Sunny Ray sits down with Kathy, an Alberta native and member of the Wildrose Independence Party, to explore why Albertans are increasingly open to leaving Canada. Kathy shares her personal story, from her Ukrainian settler roots to running an oil and gas business, and explains how years of what she calls a politically motivated recession pushed her into politics for the first time. She walks through Alberta's history as a colonized rather than negotiated province, the federal Clarity Act that governs secession, and polling showing forty percent of Albertans open to independence. The conversation covers the Wildrose Party's strategy of first reclaiming control over pensions, taxation, and policing within confederation before putting full independence to a vote, with a realistic timeline of nine to ten years. Sunny draws parallels between Bitcoin's ethos of freedom and self sovereignty and Alberta's independence movement, and Kathy addresses common objections like the landlocked question and concerns about military and police. It is a wide ranging discussion of energy, freedom, and the future of Alberta.
An Alberta Wildrose Party insider explains why forty percent of Albertans now want out of Canada.
What's your story? What led you into politics?
I'm an Alberta girl born and raised, and my husband and I finally had the freedom to build something new after our kids grew up. But the politically motivated recession Alberta has been under for five years turned into a depression, and our dreams felt gone. Holding my new grandson made me realize I couldn't just leave, so we rolled up our sleeves. All roads led us to the Wildrose Independence Party.
Have you read much about the history of Alberta?
Alberta became a province in 1905, and unlike most provinces we were essentially colonized rather than negotiated in. Ottawa split what should have been one large territory into Alberta and Saskatchewan so neither would ever have enough seats to rival Quebec or Ontario. Most settlers came from elsewhere, including my own family from Ukraine, seeking freedom, which is why Alberta has this strong independent, pioneering culture.
Can you explain what's happening today and what people are thinking in terms of getting back to freedom?
I don't think we're getting back to freedom, I think we're getting it for the first time. Quebec's earlier separation attempt led to the Clarity Act, which lays out strict, arguably impossible parameters for a province to secede, including approval from seven provinces representing fifty percent of the population. It's difficult, but Albertans are resourceful, and a recent poll showed forty percent are open to secession.
What is the Wildrose Party and what's its mandate?
We're a brand new party, born last summer, and we already ranked tenth in a recent poll. Our mandate is to take control of everything possible within confederation first, our own pension plan, employment insurance, police force, and tax collection. Once that's in place, the final question for Albertans is whether we're still willing to pay equalization payments, and if not, we move toward full secession.
If everything went well, what's the realistic timeline for Alberta becoming its own country?
Our next provincial election is in 2023, and the plan is to take government then. Once we're in government, the clock starts on reclaiming control over pensions, police, and taxation. In a best case scenario, once we're in power, we're looking at another five to seven years to get everything moving, so roughly nine to ten years total from now.
What are the biggest fears or objections people raise about Alberta separating?
People ask about military or police, but that's not hard, every country has those. The biggest question by far is being landlocked. My answer is that we're already landlocked now because our own country did that to us. As an independent nation we'd actually work to unlock ourselves so we can get our product out, possibly with help from parts of BC, Saskatchewan, or Manitoba.
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