The motivations that have contributed to the separatist movement and Alberta’s sense of grievance in recent years are not especially discrete; it’s more like a nebulous Venn diagram. Simple politics have pushed some people toward separatism. Indeed, the paucity of separatist talk during the time when Stephen Harper was prime minister suggests there’s a significant political component to the idea; when Liberals are in power, people feel more inclined to talk about leaving. Culture also plays a role. When Angus Reid pollsters talked to separatists in February 2026, 86.5 percent said they thought Canada forced Alberta to take in too many immigrants, and 96 percent believed that an independent Alberta would better protect personal freedoms.
But … separatists tend to find the economic arguments particularly seductive. Angus Reid polling shows 96 percent of respondents who want an independent Alberta believe they would be free from economically damaging federal government policies. Separatist leaders promise the elimination of the personal income tax while creating a new provincial sales tax of 5 percent. They also claim Alberta would save $75 billion from no longer paying federal taxes.
Not all separatists promise immediate prosperity, but the argument remains persuasive. Cameron Davies is the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta. “I don’t paint an immediate rosy, utopian picture of what independence looks like,” he says. “Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be immediate sunshine and rainbows? Probably not. But will it be worth it? Five, ten, fifteen years down the road for your kids and your grandkids? One hundred percent yes.”
While a critic might argue that’s just swapping one federal government for another, Lorusso argues that’s not the case in the US, where states have powers that Canadian provinces do not.
States don’t have the power to secede, so it’s a hotel california situation. Health care is not under control of any state. $100k in extra debt per person = $4000+/year in interest. $3000/year per capita military spending, about to increase to $5000/year. Higher interest rates and home building costs, including O&G drilling costs due to tariffs on Canada.
If negotiating secession with Canada, Crown land should stay with Canada or at least form a land bridge within Canada. Canadian policies would charge more for transporting Alberta exports, and reduce their energy use. Alberta secession economic optimism is based on going all in on dead ender energy without any real friends. Don’t expect keys to the store open arms invitation to being 51st state, either.
So, if Alberta reaches the promised land of glorious independence or whatever, how exactly do they plan on trading outside their borders without being taxed to oblivion by one of two much larger bordering nations any time we try to get resources in or out?
their borders
Teeny Tiny problem… The Government of Alberta doesn’t own the land that comprises Alberta. That belongs to the federal government as per multiple treaties with the First Nations.
So like, if the Albertan government leaves Canada they’ll probably be reduced to the municipal boundaries of Edmonton or something ridiculous.
See, a problem I’m noticing is everyone seems to assume everyone will make deals in good faith. I don’t think the fact that the land isn’t owned by Alberta is as much of a “gotcha” as people seem to believe… do you honestly believe that a government that has been using every excuse it can to bypass democracy lately will respect that?
Canada would have to be willing to enforce their ownership of the land. I’m not saying it’d be a good or smart decision on Alberta’s part, but I do think they’re arrogant enough to try. Particularly if the US sticks its nose in to back Alberta.
The whole thing will be a fucking nightmare if it gets pushed through…
i haven’t seen anyone claim a deal with the federal government is not needed to secede
If you believe the APP’s website they want to use the UN’s ‘Law of the Sea’, but they also don’t want to be a part of the UN cause they do not share values. So seemingly they think they can, they think they can.
Highly believable that a bunch of Albertans want to use Maritime law in a land locked province.
That convention does guarantee access to trade corridors for landlocked nations, though as the separatists do not want to join the UN I’d be interested in seeing how they think they’d benefit.
Even if they do join the UN. I just looked it up and transit states retain the right to ensure none of their interests are infringed upon. So basically AB will have even less leverage than they do now.
Ah yes, wanting all of the benefits without any commitment or obligation on their part. Sounds like Albertan logic to me!
I don’t even live in the American continent, but just to play devil’s advocate: Alberta shouldn’t become independent because if it does, it will be sanctioned into economic collapse? Doesn’t sound like the most fair argument IMO.
It’s not necessarily “will” but going independant relies entirely on the good will of the two countries that would border Alberta. One of which we’ve been antagonizing for years (Canada) and the other has been threatening its “allies” left right and center. Having to renegotiate every trade deal we have after seceding puts Alberta in a fairly precarious position because of this. Fairness isn’t really a factor.
In my experience as a Spaniard (and our own independence themes with Catalonia and Euskal Herria) antagonizing the pro-independence by threatening them with economic sanctions upon independence usually doesn’t have good political results. Nothing quenched the pro-independence more than a progressive-ish government that didn’t antagonize them.
Howndoes any landlocked countries do it?
