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The long read: the Albertan Separatist Movement – down but not out
On 19 October, a set of referendums took place in the Canadian province of Alberta, one of which was: ‘Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?’ Essentially, it was a referendum on whether there should be a referendum on Albertan independence from Canada. The result was a resounding affirmation of support for Alberta to remain in Canada, with ‘Remain’ winning by three to one. Albertan separatism has therefore, for now, been defeated, but the underlying discontent in the province toward Ottawa remains strong.
Alberta is Canada’s fourth-largest province by population, but is politically distant from the Federal Government in Ottawa. Only one Albertan, Joe Clark, has been the Prime Minister of Canada (1979-1980), and the province has different political priorities than other provinces.
Alberta is extremely oil-rich, holding approximately 167 billion barrels of oil reserves in its oil sands, and many Albertans work in the oil industry. Oil is a part of Albertan society, symbolised by Edmonton’s ice hockey team: the ‘Oilers’. Consequently, Ottawa’s anti-oil policy and fossil fuel regulations face massive opposition from the Albertan provincial legislature and from the Albertan public. Politically, this manifests itself in Alberta being significantly more conservative than other Canadian provinces. But, importantly for the motivations behind the Albertan separatist movement, Alberta bluntly does not really matter in Canadian federal politics.
Canadian federal elections are not decided by what happens in Alberta or its western neighbours, British Columbia, Saskatchewan or Manitoba. Between them, these four provinces only hold 108 of the 343 seats in the Parliament of Canada, a significant amount, but one that pales in comparison to Ontario and Quebec’s combined total of 200 seats, or 58% of the total. Western Canada, especially Alberta, also has an extremely consistent voting pattern. Most ridings (Canadian constituencies) are won by the right-wing party of the day, currently the Conservative Party of Canada, and urban ridings in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Winnipeg are won either by the Liberal Party of Canada or the New Democratic Party. Alberta’s rural ridings are the most conservative in Canada, with Battle River – Crowfoot being won by Conservative candidate Damien Kurek with 82.8% of the vote in 2025, a federal election that the Conservatives lost. But Alberta’s conservative voting record rarely matters in Canadian elections; it is simply taken for granted. Federal elections are decided over 1000 miles east of Alberta, in the more populated Ontario and Quebec.
Modern Albertan estrangement began with the 1993 Federal Election, when Western Canada, especially Alberta, expressed its displeasure with the ruling Progressive Conservative Party by switching its support from them to the Reform Party, a more socially conservative populist party motivated by Western Canadian frustration with the Brian Mulroney government. Reform swept Western Canada, winning all but four seats in Alberta (all of which were in Edmonton) and the majority of seats in British Columbia. However, the Liberals won all but one of Ontario’s 99 ridings and all but one in Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia), meaning they won a majority and Jean Chrétien became PM. Albertans heavily voted against Chrétien, but as Ontario, parts of Quebec and Atlantic Canada backed him, the Liberals won. To exaggerate Albertan anger, neither Reform nor the Progressive Conservatives, who were annihilated and reduced to two seats, became the opposition. This instead went to the newly formed Bloc Québécois, who won 54 ridings in their namesake province, meaning that the years after 1993 featured a PM from Quebec who won power thanks to Ontario, and an opposition solely devoted to Quebec issues. From their perspective, Albertans were left in the cold and had no real say in federal politics.
After the Progressive Conservatives and Reform merged in 2003 to form the current Conservative Party of Canada, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper was viewed more favourably in Alberta. Harper, originally from Ontario, had links to Alberta through his education at the University of Calgary, his work with Imperial Oil and his position as an MP from the province. However, the starting gun of modern Albertan separatism was fired by the election of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals in 2015. In January 2017, Trudeau said at a town hall in Ontario that ‘we need to phase them [the Albertan oil sands] out. We need to manage the transition off of our dependence on fossil fuels’. Alberta’s reaction was immediate; the next day Trudeau was loudly booed by the crowd at an Oilers game. In 2018, an Ipsos poll found that 62% of Albertans believed the province ‘does not get its fair share from the Confederation’ and only 18% believed that ‘the views of western Canadians are adequately represented in Ottawa’.
What is crucial to note is that Albertan separatism is highly different in character to Quebec separatism. In Quebec, separatism is derived from cultural difference, Francophone legacy and draws support from across the political spectrum. In Alberta, meanwhile, separatist support largely comes from the right and is driven by economic factors such as oil and gas policies and energy regulations. This suggests that Albertan separatism is easier for Ottawa to counter: introduce oil-friendly policies, bolster the Albertan economy, and the problem disappears. However, in an era where climate action is crucial, such policies are untenable for a Liberal government, and Ottawa’s Alberta playbook is unlikely to happen. Consequently, the re-election of the Liberals in 2025 under Mark Carney, despite Carney being raised in Edmonton, was viewed with anger among many across Alberta, and further raised the secession question. In the context of more confrontational American policy toward Canada and 51st state threats, Albertan separatism became stronger as some in the province see more in common between Alberta and the US than with eastern Canada.
This leads back to the referendum in question, called by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in May 2026. Media coverage of the referendum was high, being the main news in Canada for the days and weeks prior and making headlines across the Western world. The resounding defeat of the motion to hold a binding referendum has put the brakes on the separatist movement for the time being, but has not defeated separatism in the province. The question of Scottish independence hasn’t been squashed by the rejected referendum in 2014; the next year the Scottish National Party won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats in the general election, and independence remains salient. Similar can be expected in Alberta; there is no reason to suggest that prominent Albertan separatists will cease their campaign and give up.
The motives for separatism for those who support it are institutional and long-lasting, and unlikely to change in the future. Canadian power is centred over a thousand miles away: Bay Street in Toronto is the main financial centre, Toronto and Montreal are the country’s two biggest cities, and Canadian politics has long been characterised by the Quebec question. Only three Canadian prime ministers: Carney, Clark and Kim Campbell, were born west of Ontario, compared to seven from Ontario and six from Quebec. Naturally, therefore, whilst such conditions remain, western Canada will likely remain a political afterthought for many in Ontario and Quebec, and Albertans will continue to feel estranged. Whether enough Albertans will support secession for it to tangibly become feasible is questionable; only 25% supported the holding of a binding independence referendum, so there’s a long way for the needle to move yet. Nonetheless, this does not degrade the levels of frustration and discontent in the province toward Ottawa and perceived anti-Albertan policy. But with this result, alongside fears that Albertan secession will lead to Albertan accession into the US in an era of ‘elbows-up’ Canadian unity against its southern neighbour, Alberta is likely to remain Canadian despite provincial discontent with the balance of power.
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