Alberta Separation and COVID:

Same people, same ideas, different issue

Albertans have been seriously debating whether the province should separate from Canada (2025-2026). For close observers (and not so close observers), there is a strong parallel with the 2020-2022 debate over public health restrictions to combat COVID-19. The issues are very different, but they both involve the same people pursuing the same ideas.

When you look at some of the most prominent people in the separation movement, many emerged during the pandemic. Here is just a sampling. David Parker successfully organized to bring down Premier Jason Kenney over his COVID-19 policies, and now he is one of the leaders in the separation movement. Mitch Sylvestre leads the Alberta Prosperity Project and says he became involved in politics when his Bonnyville gun shop was shut-down during COVID-19. Chris Scott emerged as a hero to the anti-restrictions crowd when he violated public health orders at his Whistle Stop Café in Mirror, Alberta. Today, the Whistle Stop Café is a major rallying point for the Alberta separatists. Jeff Rath from Stay Free Alberta (who organized the petition on behalf of Alberta separation), is facing possible sanctions from the Law Society of Alberta due to threatening federal and provincial health officials with criminal charges for murder, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in his correspondence over COVID-19 vaccine litigation. They have all transferred their organizational skills from fighting COVID-19 public health policies to advocating for Alberta separatism.

It is also the same ideas – featuring the worst aspects of populism – that drove both movements. Both offer simple solutions to complex problems. In the case of COVID-19, suggesting herd immunity and alternative treatments such as Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, instead of social distancing and vaccines. Meanwhile separating from Canada, which will be really easy, solves all grievances (economic, legal, political, cultural).

Both movements also distrust experts and invalidate expertise. During COVID-19, people did their own research, because goggling for a couple of hours is the same as years/decades of medical training and experience in public health. With Alberta separatism, academics (political scientists, historians, economists, law professors) who study constitutions, secession movements, Indigenous rights, fiscal transfers, investment flows are ridiculed and dismissed.

This distrust also extends to liberal institutions (legislatures and courts). It was provincial and federal governments who enacted the COVID-19 public health restrictions (masking, social distancing, vaccines) and the courts upheld these restrictions under the reasonable limits clause. It was the Alberta government which wrote the confusing separation referendum question (vote option 1 to stay in Canada, vote option 2 to have another referendum on separation). And most federal and provincial politicians (of all parties) are campaigning to stay in Canada. In response, Premier Kenney was removed as leader (due to COVID-19) and Premier Danielle Smith is being threatened with the same fate (due to Alberta Separation). The courts quashed Stay Free Alberta’s petition question because it violated Indigenous treat rights, so, naturally, they are now being attacked as unelected and unaccountable.

The legacy media is also not trusted by either the COVID-19 or the Alberta separation movements. The CBC is the biggest target as it is often described as a state broadcaster (an instrument of the government), when in fact it is a public broadcaster (a media agency that’s not subject to editorial direction by politicians, but is paid for with public funds). This critique now extends to CTV, Global TV, the Globe and Mail, Post Media, and the rest of the legacy media largely (but not exclusively) because of the types of financial subsidies that they receive from the federal government. Instead, they rely on information from alternative media – Rebel Media, Western Standard, Juno News, podcasts, etc. Because the barriers to entry have dropped dramatically, these new outlets can easily post stories, videos, and interviews online. Not surprisingly, many of these alternative media outlets openly campaigned against COVID-19 public health restrictions and in favour of Alberta separatism.

Opponents of COVID-19 public health restrictions and supporters of Alberta separatism put a lot of emphasis on personal rights and freedoms. But these are one-sided rights. “My” rights supersede “your” rights. In the case of COVID-19, my right not to wear a mask or get vaccinated trumps your right not to get sick by having the disease spread. In the case of Alberta separatism, they believe that while Canada is divisible, Alberta is not. This can best be seen in the dispute over Indigenous Treaty Rights.

Both movements spread false information and promote conspiracy theories. During the debate over COVID-19, there were those that believed the vaccines altered your DNA, that the pandemic was created by the World Economic Forum to institute a New World Order, and Big Parma had paid off doctors and politicians. During the Alberta Separation debate, there are those that believe in the Great Replacement Theory (mass immigration to supplant white Albertans), Prime Minister Mark Carney is a secret Chinese agent, and Ottawa is simultaneously reliant upon Alberta’s wealth and trying to destroy Alberta’s wealth.

Finally, in both cases, there is a partisan split and a rural-urban divide. During COVID-19, the United Conservative Party was split over public health restrictions (one side wanted greater restrictions and the other wanted the removal of restrictions). Premier Kenney was unable to hold the party together and was removed as leader. Meanwhile the NDP was united in favour of public health. As opinion polls illustrated, there was a rural-urban divide over COVID-19 public health restrictions. Urban Albertans wanted more restrictions and rural Albertans wanted the removal of restrictions. The same dynamic is at play with Alberta separatism. The UCP is divided on the subject of Alberta separatism, but the NDP is united against separatism. Premier Smith, throughout the entire process, has been trying to balance the caucus and party supporters by making it easier for the separatist petitioners and also negotiating a comprehensive pipeline MOU with Prime Minister Carney. Likewise, separation support is much higher in rural Alberta than it is in the cities.

Many people have noticed the superficial link between COVID-19 and Alberta Separatism. But when you move past the specific individuals and focus on their common world view, it goes beyond a coincidence to an organizing principle. If, as expected, the referendum result is to stay in Canada, supporters of Alberta separatism will just move to another cause. Just as when all COVID-19 public health restrictions were removed, opponents just moved to mobilize on Alberta separatism. This new cause, whatever it may be, will see the common people identify a simple solution to a complex public policy problem, that they (institutions, experts, media) do not want you to know about.