San Marino seems pretty prosperous
San Marino is completely dependent on Italy. People go to Italy for specialist appointments, to shop as the stores in San Marino don’t have much selection - they go to Italy to attend university etc. Not a great example. (Andorra is a bit better of an example but they also heavily rely on Spain and less so France)
What non Albertans need to understand is that “the separatists” in Alberta are two different groups. There are a significant number of Albertans who are upset with the way Alberta has been milked as a cash cow for decades without the corresponding political power like the populous provinces out east. Mostly they want to express their displeasure and if that means some sabre rattling and threats of separation thats fine. It works for Quebec and they just want to follow the same playbook. They would be the mild separatists who may or may not see the value in having Alberta be an independent state within Canada, but they are still a minority.
Then there are the radical separatists who believe that Alberta should separate and join the US. That is a VERY small group of people. If anything Albertans are fiercely independent, with an “I can do it myself” attitude and the last thing the vast majority wants is to jump out of a stable democracy into the shit show that exists down south.
So when you say ‘separatists’ you have to be clear who you are talking about. MOST of us want a more fair deal for Alberta but we’re not pro US and particularly not pro Trump.
That’s probably fair when talking about the electorate broadly, but also leaves out the powerful special interests contributing to shaping and manipulating the movement, and which have much more direct and influential access to provincial government than your average Jane or Joe. Those interests, and the stakeholders to which they’re most responsive, need to be included as part of any discussion of how this movement is developing.
I have MAGA family in Alberta. They don’t want to join the USA but they’re pro pro-trump politicians.
I love em but they’re rather ignorant and because of the religion they don’t care about objective truth beyond their own confirmation bias.
So in that regard I don’t place a lot of value on the distinction between hardcore and mediocre separatists. IMO the difference comes down to incentives and who’s getting kick backs for saying shit.
It works for Quebec and they just want to follow the same playbook
Us Québécois are linguistically, culturally, and ethnically separate from the rest of Canada. Alberta is just culturally “pessimistic”, so it’ll never work for them to become independent. They’ll trip over their own dicks when it comes down to who will lead them amongst the conservatives. If the Middle East is any precedent, good luck pitting a jungle of conservative groups against each other for control. They can’t function without unity, which the Albertans lack on a fundamental level. They’re just going to remain the dicks who live out west and complain about social programs in QC and BC.
Carney needs to start a loud public investigation into foreign money. Expose these jerks.
It’s obviously the USA. Why would Carney upset his overlords?
skidmark isn’t going to do a fucking thing other than fill his pockets.
So is like Alberta the Mississippi of Canada?
It’s more like the Texas of Canada.
Could merge well with Greater Idaho
Given the UCP just voted to rig the electoral map…more than ever.
The thing that really gets me is, Alberta doesn’t like how hard it is to build a pipeline that would run into other provinces, and how in the world is being a separate country supposed to help with that? Do they think building across an international border will be easier than building across an interprovincial one?
Can we use “separatists” instead of “albertans”?
The loudmouth morons are a very small percentage of Albertans. A lot smaller than Quebec’s loudmouth morons.
My Albertan friends are natives. And I am pretty sure they don’t want to separate. It is only the white non-native conservatives there that mostly want to separate.
Actually, it isn’t even most of them. I live in rural AB, there’s a lot of anger over the separatists shitting on the legacy of our grandparents that fought and died for Canada.
I just found this video from CBC. https://youtube.com/watch?v=NXafC7tlqt0
The amount of fuckwits with Facebook around here is just depressing, and that’s where this bullshit is getting to them.
Quebec separatism would still end poorly for everyone, but at least they have access to the ocean.
Quebec separatism would good bad, but at least they have a chance of France bailing them out. The USA would not be kind to Alberta, the USA does not extend constitutional legal protection to its territories.
The obvious answer is the pipeline would go through the states.
Nah the separatists think that dealing with the US would be easier. By “dealing”, they mean annexation. Sigh…
Alberta separatists are illogical and unwise - never underestimate the depths to which they have not thought about a particular issue. Unfortunately, this is equally true of the current provincial government as well.
I doubt they do much thinking
…and for Canada
That’s why the shitheads are funding it
In 2021, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation pegged Albertans’ contribution to equalization as $650 per capita.
Lol. Lmao even.
Let’s risk a very unclear future, sold to us by utopian libertarians over $650 per person.
I’m Albertan. I’m also quite Liberal, so kind of rare in these parts.
Anyway, I just can’t wrap my head around the logic of the separatist have. Cut off ALL federal programs. Make your own programs, which is more than likely going to be blindingly more expensive due inefficiencies in starting from scratch. Cut all income tax (are you stupid?). Institute PST, something that is political sepukku in Alberta. Oh. And don’t forget to base your economy on a marginal product, with no access to foreign markets, whose commodity prices are controlled by a cartel.
