Albertans must push back against separatist fantasies

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Taber Times

Talk of Alberta breaking away from Canada is no longer just background noise. It’s getting louder, more organized, and too many reasonable Albertans are staying quiet. Their silence only emboldens the “manifest destiny” crowd.

The voices pushing for Alberta’s separation need to hear an important truth: the vast majority of Albertans love this province and love its place in Canada.

We need to say that out loud.

Separation sentiment in Alberta tends to flare up when frustration with federal policies, particularly around energy, equalization and what’s seen as a lack of respect for Alberta’s contributions, reaches a boiling point. Recent debates over pipelines, climate rules and regional fairness have reignited calls for independence in some quarters.

After a few too many run-ins with people bent on breaking up the country, here are some general notes on Alberta’s separation anxiety and those afflicted by it.

As with most movements, this one covers a wide range of views. Some people live and breathe the idea of Alberta as its own country. Others (more reasonably) want significant structural change, still within Confederation.

But my concern is with those at the far end of the growing Alberta independence movement:

• Most have little grasp of Canadian or Alberta history, or how deeply the two are fused. One man spoken with insisted Alberta was “never truly part of Canada to begin with,” seemingly unaware of the constitutional history that brought us here.

• Many cling to generic descriptors–“hard-working,” “visionary,” “entrepreneurial”–as if these define a uniquely Albertan identity. They don’t. These qualities are common across Canada.

• There’s a fixation on Alberta’s energy wealth as the foundation for a new republic, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of today’s industry. The assumption: the world will line up to buy from a sovereign Alberta. Pipelines and access to tidewater (routes to coastal ports for export) are treated as Alberta’s birthright. The interests of others be damned.

• This reflects a shallow grasp of how economies and investment actually work, let alone the complexity of creating a new nation-state. That’s perhaps the most troubling part of the delusion.

• There’s also a deep and immovable belief that eastern Canada is entirely to blame for Alberta’s woes. Not just Ottawa: Ontarians, Quebecers, Maritimers. Anyone who questions the narrative is told to “go back to Ontario.”

• Then there’s the glaring lack of engagement with First Nation treaty rights, and no recognition of how central those rights would be in any attempt to redraw political boundaries.

• Finally, the echo chamber. These voices feed off one another online, fuelling grievance and reinforcing their worldview until it starts to feel inevitable.

But here’s the reality: the majority of Albertans don’t support separation. A 2021 Angus Reid Institute poll found just 28 per cent said Alberta should pursue independence.

That leaves the rest of us, mainstream middle-ground Albertans, with a responsibility.

Stand up to the separatists.

They’re coming for you, and they live by one guiding principle: “If you’re not for us, you’re against us.”

It’s time to show that Albertans still stand united behind a united Canada.

Bill Whitelaw is a director and advisor to many industry boards, including the Canadian Society for Evolving Energy, which he chairs. He speaks and comments frequently on the subjects of social licence, innovation and technology, and energy supply networks.

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