(LifeSiteNews) – Three-in-10 Albertans are open to separating from Canada, with the majority of support coming from young citizens.
According to data released January 8 by Research Co., 42 percent of Albertans age 18 to 34 supported the province becoming an independent country, marking a 15-point increase since 2023.
“By a 2-to-1 margin, Albertans currently express a desire to remain in Canada,” Mario Canseco, president of Research Co., revealed. “Still, the growth of separatist sentiment is significant across some groups.”
The research surveys 703 Albertans online between January 4-6. Overall support for separating from Canada sat at 31%, which is a nine-point increase from 2023. Support for Alberta joining the United States ranked lower, with 24% supporting the plan and 72% opposed.
Additionally, separatism received more support from Conservative compared with Liberal or NDP Albertans.
Young Canadians are especially affected by the Liberal Party’s election as a decade of Liberal policies has led to rising food and shelter costs. In October, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem warned citizens to anticipate a lower standard of living.
Canadian taxpayers are already dealing with high inflation and high taxes, due in part to Liberal government overspending and excessive money printing, and even admitting that giving money to Ukraine comes at the “taxpayers’” expense.
Canadians pay some of the highest income and other taxes in the world. As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canadian families spend, on average, 42 percent of their income on taxes, more than food and shelter costs. Inflation in Canada is at a high not seen in decades.
The release of the polling results comes after a petition to separate Alberta from Canada opened last week. The referendum is the province’s first major step toward separating from Canada. In order for the movement to succeed, the petition must gather 177,732 signatures between January 3 and May 2, representing 10 percent of the total votes cast in the 2023 provincial general election.
Smith’s United Conservative government earlier this year passed Bill 54, which sets the groundwork for possible independence referendums by making such votes easier to trigger. The bill lowered the signature threshold from 600,000 to 177,000.
If the signatures are gathered, it will compel the provincial government to conduct a provincial referendum. All Albertans would be asked to vote on the province’s separatism on or before the next provincial election.
If more than 50 percent of the province is in favor of separating, Alberta would begin formal negotiations with the federal government.
Discussion of Alberta’s potential separation from Canada picked up in April after Prime Minister Mark Carney won the spring election and secured another Liberal government.
Since then, many Albertans have felt that the province’s conservative values are dismissed by the Liberal government in favor of a woke and “green” agenda. Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, in October, thousands of Albertans marched on the province’s capital of Edmonton, calling for the province to immediately secede from Canada.
