A new survey of the Angus Reid Institute shows that if a referendum was held tomorrow, one in four Albertanes would vote to leave Canada.
For shelters like Dianne Peake, it is not a crazy idea.
She said the country faces a high -risk federal election, after almost a decade of liberal government.
Peake spoke with CBC News outside the Pierre Poilievre Rally in Nisku on Monday.
She said that in the next elections a conservative victory is critical for national unity.
“If the liberals enter, Alberta will separate, guaranteed,” Peake said.
She said that if Mark Carney’s liberals form a government, she would be in favor of separating.
It is a feeling that has emerged several times during this electoral campaign. The founder of the Reforma Party, Preston Manning, said in a Globe and Mail column last week to vote for Mark Carney liberals is a vote for Western separation.
Angus Reid said the separatist tone was greater in 2019, after cancellation of the East East energy pipe and threats to transmotain expansion.
Oil and gas workers in Alberta explain who they are voting for and why, as part of the current election series, Crossroads: from coast to coast with Canadian voters.
The new Angus Reid survey published this week also showed that only 24 percent of Alberta residents feel that their province is respected by the rest of the country, which is less than half of the national average level, 52 percent.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted the online survey from March 20 to 24 between a random sample of 2,400 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid forum.
Jared Wesley, a political scientist from Alberta University, said some people feel like that in the frustration that conservatives lose the elections after the elections. But for some, it is deeper.
“Hardcore separatists in Alberta are really part of a global group of people who are frankly tired of losing not only the elections, but also losing credibility, losing their livelihoods and do not know exactly who or what to blame, but know that something big has to change,” Wesley said.
In his own survey research, Wesley discovered that separatists tend to be greater, white and live in rural areas. They often have education in secondary school or sometimes exchange education. They are likely to work in industries that are more precarious such as oil and gas, Wesley said.
“These are people whose livelihoods are not only challenged due to the economy and loss of employment, but are also being challenged because it is no longer considered an honorable profession, which is seen as part of the problem when it comes to oil and gas.”
Wesley said in his own research, respondents who say they would vote to separate, often do not think it is a real possibility.
“Then he tells us that a large part of the people who … would support Alberta’s separatism are not really serious about it, but express frustration and vent,” Wesley said, adding that if a real referendum was celebrated, people care for people in favor without really believing in the idea.
Wesley also discovered that when monitoring questions about the logistics of being independent, how taxes or an army would work, for example, support for independence decreases.
That resonates with John Butler.
“I think it’s not very well thought out because if we leave Canada, where are we going?” Butler said in an interview in Jasper Avenue in Edmonton on Monday. He added without any port to export Alberta resources, independence would not be very helpful for Alberta.
“And if the only alternative is to go to the United States, that is not a great alternative to me.”
“I like here. I think we can solve our problems. We have a story of Canada that goes back to 1867. We are going to solve it.”
Minister Danielle Smith was asked about the Manning column on Monday at a press conference. She said Canada has not worked for Alberta in a decade due to federal liberal policies.
“I have to admit that there is a lot of unhappiness on the part of the Albertanes and the way they have treated us,” said Smith.
Last month, he published a list of demands so that the next prime minister is addressed in the first six months of office that, according to her, should avoid a crisis of the national unit.
“I want to see what happens after the next elections,” Smith said on Monday. “And then I will evaluate it where Albertaos are out at that point.”
