By it’s very nature, Canada is an imperfect country. It was founded by the French and then the English, on land that was already occupied by the First Nations, something this country has yet to come to terms with.

Then during the Seven Years War, the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed to end the war and gave possession of parts of New France to Great Britain, including Canada.

Ordinarily, the Treaty would have resulted in the Anglicization of New France, but the French population wouldn’t have it and Quebec evolved with it’s own identity as Lower Canada, right beside English Upper Canada. The Act of Union 1840, maintained the idea of French Canada and English Canada existing together, which was later codified in the British North America Act of 1867 which created the Dominion of Canada.

Since then, English and French Canada have continued to co-exist with a few bumps along the way including two referendums on the issue of Quebec separation, both of which failed. Now it’s Alberta’s turn. The ruling United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) won a slim majority in 2023 on the promise that it would hold a referendum on separation during its current mandate.

Western separation sentiment has been around since the first home-steaders settled in Alberta and Saskatchewan and were forced to purchase Canadian farm equipment thanks to tariffs put in place by Ottawa.

But it wasn’t until Ottawa passed the National Energy Program, in 1980, forcing Alberta to share its oil revenues with the rest of Canada, that separation sentiment began to really heat up and its been simmering ever since.

The UCP had been hoping to hold a referendum on separation next fall. In fact, they managed to get 310,000 signatures on a petition that paved the way legislatively for a referendum, but a recent court decision has put the breaks on it.

On May 14, a provincial court judge ruled the government “failed in its duty to consult First Nations before setting Alberta on a process that could substantially impact Indigenous treaties with Canada”.

Both the provincial government under Premier Danielle Smith and separatist lawyer Jeffrey Rath are planning to appeal the ruling.

All of which maybe moot. Recent surveys indicate that less than a third of Albertans would vote to separate. That’s far fewer than the number of Quebecers who voted “Qui” in the 1995 referendum.

Nationalist sentiment for a united Canada carried the day back then and it will carry the day again if and when a referendum is ever held in Alberta.