Welcome back to This Week in Canada, where Monday’s defeat of the separatism referendum in Alberta isn’t anywhere close to the end of the forces that put the question on the ballot. Let’s jump right in!
The most serious challenge to Canada’s national unity in more than three decades is officially over. Alberta isn’t going anywhere. But that doesn’t change the fact that separatists got this far over something that was considered a fringe cause until recently.
And the story of how they did it is about much more than Alberta separatism. It’s about a deeper disillusionment among Canadian conservatives—and why some of them still see Alberta as a refuge from a country that they no longer recognize.
First, the numbers. Results as of early Tuesday morning showed about 76 percent in favor of remaining in Canada and 24 percent supporting a binding vote on whether to leave. The results were decisive but hardly a surprise. For months, nearly every voter survey pointed in the same direction, and even the most sanguine separatists foresaw defeat on Monday.
As the results started to come in, I remembered many of the people I have spoken to about separatism since my first article about the movement for The Free Press in April 2025. For generations, alienation among Canadians living in the four western provinces was largely about Ottawa’s distant control. But many of the people I met weren’t just angry at Ottawa. They felt alienated from Canada itself: its institutions, its culture, and their fellow Canadians. Covid was a turning point.