ALBERTA SEPARATION HANGS ON THE EDGE OF A KNIFE

May 15 2025 David Parker

I am writing this with a deep sense of optimism, married to the unshakeable knowledge that the coming years will be the hardest of my life. We have crossed the Rubicon. With the election of Mark Carney and the announcement yesterday that there will be no federal budget this year, we now know that democracy in Canada is dying. I won’t even get into the absolute joke that so many of these judicial recounts with Elections Canada have been, we don’t need to. The truth is so much worse. The Canadian government does not even respect its citizens enough to let their elected representatives review government spending. They are openly ignoring the entire tradition of representative democracy, and they have calculated that Canadians will not care. Tragically, they are probably right.

Meanwhile, in Alberta, we have a Premier who has explicitly said she does not support separation. She is actively pressuring her MLAs to order their Constituency Associations not to bring forward any kind of policy about separation at the UCP AGM this fall. Worse, she is launching yet another “panel” to “listen” to Albertans, instead of simply doing what she already knows we want. Separation will be impossible while Danielle Smith remains Premier. We cannot have a federalist negotiating separation with other federalists.

Despite this, the Alberta Prosperity Project has accumulated more than 250,000 pledges to sign a petition calling for a separation referendum, just in the two and a half weeks since Carney became Prime Minister. A new separatist party, the Republican Party of Alberta, has formed and already boasts half the membership of the United Conservative Party. Poll after poll shows that 30–35% of Albertans support separation. And this is before any province-wide campaign has even begun to educate people on just how badly Alberta is being treated by Ottawa. No matter what Danielle Smith or the UCP say or do, the defining issue in Alberta politics in the coming years will be separation.

The mainstream media, and even much of the so-called “right-wing” media, remain skeptical of separation. People are always skeptical of change, especially when it threatens their interests. Proponents of separation are mocked by Eastern elites, and there is an ingrained disbelief in Eastern Canada that Albertans would ever truly attempt to separate. That skepticism is not without reason. A successful separation campaign in Alberta will require a miracle. It will demand real sacrifices, thousands of Albertans putting their livelihoods, reputations, and futures on the line. Both the federal and provincial governments will do everything in their power to stop us. This will not be like the Quebec referendums, where Canadians begged Quebec to stay. This will be all-out political warfare, waged by any means necessary, to keep Alberta chained to a system that exploits us. We are the economic engine of Canada, and they will not let us go easily.

Those who truly want to build a new nation must understand the scale of the battle ahead. This will not be a simple vote. It will not be a conventional exercise in democracy. It will be the greatest political struggle of our lives, and the entire system will be rigged against us. That thought fills many with despair. I’ve heard it said too often: “We’ll never win a referendum.” The arguments for failure are endless, and everyone knows them. But I ask: When did we stop believing that great things can be accomplished? Anyone with even a passing understanding of history knows that borders shift, nations rise and fall, and determined people have built new countries from nothing. Somehow, we’ve forgotten that this is still possible. We’ve stopped dreaming. We’ve accepted a status quo that is impoverishing us and stealing the futures of our children and grandchildren. The question isn’t whether separation is possible, it absolutely is. The only question is whether Albertans have the will to make it happen.

In the coming months, every leader in the separatist movement will be attacked. Agents will be planted to sow division. Egos will be exploited to destroy unity. And when those tactics fail, people will be slandered and publicly vilified simply for being involved. I know this personally, I have already felt the full force of the state being used to try to silence me. Others will face the same. We saw it happen to the Freedom Convoy, and that was a low-stakes protest compared to breaking up a nation. So when you hear vile things said about someone in the separatist movement, pause. Ask yourself: Who benefits from the division being sown among us? The answer is clear, those who want to see us fail.

If we want to succeed, we must change how we think about politics. Too many still believe politics is about picking a leader. That is why leaders hold so much power in our current system. The system was designed to limit that power, but citizens have forgotten how it works. They’ve drifted into building cults of personality rather than building democratic movements. That tendency will be our undoing. We cannot make this movement about individual personalities or even individual leaders. We must be united by one clear vision: An Independent Alberta. As long as we keep that vision central, we can succeed. But if we allow ourselves to become distracted by egos and infighting, we will fail.

This will not be easy. It is not supposed to be. Every generation dreams that someone else will bear the burden, that freedom can be won without fire, that nations can be born without labour. But history does not work that way. It never has. There is no greatness without sacrifice. No liberty without cost. No future for our children unless we are willing to pay the price today. That price will be high. You will be mocked. You will be lied about. You will be hated. Some of you will lose jobs, reputations, even relationships. But you must ask yourself - what is all of that worth if you are living as a subject, not a citizen? If your children grow up in a nation where they have no say, no power, no future, what was your comfort even for?

This is not a normal political moment. This is not just another debate between Left and Right. This is the hour where history demands something more from us. We must become the kind of people who build nations, not with slogans, but with sacrifice. Alberta will not be free because we tweeted about it. Alberta will be free because we were willing to bleed for it. That is what lies before us now. The final question is not whether we are strong enough to win, but whether we are willing to suffer for something greater than ourselves. If we are, then no empire, no media machine, and no political class can stop what is coming. A free and independent Alberta, if we are willing to pay the price.