Cory Morgan has spent more than 25 years fighting for Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta to become an independent country.
asserted
province → spend → Alberta
On Monday, Albertans will head to the polls to vote on the issue for the very first time.
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Albertans → head → time
But even if the answer is no, Morgan said he’s in it for the long haul.
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he → say → haul
“I would respect the will of the voters,” he told Al Jazeera.
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he → respect → Jazeera
“If they’ve decided it’s not time to go that route yet, then so be it.
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it → decide → route
But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop.”
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I → mean → ?
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Morgan, the founder of the advocacy organisation Pathway to Independence, is among a group of longtime separatists who have managed to push what was once a fringe idea onto the ballot.
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what → track → ballot
Monday’s provincial referendum asks Alberta residents to weigh whether they would like to pursue a binding resolution in the future on the question of independence.
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they → ask → independence
Polls indicate the pro-independence side has little chance of succeeding, with four of five people in the province saying they want Alberta to remain a part of Canada.
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Alberta → indicate → Canada
But Morgan’s focus is on the one in five who don’t.
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who → do → five
“That’s not a movement that’s leaving,” he said.
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he → ’ → ?
What the referendum will mean for the separatist movement and for Canada as a whole, however, is a more complicated question.
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mean → mean → whole
What exactly are Albertans voting on?
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Albertans → vote → What
Monday’s ballot gives Albertans two options: to remain part of Canada or begin the legal process for holding a future referendum on separation.
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ballot → give → separation
A vote in favour of the second option doesn’t mean Alberta immediately becomes an independent country.
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Alberta → mean → option
Any province that tries to secede would first have to go through complex negotiations with the federal government in Ottawa, other provinces and Indigenous peoples who live in and around Alberta.
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who → try → Alberta
Some separatist organisers have been using that distinction to encourage people to vote for the referendum — even if they don’t necessarily want independence.
“Strategic separatists and their leaders have been using that ambiguity, that lower-bar threshold, to entice folks to vote not to leave, but rather to send Ottawa a message that Albertans need to be heard,” said Jared Wesley, a political science professor at the University of Alberta.
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Wesley → use → Alberta
He told Al Jazeera that the message may be resonating with some voters.
uncertain
message → tell → voters
Data collected by Viewpoint Alberta, a University of Alberta-based research initiative, suggests that two-thirds of voters who support the referendum say they’re doing so for strategic reasons, to send a message to Ottawa.
uncertain
they → collect → Ottawa
These are people Morgan calls “reluctant separatists”, people who are “at the end of their rope” and simply want Ottawa to pay attention.
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Ottawa → call → attention
But Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned Albertans against this strategy.
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Carney → warn → strategy
“Don’t be fooled by the idea you can ‘send a message’ with your vote,” he told a pro-Canada rally in Calgary on Thursday.
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he → fool → Thursday
A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep division and great uncertainty.”
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that → lead → division
What’s driving Alberta’s separatist movement?
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What → drive → movement
Separatists have long felt that Alberta, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, sends too much money to Ottawa, subsidising the rest of the country while receiving little in return.
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Alberta → feel → return
They also take issue with federal energy policies that they feel limit the potential of the province’s oil industry.
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they → take → industry
For Morgan, the resentment stretches back to the 1980s when the National Energy Program was introduced by the government of Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father.
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Program → stretch → Trudeau
The policy used price controls, taxes and ownership rules to keep Canadian energy affordable while directing more of Alberta’s revenues to Ottawa.
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policy → use → Ottawa
It has since become a central symbol of “Western alienation”, a term used to describe the sense of disenfranchisement felt among Canada’s westernmost provinces.
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It → become → provinces
Those tensions resurfaced decades later under Justin Trudeau, whose term began in 2015.
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term → resurface → 2015
His climate policies, including a national carbon tax and a limit on emissions, angered Alberta’s oil sector.
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policies → include → sector
“We’ve been fighting about the same things for 50 years,” said Morgan.
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Morgan → fight → years
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
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pandemic → come → ?
Experts say demonstrations against health restrictions mobilised a new generation of conservative activists, breathing new life into Alberta’s separatist movement.
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demonstrations → say → movement
Trudeau ultimately resigned as Liberal Party leader and prime minister in 2025, amid sinking poll numbers.
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Trudeau → resign → numbers
Carney was elected his replacement.
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Carney → elect → ?
Last year, under growing pressure from separatist groups, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government made it easier to start referendums, helping bring the question of Alberta’s independence onto the political agenda.
For Wesley, the moment is less about growing public support for independence and more about pressure from within Smith’s governing United Conservative Party, whose members show higher support for separation than Albertans generally.
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members → grow → Albertans
“We’re having a referendum because Danielle Smith wants us to have a referendum,” Wesley said.
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Wesley → have → referendum
“She is looking to solve internal party matters by throwing a question to the broader public.
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She → look → public
Though she called Monday’s referendum, Smith has said she opposes the independence effort, and on October 14, she announced she had voted against seceding.
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she → call → October
…and 41 more, not listed.
The Aporia
