All aboard the Trump Train? Conservative Canadian province moves towards secession

Residents of an oil- and gas-filled Canadian province are reportedly itching to secede from Canada and perhaps even become a U.S. state.

Known as “Canada’s Texas” because of its oil, the province of Alberta “is home to a small but dedicated minority of separatists,” according to The New York Times.

“Their voice has been amplified in part because of [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s calls to annex Canada and by the re-election of a Liberal federal government, which many in traditionally conservative Alberta view as hostile to their concerns,” the Times notes.

My view is that if Alberta succeeds in succession that you would witness an unprecedented net migration to the province. Many would want to escape Liberal authoritarian rule & the high tax regime !!
Thoughts ?
pic.twitter.com/lFARB8ZCgO

— Concerned Canadian (@Concern70732755) May 10, 2025

“If there was a referendum on it, I would not hesitate to say separation,” Alberta resident Bob Gablehaus told the Times. “I don’t like the way the liberals treat Western Canada. I think it’s unfair.”

Most Canadians understand why. A whopping 55 percent of all Canadians say they understand why Albertans want to secede, according to a Leger survey reported on by The Canadian Press.

Despite all this support and understanding, Alberta conservative leader Danielle Smith isn’t necessarily a fan of secession.

“Smith, Alberta’s MAGA-style conservative leader, says she is not personally in favor of Alberta breaking away from Canada,” the Times notes.

“She says she is seeking leverage to radically renegotiate Alberta’s relationship with the federal government in Ottawa, primarily to unshackle the province’s oil industry from regulations meant to address climate change,” according to the paper.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addresses rising separatist sentiment, denying personal support for leaving Canada but open to a 2026 referendum if citizens petition for it. She accuses Ottawa of economic attacks on Alberta’s oil sector and seeks an “Alberta Accord” for pipelines… pic.twitter.com/BdGLD8oas9

— (@pr0ud_americans) May 7, 2025

However, she isn’t doing anything to stop secession. If anything, she’s helping push it forward by introducing a bill that’d make it easier for Albertans to launch a referendum on secession.

The bill would specifically “lower the bar for constitutional referendum petitions, in part by slashing the number of citizens’ signatures required for a referendum, from 600,000 signatures to about 177,000,” according to the Times.

The bill would also grant petitioners an extra month to collect signatures.

“Ottawa needs a wake-up call from Alberta,” Albertan tattoo artist Sean Fuller told the Times. “Most of us feel like we are Ottawa’s piggy bank and we don’t get anything in return for that. Maybe, if there is enough political noise over here, maybe [Mark] Carney’s new government will have to pay attention.”

“Albertans are hurt and betrayed,” Premier Smith said, addressing growing talk of separation within her province following Mark Carney’s election. pic.twitter.com/ElqnVg1fky

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) April 29, 2025

Alberta’s primary beef with Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, is oil.

“The world looks at us like we’ve lost our minds,” Smith said in an address to Albertans earlier this month. “We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on earth, and yet we land lock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us, while enabling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch.”

“For Albertans, these attacks on our province by our own federal government have become unbearable,” she added.

Carney, the newly elected prime minister, is a die-hard leftist more interested in fighting the Earth’s natural climate change than in seeing his nation’s provinces grow and prosper.

“[T]he case has been made by Prime Minister Mark Carney in his previous incarnations that there should be a managed phase out of oil and gas and that 80 percent of current fossil fuel energy reserves—including half of gas and one third of oil—should not be developed,” according to The Hub, a not-for-profit news outlet.

All this comes as a small batch of anti-secession Albertans are busy trying to launch their own referendum that would ask voters, “Do you agree that Alberta must remain in Canada and any form of separation be rejected?”

This movement is being led by none other than former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk.

“We should be strong and forceful in reaffirming our commitment to our country — to Canada,” he told Global News this week. “And those who don’t feel the affinity or loyalty to our country, they shouldn’t be the ones leading this debate.”

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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