Separatists say Alberta's culture is rooted in traditional values. Many say those values don't define them

CBC

27-05-2025

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Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said earlier this month that if Alberta were to separate from Canada, it would first have to define itself as a nation with a distinct culture.
"I am not certain that oil and gas qualifies to define a culture," Blanchet quipped at a media conference.
Alberta separatists are trying to make the case that Alberta, like Quebec, does have a culture that's distinct from the rest of Canada — one rooted in traditional conservative values. But recent polling, and many people living in Alberta, paint a more complicated picture.
Many Albertans feel the separatists' definition of Alberta culture leaves them out of the conversation, and one researcher says that could be driving people away from the movement.
Republican Party of Alberta leader Cameron Davies, who calls himself an Alberta nationalist, says Albertans prize family values and freedom from government intervention.
He says Alberta's culture is driven by risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit and resilience, dating back to its early settlers.
He says Alberta conservatives are distinct from Eastern Canada, but acknowledges they have "a lot in common" with neighbouring Saskatchewan.
"I would challenge you that a Doug Ford conservative is not a conservative from Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills. We have very little in common," Davies told CBC News.
Davies also takes many cultural positions similar to U.S. Republicans, such as eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies and taking education about sexual and gender diversity out of schools, and says he believes a "vast majority" of Albertans share these views.
The Alberta Prosperity Project, the group driving a petition to force a separation referendum, has a section on its website outlining similar "cultural and identity factors" for leaving Canada. The party lists bilingualism among its cultural grievances, as well as, "The Federal Government's support of wokeness, cancel culture, critical race theory, the rewriting of history, and the tearing down of historical monuments."
Albertans 'build community for themselves'
But plenty of Albertans don't fall in line with those values.
Rowan Morris, a transgender man living in Alberta's oil capital Fort McMurray, knows all about the risk-taking, entrepreneurial Alberta spirit, and mythos around building a better life through hard work and sacrifice.
His parents moved their family to Fort McMurray from Nova Scotia when he was 14, and his dad took a job in the oilfield. He says that "sacrifice for good" is something that's inherently Albertan.
"That also applies to newcomers to Canada. Also applies to Indigenous folks on this territory. It also applies to queer and trans people," he said. "What I see in Fort McMurray is people who move here have no friends or family, and build a community for themselves."
That's about as far as his agreements with the separatists go.
Morris says the talk of "family values" is not inclusive of all families, and the crusade against "wokeness" leaves many Albertans behind.
He also finds the idea of separating from Canada disrespectful to the authority of Indigenous governance systems and values.
"When we are contorting freedom into being something restrictive or something avoidant or punitive, that isn't truly freedom," he said.
"I think the values that are Albertan, or what is Albertan culture, is a willingness to explore and a willingness to embrace the new and to challenge yourself. And those are things that I do see echoed in the root of what folks are talking about on this other side," he said, referring to the separatists, and adding that he feels their anger is misdirected.
Morris believes Alberta does have a distinct culture, but he says it's part of a broader pan-Canadian one, rather than a separate national identity.
Separatists are 'projecting their own values': researcher
In many ways, Morris is not an outlier in today's Alberta.
Jared Wesley, a political scientist at the University of Alberta who studies the province's political culture with his Common Ground research team, says the ideals expressed by separatist groups don't represent the average Albertan in 2025.
"They're absolutely dead wrong, and they're projecting their own values on the rest of Alberta society," he said.
Wesley and his team have interviewed thousands of Albertans. In an April 2024 article for Policy Options, a magazine from the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy, he noted that they found Albertans are, by and large, socially progressive and fiscally conservative — or, more specifically, tax-averse.
"Alberta is one of those unique places right now where the broader political culture, who we see ourselves to be, just does not align with public opinion," he told CBC News.
In surveying thousands of Alberta residents, researchers found that they often have a "distorted view" of their own political culture, believing their fellow citizens to be significantly more conservative than they actually are.
The researchers noted that ultimately, those surveyed had an image of the "average Albertan" that doesn't match the actual demographics of the province.
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Alberta is increasingly ethnically diverse. The province's 2021 census found that more than a quarter of Albertans identify as racialized, and noted that Alberta had the third highest population proportion of racialized groups in Canada behind Ontario and B.C.
Additionally, just under seven per cent identify as Indigenous, which is the fourth largest proportion among provinces, behind Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Wesley's research has found that Albertans identify strongly with both their province and their country. Even among separatists he spoke with, Wesley says fewer than half feel Alberta has its own distinct culture within Canada.
In the survey, when Albertans were asked to select all the political identifications that applied to them, most chose at least two, with the most common being "progressive" and "conservative."
And while the federal Conservatives won 63.5 per cent of Alberta's popular vote in April's federal election, the provincial NDP still captured 44 per cent of the popular vote in the 2023 provincial race, suggesting Albertans are anything but a conservative monolith.
Wesley says he doesn't believe the leaders of the separatist movement truly think of Alberta that way, either.
"The political strategy is to paint yourself as being far bigger than what you actually are, or your ideas as being far more popular," he said. "I mean, that's at the heart of politics."
What polling reveals
Recent Angus Reid polling suggests 19 per cent of Albertans would "definitely" vote to leave Canada if it were put to a referendum, while another 17 per cent are "leaning toward" wanting to leave. A majority, 52 per cent, said they would "definitely" vote to stay, with eight per cent "leaning toward" voting to stay.
By perpetuating a narrow, traditional idea of what it means to be Albertan, Wesley says separatists are turning off a large portion of the province's population.
He says the separatist movement may end up being a "flashpoint" where Albertans realize this disconnect between their public image and their true values.
"A march towards the referendum is going to have people questioning, 'Who are we as Albertans?' " he said. "And I'm not sure the separatists are prepared for the answer that Albertans are going to give them."
The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) released its own polling last week that pushes back against separatist narratives.
The survey, done by polling firm Environics in April, found Albertans overwhelmingly support causes like raising the minimum wage, rent controls and price controls, as well as the full implementation of universal child care, pharmacare and dental care.
In a statement, AFL president Gil McGowan said the poll was initially for in-house use, but the union decided to release it to counteract the public focus on separatism.
"This polling is a rebuttal to right-wing stereotypes of Albertans," McGowan said.
Young Conservative wants to bridge gap with separatists
Some Conservatives in the province are also pushing back against separatism.
Ahmed Ibrahim, 21, former president of the University of Lethbridge campus conservative club, spoke with CBC News over the phone while working in a canola field just northeast of Lethbridge, in southern Alberta.
Ibrahim was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, and came to Alberta in 2023 to work in agriculture.
"I came here for the Alberta advantage," he said, noting that the province has an opportunity to grow, and he feels that "growth is something everyone deserves."
Still, Ibrahim says he doesn't view Alberta as a separate nation, and believes strongly in the idea and principle of Canada.
Though separatists are a minority in the Conservative movement, he notes that "they have the right to be listened to."