Playing Footsie With Alberta Separatism

[niniveh]

When you poke a hornets' nest you never know what will come out and sting, Premier Smith.


U.S. church leader Doug Wilson declares strong support for Alberta independence movement
Nathan VanderKlippeInternational correspondent
Moscow, idaho
Published Yesterday


Pastor Doug Wilson prepares for a podcast recording in Moscow, Idaho, on Tuesday. He has attracted attention for his support of Christian nationalism, a belief that U.S. law and society should function according to biblical precepts.Margaret Albaugh/The Globe and Mail


A prominent American church leader with ties to members of the Donald Trump administration has declared strong support for the Alberta independence movement, which he calls a step toward establishing a government ruled by Christian principles.
Pastor Doug Wilson has prayed in the Pentagon, counselled Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and won attention for his support of Christian nationalism, a belief that U.S. law and society should function according to biblical precepts.
“I believe the essential Christian political dogma is that government must be limited, and I would see the successful secession of Alberta as a wonderful limitation on an overreaching government,” Mr. Wilson said in an interview this week in Moscow, Idaho, where he has built a large conservative church community and a following that includes Mr. Hegseth.
He has also gained prominence in Canada, where nearly a dozen congregations in his denomination have taken root, at least one led by pastors who have said an independent Alberta should adopt Christianity as its official religion.
Opinion: Alberta separatism increasingly resembles a temper tantrum
Three congregations in Mr. Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches are in Alberta, including in Grande Prairie, Cochrane and Coaldale. Across Canada, “there’s a number of others coming,” said Mr. Wilson, whose mother was Canadian.
A successful secession vote in Alberta “would encourage all kinds of people,” he said.
A Christian nation, Mr. Wilson says, would in the U.S. revoke the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, in favour of a household ballot system. On his blog, he has criticized women for “slutty dress,” and says positions of authority should generally be reserved for men.
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NuArt Theatre, next to the Kenworthy Performing Arts theatre, is owned by the Wilson family in downtown Moscow, Idaho. They exhibit secular and Christian films and events, including a visit with Charlie Kirk in 2025.Margaret Albaugh/The Globe and Mail
The American pastor’s backing of Alberta separatists “confirms that there are elements of MAGA who are paying attention to the Alberta secession movement and want it to succeed,” said Jason Kenney, the former Alberta premier who is an outspoken federalist champion.
In January, Jeffrey Rath, a leader of the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project, described plans to meet with U.S. Treasury officials “to discuss our feasibility study regarding a 500 Billion USD line of credit to support the transition to a free and independent Alberta.”
Billionaire Elon Musk, who has recently rekindled ties with the White House after an earlier falling out, voiced approval of Alberta independence earlier this year.
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Support from the U.S. is welcome, separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre said.
“Support from anywhere is good,” he added. “Especially with people that line up with your ideology.”
Christian churches in Alberta have played an important role in the secession movement, with a group of pastors among the supporters of Mr. Sylvestre’s Stay Free Alberta group.
“We’re non-denominational, but we’re predominantly Christian,” he said.
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Separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre during a rally in front of the Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton on May 4.HENRY MARKEN/AFP/Getty Images
But the religious overtones of independence are becoming more prominent, said Grant Abraham, leader of the Reforge Party, a new Alberta-based federal party.
“We’re seeing this discussion now more as not just a political context, but something to do really more in the context of light and darkness, good and evil. And it’s waking the church response up in Canada,” he said.
In Grande Prairie, Nathan Zekveld is pastor of Christ Covenant Church, which is part of the network of churches founded by Mr. Wilson. He has described independence as a way to leave a Canada that he calls “a wicked nation in rebellion against God.”
Mr. Zekveld studied at a college in Idaho founded by Mr. Wilson and has participated in public debates on Alberta independence, joining a Facebook group whose organizers “pledge our alliance to the separation of Alberta and Western Canada.”
“My prayer for Alberta is that if/when this referendum passes, that we boldly declare Christianity to be the official religion of this new nation,” Mr. Zekveld wrote on X in January. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Tony Keller: An ‘independent’ Alberta would be a way station on the path to 51st statehood
Mr. Kenney described the views of secessionists motivated by religion, rather than economic factors, as particularly potent.
“We really don’t think there’s anything we can do to sway the most hard-core committed separatists. And at the core of that core would be these folks whose separatism is informed by apocalyptic sentiment,” he said.
Open support from an American religious leader may bolster Alberta’s separatists, said Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Alberta MLA who is driving across Alberta in a Forever Canadian unity bus. “It wrongfully legitimizes them.”
But it may also strengthen conviction among federalists. “It’s, ‘how dare you break up my country – and on top of that, how dare you outsiders get involved in the breaking up of my country,’” he said.
For Mr. Wilson, the independence movement in Alberta, if it succeeds, will mark another proof point in what he sees as a “recoil” against progressivism. He lists as evidence the Brexit vote in Britain, the rise of hard-right parties in Europe and polls showing the political viability of conservative candidate Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
John Rapley: Alberta separatists, learn from the disaster of Brexit. I was there
That trend is not universal. In Canada, voters last year returned the Liberal Party to power.
Nonetheless, “I think the recoil is happening in Canada as well, and just needs a thing to coalesce around,” Mr. Wilson said. He says he believes Alberta independence could be that thing, a catalyst for those who believe countries like Canada and the U.S. need to dedicate themselves to Christian governance.
He wants the influence of overarching governments, like the one in Ottawa, to be stripped away.
“To minimize the control and authority of central, swollen governments is to open the windows and let oxygen in the room – where freedom of all sorts can flourish,” he said. “And that would include the freedom to preach the gospel, to say outrageous things – like women are women and men are men – and not be arrested.”
Mr. Wilson said he has not given money to the independence movement and is interested in supporting his congregations.
But if the separatists fail, he said, his church stands prepared to intervene more directly on Canadian soil.
“We’ll be sending undercover missionaries, financial support for legal fights,” he said.

