Should We Take Alberta Separation Seriously?

Should we take Alberta separation seriously? On one hand, most Albertans still don’t appear to want it. On the other hand, separatists reportedly submitted nearly 302,000 signatures, there’s a voter data scandal, U.S. meetings, First Nations treaty challenges, foreign disinformation concerns, and a premier trying to balance “Sovereign Alberta” with “please don’t actually break the country.” This week on Politics Is Broken, Brittlestar and Lisa talk about why Alberta probably isn’t leaving Canada tomorrow... but why the anger, misinformation, political enabling, and machinery around the movement still matter. It’s a conversation about separatism, grievance politics, Danielle Smith’s balancing act, and the very Canadian question: “Can we please not set the country on fire just to make a point?” The episode transcript frames the central concern as not Alberta immediately leaving Canada, but the “machinery around the idea”... anger, money, data, foreign interest, and political enabling.