Get the fuck out, and come back to me with some valid logic
Do you know how much Alberta oil money winds up in Quebec social programs and subsidized university tuitions?
All of it, I hope. I would much rather pay for education than line the pockets of megacorps.
Do you know how much the reclamation liability is for the oil sands? 200 billion. We have 2 billion saved to clean it up. That works out to $41,200 in cost per man, woman, and child, but sure, let’s focus on $650 per person.
I would put money on oilsands companies shuttering their mines once or becomes clear there is no way to get product to market, or that it’s much more expansive to do so. Shell already did this when OPEX costs got too high. TOTAL also pulled out.
You’re missing the point. Why should Alberta pay for Quebec’s social programs?
Why shoukd Ontario or Nova Scotia “pay for” Alberta’s air force bases?
Because we are a country, and patriotic people, not Patriots™ support people in other parts of the country. It’s not AB vs QC or the east - we are unified.
Also, please stop downvoting this guy. Maybe an unpopular take, but it’s central to the broader discussion and directly tied to the article itself
I try to be respectful in my replies and also appreciate there are and should be different views on a topic. FWIW, I don’t live in Alberta, I live in Manitoba a province that also benefits from Alberta equalization payments.
Yes, it is a country and we are (mostly) united. Which is exactly why we should listen to issues raised by others, even when they don’t fit with our narrative. Quebec is happy to take Alberta’s oil money transfer payments while they thumb their nose at any request to run a pipeline through the province. Very hypocritical in my opinion.
My family that works in the oil patch avoids or belittles the externalities of extraction and transport.
Why no refineries? Hand waving and excuses when it’s mostly just corporate structure and priorities, and the American Invisible Hand.
No refineries has been due to federal requirements. You can thank Justin Trudeau.
That’s a fair point, about blocking pipelines. BC is in the same boat in that regard.
Oil is a tough one - it’s a very valuable resource but it’s got a big stigma tied to it due to GHGs and spills. I wish we were collectively doing more about climate change, rather than just using it as an argument when it suits us, but that’s beside the point
On the whole, we need to be a lot more collaborative. Western resentment is real, and somewhat justified, but you don’t cut off your arm to spite your finger
In my opinion, this is happening to get exposure to their grievances. As I said earlier, I hope Carney takes the challenge seriously.
The intended purpose of equalization payments is to ensure every Canadian gets a comparable level of government services regardless of where they live. The ‘have’ provinces contribute money to the ‘have-not’ provinces.
Quebec has a big economy, but also a large population. They receive equalization payments because they have a smaller per capita GDP than Alberta, roughly speaking. I’m not current on the exact formula that’s used for equalization payments. The money goes into Quebec’s coffers. Quebec makes budget decisions based on their balance sheet, including funding tuition subsidies and social proprams. Payments don’t end up in one place or another, it’s income that’s used like all other government income.
The fact that Alberta raises more money per capita than the national average and makes equalization payments means they should have a roughly equal ability to fund tuition subsidies or social programs for its population. The reason this doesn’t happen is down to the budget decisions of the Alberta government.
Alberta received equalization payments for a long time, until the 1960s I believe. Depending on what the future holds, they may receive them again in the future. Especially if they don’t diversify from the oil and gas industry. The point of the equalization system is to share Canda’s wealth in an equitable way. Being against it is sort of like someone who complains about their taxes going to healthcare because they don’t go to the hospital. It’s short sighted and selfish.
I don’t have any data at hand, but I know there is a substantial number of Canadians from outside Alberta that have gone there over the years to work in their industries and make the Alberta economy what it is. Why shouldn’t some of that wealth be shared with the rest of Canada that provided that part of the work force?
Finally, I agree that Quebec can be difficult to work with and acts selfishly at times; putting their own interests above those of the rest of the country. However, I think this is a completely separate matter than the topic of equalization payments.
Edit: typo
Receiving federal money coming from Alberta should be tied to allowing Alberta have access to global markets. In my opinion, if Quebec blocks pipelines that should make them unable to collect equalization money. Either they are for a united ‘all for all’ Canada, or they are not.
Q and A equally self centered to other provincial citizens.
This one-note blackmail approach is a fine example of pissy attitudes coming from ‘texas north’, it ignores how complex provincial interdependencies are and ignores other solutions and problems. Alberta has to adapt faster.
That’s an option. But considering the separatist movement in Alberta is at 20%+ it might be good strategy to actually listen to the complaints. Maybe it’s Canada that has to adapt, or maybe it’s both.
