Separation anxiety: Canada Day evokes emotional mixture in Alberta

CALGARY — Alberta’s separation from the rest of the country was top of mind for Maple Leaf adorned Albertans in the province’s largest city as they celebrated the birth of Confederation.

With a headband of bobbing maple leaves, Candace Gillies said she chose to dress with extra patriotic fervour this year.

“I don’t want to see Canada be torn apart. If Alberta doesn’t have Canada, then what is it, really?” said Gillies, 46, who has lived in Calgary for more than three decades.

On Oct. 19, voters are to decide whether they want the province to remain in Canada or to start the process for holding a second, binding vote on quitting Confederation.

The campaign period for the referendum officially began in late May, after Premier Danielle Smith announced the vote.

Since then, a number of groups have formed to try and sway public opinion.

Gillies, in Eau Claire Plaza in Calgary’s downtown, said staying in Canada is important to her because her 10-year-old son had a heart transplant and benefits from public health care.

“Canada provides so much for his medical needs and health that if we left Canada, we would move. We would move out, to go back to Canada,” she said.

Halim Ezimokhai, who was also celebrating Canada Day in Calgary, said he understands everyone has their reasons for wanting to separate but the thought of leaving Canada breaks his heart.

“Canada is Canada because we’re together and we support each other no matter what, and there are always solutions that we can find if we work together,” said Ezimokhai, 36, who was raised in the Middle East and immigrated to Canada in 2007.

At another Canada Day event in Calgary, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was met with a raucous cheer by a red-and-white clad crowd.

The cheer grew even louder when Smith, referencing an oil-and-gas drilling company sponsoring the event, said there was going to be “a lot more drilling going on in the province.”

“Thank you as well for being out here to celebrate our incredible country, our incredible province,” she added in her short remarks.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was set be in Edmonton Wednesday, but his Canada Day speech was cancelled due to severe thunderstorms in Ottawa preventing his plane from taking off.

The premier is to make an announcement Thursday about her government’s proposed bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. She has touted the proposed pipeline and an associated energy deal with Carney as proof that Albertans shouldn’t give up on Canada.

But Keith Wilson, a lawyer campaigning for the province to go its own way, said ahead of Canada Day that Albertans should take heed of their affordability challenges and consider the politicking needed for Ottawa to be open to producing and moving Alberta’s lifeblood oil resources.

He planned to spend Canada Day in Mirror, a hamlet east of Red Deer, where a café owner and fellow separation supporter was throwing an “Albertans’ Day Rally” with speeches, musical performances and activities for kids.

“A typical Canada Day celebration-type event but with an Alberta theme,” he said.

Thomas Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier who spearheaded the Forever Canadian petition to remain in the country, wanted Albertans to appreciate the freedom that Canada affords its residents and how the country serves as a global role model.

His petition of more than 400,000 names called on Premier Smith to avoid a referendum and instead make it provincial policy that separation is off the table.

When a judge threw out a competing separatist referendum petition in May, Smith cited Lukaszuk’s signature count and the separatists’ claim of 300,000 names to say she thinks enough Albertans want to see the matter put to rest once and for all at the polls.

She said even though she’ll be voting for Alberta to stay, many have a decade-long list of grievances with Ottawa over its energy and environmental policies.

Lukaszuk said he’s still holding out hope that Smith calls off the referendum.

But in any event, it’s a “moment of awakening” for Albertans.

“There comes a time, for every generation, where we have to stand up for what we stand for and be courageous and not allow negative forces to win simply because of apathy,” he said.

Wilson said the fact that an energy deal is needed at all proves Confederation isn’t working.

“Ottawa controls Alberta,” he said, “and is holding back our prosperity.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2026.

–With files from Jack Farrell in Edmonton

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press