(NAFB) There have been rumblings of separation within the Canadian province of Alberta for decades. With the re-election of the federal Liberal Party, those rumbles have turned to angry shouts. Polls suggest that between 25 and 30 percent of Albertans would prefer their province to be an independent sovereign state. Some of them say they don’t mind U.S. President Trump’s 51st State rhetoric.
At the core of the pro-seccession argument is the idea that western Canada, especially oil and gas-rich Alberta, is a primary economic driver, and that Alberta is contributing far more to the rest of Canada than it receives.
Alberta is one of Canada’s wealthier provinces, so it must make equalization payments to Ottawa, with those funds dispersed to other less-prosperous jurisdictions. When Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were re-elected in 2019, the Alberta separatist movement began to get more organized, and the movement got a name, the Alberta Prosperity Project.
Recently, just north of Edmonton, about a thousand people turned out for a town hall meeting. Alberta Prosperity Project leader Mitch Sylvester opened the meeting by asking those in attendance “Would you like Alberta to become a sovereign country?”
Jeff Rath, a lawyer representing the Alberta Prosperity Project, said that Premier Smith needs to acknowledge that many people within her own provincial United Conservative Party are in favor of the separation issue, and that Ottawa has nothing to offer Alberta.
Much of oil-and-gas-rich northern Alberta is Crown Land controlled by the federal government. And there are the Land Treaty issues that have little to do with Alberta, but those Treaties do involve the various First Nations tribes in Alberta and the federal government in Ottawa. Brooks Arcand-Paul is a Native Cree, and he is an elected Member of the Alberta Legislature.
So, while there is some appetite for Alberta to separate from Canada, the Alberta Prosperity Project faces a steep uphill battle to attain its goal of sovereignty.