It’s Canadian oil money going to Canadian citizens.
When the Alberta economy collapses because the idiots refuse to diversify, you’ll be begging for those equalization payments from the other provinces.
Yes. Equalization payments from Alberta to Quebec, while Quebec gets special considerations not offered to Alberta. There’s a reason the separatist movement is sitting at a shocking 20%. Is your answer to simply label the 20% as ‘idiots’? That doesn’t sound productive to me.
Albertan here, yea, they are idiots. Fuck em.
This comment is so fucking ignorant. No one talks about “EqUaLiZaTiOn pAYmEnTs” outside of Alberta. Why does Alberta have a deficit? Alberta has a deficit cause all the oil profits go to private companies and Alberta doesn’t have refineries.
I find that comment disturbing “Quebec social programs and subsidized university tuitions”, it’s so specific in what it hates, subsidized higher education. Basically the person is saying that they are miserable, and they want everyone to feel as miserable as them.
And basically blames QC for having focused and allocated their provincial funds on stuff that benefits Quebeckers directly, and Alberta resents it. Instead of spending their profits from their one industry, on themselves. Instead they elect a succession of clowns like Danielle Smith who do nothing but shill for said industry without doing much of anything else. Alberta has no refineries. Not a good decision.
I wonder if they included the cost of armed forces, border and customs agencies, foreign embassies, aviation and environmental regulatory agencies, national pension systems, and federal service staffing in their calculations? Or are they assuming the two behemoths landlocking them would just… let them be…? Both Canada and the US could decimate Alberta economically and I can see the current US administrarion doing it purposefully with the intention of annexing them.
Sometimes I wonder if separatists really just want Alberta to be a part of the US since we all know that’s how this would play out in the end.
That’s the plan, that’s why they meet with US officials.
“Honestly, I hate this country right now. If I could leave, I would.”
Darling, If I could throw you out, I would.
I can imagine a mass exodus too. I live here. I’d rather be homeless and jobless made destitute with a mortgage on a made worthless house than American.
I can imagine a mass exodus too
Starting with corporate head offices.
Exactly like what happened to Quebec during their sovereignty campaigns.
Businesses hate instability and unpredictability. And that’s exactly what separatist movements cause.
As an American, I’d be jealous of your homelessness especially when you don’t get imprisoned for said homelessness.
Oops sorry gotta go back to working for pennies at the child labor factory!
Maybe not jailed but left outside to die in winter instead.
For any article to put zero weight on how Liberal governments have treated Alberta is just ingenuous. Of course that has had an effect on the separatist movement.
Waaaah more fake Albertan butthurt. It’s your own fucking fault your province didn’t build refineries. No one else’s.
You forget about federal restrictions.
Please. Trudeau bought you a pipeline. How conveniently you forget that.
Trudeau introduced so many regulatory restrictions the private sector walked away from the construction forcing the government to purchase the uncompleted pipeline. A pipeline that then took 3 times the money to complete. What exactly am I conveniently forgetting?
Good. Fuck Alberta and fuck oil and gas. Marlaina Melania Danielle Smith and her merry band of redneck fucktards should all go apply for asylum in Montana and go join the failing experiment in unbridled capitalism that is our southern neighbour.
STFU whining constantly about regulations. It’s a toxic wasteland of an industry which needs to be heavily regulated.
Yes the record heights of oil production under Trudeau Jr were the federal gov’t treating AB badly.
Also the $35B pipeline the feds paid to construct, fuck them, am I rite.
… Cameron Davies is the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta
Jfc. :/
Learn from us in the United States and remove these cancerous traitors from your country NOW. Preserve your education and REGULATE BUSINESS AND TECH.
If you fail to do this. You too will have concentration camps and data centers all over your country and fascist traitors in charge
5 million people who own…
-the 3rd largest oil reserves on Earth -5th most natural gas produced on Earth
- huge forestry
- huge mining
- huge agriculture
- 1000s of freshwater lakes
They do lack fisheries tho
Yes this place is set up for economic disaster
You dont understand economics hey
Everyone is smarter than me I know that
Lol.
If Alberta separates it becomes landlocked by two much more powerful nations who can then tax us into oblivion on any imports or exports, or simply shut the door and screw us entirely. Doesn’t matter how much we have if we can’t export or import anything without being at the mercy of much larger nations, one of whom we’d have just pissed off and the other has a vested interest in annexing us.
Alberta “independence” would just be becoming a territory of the US in the long run.
When Alberta does stand up to leave the room and says “who’s coming with me?” I could legit see Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and possibly BC and Yukon going with them
