What, exactly, are Alberta separatists mad about?
CBC
Threats of Alberta separation go back decades, and have reached new heights since the April election of Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The separatist Alberta Prosperity Project is gunning for 600,000 signatures on a petition that would force a provincial referendum on the issue, while the Republican Party of Alberta — led by longtime conservative operative Cameron Davies — is ramping up its separation push.
"What we're looking at is the broken and dysfunctional system that has been in place since Alberta joined Confederation," Davies, who recently resigned from membership in the governing United Conservative Party, told CBC News.
He says the system was designed to consolidate power in the East, and the West was "viewed as nothing more than a resource colony" for Ottawa.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has also focused much of her recent public messaging on sovereignty and opposition to Ottawa, making nods to the separatist movement but not outright supporting separation.
So, why do some Albertans feel they're being treated so unfairly?
Here's breakdown of a few key issues.
Equalization payments are a longstanding grievance for some Albertans.
The federal program sees a portion of federal tax dollars distributed to poorer, or "have-not," provinces so all can maintain reasonably similar levels of public services.
While Alberta was once a have-not, it's been a "have" province since the mid-1960s, meaning that it contributes to those payments, but receives none.
Some argue this is unfair, and the money should stay in Alberta.
Davies says the federal government only cares that the taxes keep coming from Alberta "so that they can redistribute it to Quebec and the Maritimes."
When Alberta's then-premier Jason Kenney held a referendum on equalization in 2021, about 62 per cent of voters said they would choose to remove the principle of equalization payments from the constitution.
The current equalization formula was created by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, in which Kenney served as a cabinet minister.
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