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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
