as well as land surveys of the west done in 1869 with insufficient regard for the local populations. Freight rates on the national railways were also a source of grievance.
In Alberta, specifically, William Aberhart’s Social Credit Party, which was founded in 1935, briefly flirted with separatism. But it wasn’t until the energy crises of the 1970s, the election of Trudeau Sr. and the National Energy Program that Alberta separation emerged in its more modern form.
Throughout all of this, only the fringes of Alberta’s political spectrum have actually wanted the province to leave Canada. But far more Albertans have shared some sense of alienation or anger with Ottawa.
What’s the history of the Alberta separatism movement?
In 1975, the Calgary Herald surveyed 221 Calgarians for their views on Alberta separation and alienation.
Only eight people expressed support for separation. That’s 3.6 per cent of respondents. However, by other metrics, Albertans were alienated, with more than 70 per cent saying Alberta politicians weren’t taken seriously in Ottawa.
By 1980, things had shifted: Mel Hurtig, the late pro-Canada publisher, commissioned a poll that found 14 per cent of Albertans supported separation. “God forbid if the separatist movement would be able to find a charismatic leader,” Hurtig told the audience at an Edmonton hotel.
It wasn’t considered front-page news. It appeared on page D22 of the Herald, above a story about a robot running amok in Florida and the TV listings. Still, the chatter remained, and by 1980, Reform party MPs were telling the media that they were hearing about the issue from constituents.
Later that year, Doug Christie, the head of Western Canada Concept, held a fundraiser in Edmonton. It was a flop: He raised so little money that it “wouldn’t keep anyone in cheap cigars,” the Herald reported.
Still, separation kept coming up again, though it wasn’t always taken seriously.
“Alberta, alas, is over-generously supplied with chronic complainers whose lung capacity dangerously exceeds their IQs,” wrote Herald columnist William Gold in 1995. Separatists, Gold wrote, were a “miniscule dishwasher copycat” of Jacques Parizeau’s Quebec aspirations “with no such claim on the respect of decent people.”
In 1997, two years after Quebec’s last, failed attempt to separate, Social Credit leader Randy Thorsteinson said he thought it was inevitable that Alberta would separate.
By 2002, when Jean Chrétien’s government was signing the Kyoto Accords on climate change, then Alberta premier Ralph Klein warned that it could lead to separation. Naomi Lakritz, a Calgary Herald columnist, shellacked Klein.
“If the rest of Canada sees Alberta as greedy, uncaring, money-grubbing and self-centred in its negative reaction to the Kyoto accord, then Ralph Klein’s use of the word ‘separatism’ and his petulant warning not to ‘push us too hard,’ has just reinforced that view,” Lakritz wrote.
Even in 2018-20, when the Wexit movement — which advocated for the separation of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba — was ascendant and aggrieved westerners formed the Maverick Party, the movement never got that far. The Maverick Party never managed to win any seats and none of the provincial separatist parties had a meaningful showing in the 2019 or 2023 elections.
How much support is there for Alberta separatism?
In 2019, the Angus Reid Institute found that 60 per cent of Albertans were
open to the idea of the province
joining a western separatist movement. This, however, is a bit of a vague question.
ThinkHQ did polling that year
, and found that when presented with a clear question — would you vote to stay or go? — only 23 per cent of Albertans said they’d opt to go it alone.
More recent polling, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute prior to the 2025 federal election, pegged separatist support at 25 per cent, and that jumped to 30 per cent when Albertans were asked if they would vote to leave if the Liberals formed government again.
The Association for Canadian Studies found in recent polling that
52 per cent of Canadians
believe the threat of Alberta separating should be taken seriously. In Alberta itself, that’s a view held by 63 per cent of those polled.
A Postmedia-Leger poll
, found that 35 per cent of Albertans would support an independent western bloc, comprised of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Support for Alberta and Saskatchewan forming an independent state lies at 30 per cent, while 29 per cent of Albertans think the province should go it alone.
But, put another way, the most attractive option to Albertans, at least according to Leger’s polling, is still rejected by 65 per cent of Albertans.
This is, however, uncharted territory. It could be a different situation altogether if a question actually makes it to the referendum stage.
Who are the separatists and alienated Albertans?
There have been a handful of separatist parties in Alberta, such as the Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta and the Independence Party of Alberta.
Ideologically speaking, separatists are largely conservatives and the parties are, too. For example, while separatism flowered in the 1970s and ’80s, the defeat of the Trudeau Liberals by Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives stanched the enthusiasm at the time.
And in 2001, when the Alberta Independence Party was founded in Red Deer, the inspiration for it, National Post reported, was the rejection of Stockwell Day’s Canadian Alliance party by voters in central and eastern Canada.
The latest iteration of a separatist party in Alberta is the Republican Party of Alberta, and it’s another conservative party. The current leader is Cameron Davies, a long-time Alberta conservative. The vice-president of policy is former conservative parliamentarian Art Hanger. Other conservatives are involved, too.
