Albertans rally for separation, saying things won’t change under Confederation
By Canadian Press on May 3, 2025.
EDMONTON — Katheryn Speck said she used to be a Canadian nationalist, travelled the world with a maple leaf on her backpack and once lived in Quebec so she could become fluently bilingual.
But on Saturday she was among hundreds of people who rallied at the Alberta legislature to support separation from Canada, with many in the crowd waving Alberta flags and a few even displaying the U.S. Stars and Stripes.
“I thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I’m so disappointed. I’m literally crushed that we’ll never be represented in this country and there’s never a chance of changing the government,” Speck said.
Earlier this week, Premier Danielle Smith’s government proposed legislation that would lower the bar for holding a referendum. While Smith told reporters she won’t presuppose what questions Albertans might bring to a ballot, the move would make it easier for citizens to call for a vote to secede from Canada.
The federal Liberals’ election win Monday has also prompted some people in the province to demand an exit.
Speck said the National Energy Policy of the 1980s eroded her Canadian pride. Now a decade of Liberal policies that she said have blocked pipelines and stymied the province’s energy industry have her thinking there’s no fix under Confederation.
“Once the votes are counted in Ontario, the election is over. We don’t matter. We never matter,” she said.
Hannah Henze, a 17-year-old who attended Saturday’s rally, said she might have felt differently about separation if the Conservatives had won.
“If (Pierre) Poilievre was in, I feel we’d have a lot more hope than a third or fourth Liberal term, which is just going to ruin our country,” Henze said.
Leo Jensen, meanwhile, said Canadians are worried about losing auto manufacturing jobs due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but they don’t seem concerned about protecting jobs in Alberta’s oil and gas sector.
“I don’t see how a province like Quebec takes all of our dirty money, but they won’t let a dirty pipeline go through Quebec to aid an oil refinery in New Brunswick,” Jensen said.
A few dozen counter-protesters attempted to drown out the rally, many holding signs saying that separation would violate treaties with First Nations.
Piikani Nation Chief Troy Knowlton said in a letter earlier this week that it’s understandable many in the West are frustrated their rejection of the federal Liberal party in the election didn’t play out elsewhere. But he said Alberta doesn’t have the authority to interfere with or negate treaties.
On her provincewide radio call-in show on Saturday, the premier said she fully respects treaty rights.
“Everything I do is changing Alberta’s relationship with Ottawa. First Nations have their own relationship with Ottawa and that’s enshrined in treaty. That does not change,” Smith said.
In March, Smith threatened a “national unity crisis” if the next prime minister doesn’t acquiesce to a list of her demands within six months, but reiterated this week that she supports a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.
Rally attendee Susan Westernaier said she believed everything would be better if Alberta separated.
“We have the oil, we have the resources. We’re fine,” Westernaier said, noting she believed Monday’s election was rigged.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2025.
Rob Drinkwater, The Canadian Press
23-22
The majority of Albertans, still, do not, favour separating.
You are right about that.
pierre is a god; the east hates the west; smith is a god; we have oil; canada is broken; too many folk here that are not white, and that do not respect god’s creation of only two sexes; we could shoot our way out of canada if canada did not conspire to take away our assault weapons rights; make alberta great again; the election was rigged…the most narrow, disturbed, foolish, selfish outlooks, just like the the orange crush mob.
If there is one thing Smith is committed to, it is creating instability: in health care, in policing, in education, in pensions, in provincial parks, in preserving clean air and water, in transition to low-ghg electricity, … and now in protecting Canadian sovereignty.
Now, where-o-where did she pick up the destabilization ideology? Maybe she is vying for governorship?
What a bunch of fools who attended this separation rally at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. Hanna Henze has obviously been brainwashed by her older relatives, and by other older people. She, like her family, clearly can’t see that the UCP and the CPC aren’t Conservatives, but Reformers. It’s no wonder why Alberta is a laughingstock of the world.
Alberta cannot separate, and for multiple reasons. For starters, all of Alberta is on Treaty land. CPP, EI, currency, the military, national parks, Canada Post, and the R.C.M.P would have to be acquired. Also, Alberta is landlocked. In addition, oil prices are sinking. We have a severe drought in Alberta right now. These things make separation impossible.
Furthermore, given what is happening in the United States under Donald Trump is making matters worse. It would not be a good idea for Alberta to become a part of the United States.
These separation fanatics should ask what exactly the Conservatives in Alberta have been doing for them for all these years. They did so many very costly debacles and mistakes, which cost us billions of dollars, and didn’t properly look after essential services and infrastructure in Alberta, ever since Peter Lougheed was no longer the premier of Alberta. Oil prices aren’t controlled by the federal government. Brian Mulroney abolished the National Energy Program, in the 1980s.
The UCP aren’t a Conservative government at all. Neither are the CPC, and that’s why the CPC got defeated, once again. Alberta has around 4.5 million to 4.8 million people. Most Albertans oppose separation. If these people don’t like things, they can go to the United States.