 

[geezerbuter]

Raping children is ok according to the Bible just don't call Bruce Jenner she. Got it conservatives

 

[Butler1000]

30% is likely the best they will get. Time to put this to rest now with a massive turnout to tell the separation idiots to fuck off

 

[geezerbuter]

The last time those losers tried to fuck with our politics it put a liberal in as PM. This is an act of war

 

[Frankfooter]

Seems like most of the separatists are freedom convoy, anti vaxxer types.

 

[tml]

30% is likely the best they will get. Time to put this to rest now with a massive turnout to tell the separation idiots to fuck off

But of course that would mean the referendum results were rigged. Right??

 

[Butler1000]

But of course that would mean the referendum results were rigged. Right??

Even at those numbers it would shut them up. Or essentially make them irrelevant. Quebec numbers are higher and they haven't peeped up in 3 decades.

 

[niniveh]

30% is likely the best they will get. Time to put this to rest now with a massive turnout to tell the separation idiots to fuck off

I suspect your number of 30% is in the range and probably won't go much higher. But that number poses a major threat within Premier Smith's own caucus. She thought she could use the referendum as a "crowbar" to pry concessions out of Carney on issues that mattered to Alberta: pipelines, carbon taxes, regulations that impeded energy growth. The model she eyed was Quebec where it was used successsfully to squeeze Ottawa. However, my sense is that Carney, who is desparate for easy revenues from O&G to fund his ambitious & expensive agenda, would have granted Smith's wish list anyway, Referendum or not. But the genie is now out of the bag and Smith, having encouraged and cheer-led a referendum, is now facing a conundrum of her own making.

 

[Butler1000]

I suspect your number of 30% is in the range and probably won't go much higher. But that number poses a major threat within Premier Smith's own caucus. She thought she could use the referendum as a "crowbar" to pry concessions out of Carney on issues that mattered to Alberta: pipelines, carbon taxes, regulations that impeded energy growth. The model she eyed was Quebec where it was used successsfully to squeeze Ottawa. However, my sense is that Carney, who is desparate for easy revenues from O&G to fund his ambitious & expensive agenda, would have granted Smith's wish list anyway, Referendum or not. But the genie is now out of the bag and Smith, having encouraged and cheer-led a referendum, is now facing a conundrum of her own making.

If she rolled the dice and loses that's on her. I don't care if it hurts her. As long as they are thrashed the people of Alberta can decide political realities after.