The polling also bears this out. In 2023,
Environics research found that
83 per cent of United Conservative Party voters felt like Alberta didn’t get the respect it deserves. In contrast, just 37 per cent of New Democrats felt that way. That same survey found that 67 per cent of UCP supporters agreed that Alberta got so few benefits from being a part of Canada, it may as well go it alone, compared to 24 per cent of NDP supporters.
Could Alberta really separate?
The first step would be to get to a referendum. This could happen if the provincial government chooses to hold one, or under the Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act, which allows any Albertan to put their concerns to a provincial referendum if they garner enough support.
Smith has said that the government would hold such a referendum, if it had enough support. In order for citizens to force a referendum on the issue, they must gather the signatures of 10 per cent of all Albertans who voted in the last provincial election. Just shy of 1.8 million Albertans voted in the 2023 general election, so those wanting a separation referendum must gather around 180,000 signatures.
Then, everything would follow per the federal Clarity Act. This legislation sets out that a province — whether Quebec, Alberta or anywhere else — may not unilaterally secede from Canada. They must negotiate secession with the federal government and the rest of the provinces, settling on some sort of constitutional amendment and agreement.
The preamble also sets out a few guideposts on what happens. First, the outcome of a referendum would need to demonstrate a “
clear majority in favour of secession,” which would then “create an obligation to negotiate secession.” The Clarity Act does not set a specific percentage that counts as a “clear majority,” although 51 per cent is often cited as a clear majority. (The House of Commons could determine that that wasn’t clear enough, and that means that secession could not go ahead.)
Second, the question asked on the referendum itself must be “free of ambiguity.”
Third, for any province to legally leave would require negotiations between all the provinces and opening up and amending the Constitution.
If all that was satisfied — plus any other aspects of the Clarity Act — and if an agreement was reached, then Alberta could separate. Eric Adams, a University of Alberta law professor, has said it “seems next to impossible.”
“If you look to the Supreme Court of Canada’s statement on separation, it looks exceptionally difficult but may be feasible, if … those negotiations produce some workable separation arrangement,”
Adams said in 2019
.
What role could Indigenous people play?
All of Alberta is covered by treaties, the majority of it by Treaties 6, 7 and 8. And there are 813,000 hectares of specific reserve land. After Smith said she would be willing to hold a referendum, a coalition of First Nation chiefs met for an emergency meeting and denounced the talk of separation.
“We’re not going anywhere and if you feel that you have problems with First Nations you could leave,”
said Chief Troy Knowlton of Piikani Nation
.
While the Alberta government is making it easier for citizens to push for a referendum, in the face of concern from Indigenous people in Alberta, the government
introduced 11th-hour amendments
to the legislation changing up the referendum process. The amendments were in the legislation passed as the spring session of the Alberta legislature drew to a close.
“In response to feedback from First Nations and Indigenous partners and to reassert our commitment to protecting Treaty rights, the bill now includes a clause stating that nothing in a referendum under the Act is to deviate from existing Treaty rights,” said Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery in a statement. “Alberta’s government will always recognize, protect, and honour Treaty rights as recognized by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.”
It remains to be seen whether this would affect the ability of Albertans to even get a separation referendum on the ballot in the first place.
An analysis of First Nations rights vis-à-vis separation, written by University of Calgary law professors Robert Hamilton and David Wright, says that Indigenous people in the province would likely have a significant role to play in any future negotiations over separation.
“It is reasonable to think that Indigenous peoples would expect to be full negotiating partners in any movement toward Albertan or Western secession,” wrote Hamilton and Wright.
They also said that it would be more complicated for both Ottawa and Edmonton than to simply hand over treaty obligations to a hypothetical future independent state government.
“The only way Canada would be able to legally agree to secession, then, would be if there were guarantees in place ensuring that Alberta would respect the rights of Indigenous peoples to the same extent as they are at Canadian law (we set aside for the moment critiques on the adequacy of such) and if Indigenous peoples agreed to this modification in the relationship,” they wrote. “The Crown cannot unilaterally decide to divest itself of its obligations or transfer them to another government.”
Still, this perhaps would not amount to an Indigenous veto.
“It would seem plausible that there could be a state succession to a treaty…. People generally haven’t suggested that Quebec would be incapable of separating due to treaties,” said University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman. “At a broad level, Alberta could likely take on the obligations associated with the treaties to ensure that they continue on. I do see it as appropriate that Indigenous peoples are part of the conversations.”
Bruce Pardy, a Queen’s University law professor, wrote in an email that there would be no Indigenous veto in the case of a separation vote, but that opponents of separation might use Indigenous rights to “discredit the process.”
“Canadian constitutional rights will not automatically be carried over to a newly independent Alberta. At the outset, everything will be an open question. That includes the status of Aboriginal people,” wrote Pardy.
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