EDMONTON, CALGARY, MOSSLEIGH, LETHBRIDGE—I had known Mitch Sylvestre — the architect of the Alberta independence movement — for less than five minutes when he first implied King Charles might have him killed.
It was late February. We were in a loud coffee shop near the Alberta Legislature. He kept mouthing the words.
“The King! The King!”
But he wouldn’t say them out loud.
The RCMP has informed the Alberta government that there is no evidence the province’s separatist movement has been subject to foreign interference, according to the minister who oversees policing.
Mike Ellis, Alberta’s Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Services, on Wednesday attributed this information to the RCMP’s deputy commissioner, noting the update landed before the government learned about an alleged privacy breach involving the personal information of 2.9 million Albertans.
Early this year, Canadian researchers who track online influence campaigns and foreign propaganda happened upon something peculiar. Using artificial intelligence to catalogue the activity of Russian websites and social-media accounts known to be spreading disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine, the researchers noticed a new topic suddenly garnering more attention than it ever had from those groups: Alberta.
My first suspect would be CBC.
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Alberta separatists said Monday they have formally submitted almost 302,000 signatures to try to trigger a referendum on the province leaving Canada.
The group needed 178,000 signatures to force the province to consider such a vote.
The question of separation could go on a provincewide ballot as early as October, as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward if enough names are gathered and verified. Smith has said she personally does not support the oil-rich province leaving Canada.
h/t patthedog
People based in the Netherlands are behind several YouTube channels that promote Alberta separatism but are fronted by hired actors, according to an investigation by CBC News’s visual investigations team and Radio-Canada’s Décrypteurs.
CBC News identified three individuals in the Netherlands whose digital trail links them to accounts that hired actors to appear on the YouTube channels. Two of them attended the same online course that teaches customers how to create “faceless” YouTube channels that generate passive income for the creators, who remain in the shadows.
The mispronunciation of Regina — as in, the capital of Saskatchewan — was a clue. Then there was the reference to B.C. MLA Dallas Brodie, a woman, as a “he.”
These slip-ups helped lead researchers at the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) in Montreal to what they say is a network of affiliated YouTube accounts that appear to belong to concerned Canadians, sympathize with some Albertans’ grievances and push the idea of American annexation.
“The video narrators performed ‘Albertan,’ but there were these moments where you’re like, ‘OK, so this person is not from here,’ ” said Chris Ross, the senior analyst at the Observatory, who led his team’s recent probe into thousands of suspicious YouTube videos.
Who is behind this? Who stands to gain? Russia? China? Liberal Party members? Likely the latter.
AI makes it easy to create a click-bait video the creator(s) may have simply found a rich vein to mine for cash.
OTTAWA — A new poll finds that support for Alberta separatism is at its highest level in at least five years, with a fall independence referendum looking increasingly likely.
The poll, taken by Pollara Strategic Insights, shows that 27 per cent of decided voters in Alberta would vote for the province to separate from Canada. This is a seven point increase from December 2025 and a record-high over the five years Pollara has spent tracking support for independence among Albertans.
A First Nation in Alberta has said that a separatist push for the province to secede from Canada is “consummately irresponsible and dishonourable” and should be shut down, arguing in court that a proposed referendum would violate their treaty rights.
A minority of residents of the oil-rich province have long argued that the province’s woes are due to the structure of payments to the federal government and a perceived inability to get their vast fossil fuel reserves to market.
In recent months, separatists have seized on the sentiment and collected nearly 180,000 signatures to request a referendum. But the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, near Edmonton, has asked a court to halt the campaign.
Alberta separatists are making alternative plans to pressure Premier Danielle Smith’s government to call an independence referendum if a judge throws out their current efforts after a multiday hearing next week.
Mitch Sylvestre is organizing an independence petition under Alberta’s Citizen Initiative Act. Mr. Sylvestre’s campaign needs 178,000 signatures to force a constitutional referendum. Earlier this week, Mr. Sylvestre declared organizers had reached that goal, one month ahead of deadline.
In the middle of a trade war and Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state of the United States, Canadians are watching in astonishment as figures close to the president embrace a minority separatist movement in the province of Alberta. Secret meetings with representatives of the U.S. State Department, the open support of figures from the MAGA movement, and the possibility of a referendum this fall — for which signatures are already being collected — paint a picture in which many see the shadow of foreign interference.
The group behind the Alberta independence petition said it has received the 177,732 signatures it needs to force a referendum.
Mitch Sylvestre, head of Stay Free Alberta, confirmed to the National Post that it has met the threshold. The petition still needs official approval from Elections Alberta, which will review the signatures according to the Citizen Initiative Act after the petition is submitted after the official deadline of May 2.
CALGARY – With about six weeks left to collect signatures, supporters of Alberta independence are working to gather enough names on a citizen-led petition that could trigger a province-wide referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.
But even if the campaign succeeds and a majority of voters backed separation in a referendum, constitutional experts say the vote would only begin what could be a long and complicated process of negotiations with Ottawa, the provinces, and Indigenous nations.
Wow, that was a welcome change of direction for federalism, which has for decades now been drifting towards a stronger central government and weaker provincial governments.
The central theme of Premier Danielle Smith’s address to the province on Thursday evening was rebalancing Confederation, giving the provinces more control over matters that affect them most, such as health, education, immigration and judicial appointments.
It’s becoming clear that large parts of the Laurentian Elite have suddenly become nervous about the implications of Alberta’s unrest. After decades of turning a deaf ear to low rumblings of discontent, from somewhere beyond the Lakehead, the Andrew Coyne Brigade is in full force waving their law books, warning about why Alberta independence is against the natural law, God’s plan and more. @acoyne Smith has no mandate to hold a referendum… Among many, many other objections.
They couldn’t do it.
It was hoped their cause would make more of an effort than just burping up daily hysteria fuelled by social media.
But they couldn’t resist. And so we get to experience another eruption of phoney outrage.