 

[niniveh]

A government calling a referendum it hopes to lose? Albexit, meet Brexit

Tony Keller
Published 6 hours ago
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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a news conference in Calgary, Alta., Friday, May 22, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshJeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press



05:57
1x
The author of the 2016 Brexit vote, former British prime minister David Cameron, launched his referendum on exiting the European Union in the hope that the idea would go down to a crushing defeat.
Instead, the Leave side won.
The creator of this fall’s Albexit referendum, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, has similarly insisted on holding a referendum – strictly speaking, a referendum on having a referendum – even though she says that she is against leaving Canada, and hopes to bury the issue for good.
Which is, to be clear, exactly what Mr. Cameron was after. He had a clever plan to mollify Leavers within his own party with a referendum they were supposed to lose. Instead, Leave won, he exited Downing Street and Britain exited the European Union.
Will the Brexit story repeat itself in Alberta?
For now, it looks highly unlikely. But we still have things to learn from the British on how to avoid ending up with an outcome that most voters, including many of those who voted for it, regret.
Don’t give Alberta separatists space to gain traction, Stéphane Dion warns
The good news is that Canada has a lot of experience with separation referendums. Decades of turmoil over Quebec’s place within Canada has sown the silver lining of a legal framework. It recognizes the possibility of provincial independence, but sets conditions that must be met before such claims will even be discussed.
The federal Clarity Act, rooted in Supreme Court jurisprudence, establishes that negotiation of separation should only occur after the vote of a clear majority on a clear question. There is no legal or moral obligation to disband Canada on a vote of 50 per cent plus one, with low voter turnout, on a vague question. We don’t make irrevocable changes to the foundations of our country on that basis.
And such foundational changes would only be possible after negotiations with the rest of the federation, and with Indigenous rights-holders. There would be a lot to negotiate. As former Alberta premier Jason Kenney recently pointed out, 11 per cent of the province’s land, from national parks to airports, is owned by the federal government. As for Indigenous people, they are under no obligation to surrender their treaty and constitutional relationship with the federal Crown.
Britain left the EU after a vote where the Leave side got less than 52 per cent of the vote. Turnout was just 72 per cent, or barely more than a regular British election. Alberta leaving Canada would be considerably more complicated, costly and disruptive than Britain leaving Europe.




00:03 / 00:15

Unlike the Albexit referendum, holding the Brexit referendum was supported by both of Britain’s major parties at the time, Labour and the Conservatives. Labour was officially in favour of remaining, though some MPs campaigned for Leave, while the governing Conservatives were officially neutral, with some MPs backing Leave while others stumped for Remain.
George Anderson: What does a ‘leave’ vote in a secession referendum mean?
That is, thankfully, nothing like the situation in Alberta. The provincial Opposition, the New Democratic Party, has always been against holding a referendum, and in favour of Canada. And unlike Britain’s Labour, you won’t see federal Liberal MPs on the Leave side.
This push for an Albexit vote is entirely driven from within Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party. It is overwhelmingly a right-wing phenomenon. In Britain, in contrast, the pollster Ipsos MORI estimated that one-third of Labour voters had made their mark for Leave.
In Alberta, the voters the pro-Canada side must persuade, and the politicians and public figures who must do the persuading, will be overwhelmingly on the right side of the political spectrum. It is above all Conservatives and conservatives who can best make the case.
And pro-Albexit voters have some legitimate concerns. The foremost of those is that federal policy has undermined the province’s most important industry. To get an idea of how Albertans feel, imagine if the federal government had spent years working to impede Quebec’s ability to develop its hydro-electric resources.
But Alberta’s biggest and most legitimate complaint is being addressed, and then some, by Prime Minister Mark Carney. Ottawa has made expanding the oil patch, and building new oil and gas pipelines, a centerpiece of its economic strategy. That has to be said, loudly and repeatedly.
And while the Albertans who must be persuaded to vote against Albexit are mostly from the right and centre-right, those on the left and centre-left also have to be courted – to ensure that their built-in opposition results in actual votes.
One of the lessons of the Brexit referendum is that voters excited by the prospect of a big change appear to have been the most motivated. Among voters who backed the Conservatives in the previous national election, referendum turnout was 85 per cent. For supporters of the UK Independence Party, it was 89 per cent. In contrast, turnout among Labour voters, who mostly voted Remain, was just 77 per cent.
Three years after his Brexit referendum went awry and he resigned in disgrace, Mr. Cameron told the BBC: “Every single day I think about it, the referendum and the fact that we lost and the consequences and the things that could have been done differently, and I worry desperately about what is going to happen next.”
Canada has no excuse to ever find itself facing similar regrets.