The current separatist movement reminds us that Alberta has a long history of prairie populism: the Depression era gave us the Social Credit party of William Aberhart, who governed Alberta for 36 years with a foundation of religious fundamentalism and economic reform.

It also gave us the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), with its foundation of agrarian discontent among the United Farmers of Alberta and other groups. CCF eventually became the NDP and began a national conversation about social justice and care that led us to universal health care and other social safety net features that we now take for granted. From prairie discontent came positive change for all of Canada.

Both of those organizations worked within the national framework to address economic hardships. Global separatist movements more often aim to address religious, cultural or language differences – the Basque region in Spain, the Scots or Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, or Quebec here in Canada, for example. A separatist movement with economic objectives is less common – Brexit might be an example, although it began as an anti-immigration movement against the EU’s immigration requirements. But the economic consequences of that separation, though unintended and unexpected, are worth noting if you’re an Alberta separatist.

Statistically Albertans have the highest per capita production (GDP) in the country, correspondingly high disposable incomes, relatively low cost of living thanks to reasonable housing prices (compared to large urban centres in B.C. and Ontario) and a favourable tax regime (no sales tax). We have by far the lowest provincial debt burden, and even when combined with our per capita share of federal debt, we still have the lowest collective tax burden in the country by a large measure according to the Fraser Institute. Alberta has all the advantages that our resource-rich province should have. But we’re not happy.

In fact, this past May Statistics Canada released its survey of Quality of Life in Canada taken in 2025. It included the question “How do you feel about your life as a whole right now?” which was answered on a scale of 0 to 10, very dissatisfied to very satisfied. Answers of 8, 9 or 10 were grouped together as being “highly satisfied.” Nationally, 46.1% of Canadians were highly satisfied. The Atlantic region was at 51%, Quebec at 57.3%. Alberta? We were the lowest in the country at 38.1%. Why are the people with such remarkable economic advantages the least satisfied with their lives? Why the disconnect?

If separatists intend to base their campaign on the economic disadvantages of remaining in Canada, and the advantages of separation, it is on them to provide a clear case of what’s wrong, and why separation is the answer. Instead, we are given unhelpful sound bites: Alberta puts more into the federation than we take out. This is apparently a reference to federal equalization payments, the inference being that Albertans are giving money to provinces that don’t really deserve our help, like Quebec.

It is true that Albertans pay more in taxes to the federal government than the province receives in federal transfer payments of all kinds. That is also true of B.C. and Ontario. We don’t pay more in taxes – we pay exactly the same taxes as everyone else in Canada, but our relatively high incomes mean that on average, we pay more. Only B.C., Saskatchewan and Alberta don’t qualify for equalization payments because of their economic strength. But to unpack this argument we need to look more carefully at the transfer payments and the formula on which they are based.

Equalization payments began in 1957, and for the first eight years Alberta qualified to receive equalization. No complaints from Alberta then. In 1982 the program was embedded into the Constitution Act. The policy objective is to ensure that all Canadians have the same access to federal services, regardless of the economic strength of the province they live in. Of the three main transfer programs, only the equalization plan distinguishes between provinces. The other two, health transfers and social transfers, are per capita payments where Alberta receives transfers at exactly the same per capita rate as every other province.

We live in the era of grievance politics. Everyone has a grievance, and Alberta separatists are collecting grievance-holders like a carnival barker collects customers: Don’t like vaccinations or masking or social distancing? Come on over here! Don’t like federal climate change policies? We’ve got a place for you! Don’t like immigration policies or energy industry regulations? We are your people! And if you believe we’re sending money to people in Quebec or the Maritimes that don’t work as hard as we do, welcome home!

But if you’re going to convince the majority of us that separation is better for our future than the Canadian federation, you’ve got some work to do. If there’s a case to be made, I’ve not seen it. And incidentally, as Stephanie Shostak pointed out in her piece published in this space on July 22, just the talk of separation has a destabilizing effect.

One can scarcely imagine the chaos of actual separation, but perhaps we need to do just that to fully grasp where the separatists want to take us.

— Michael Birdsell was born, educated and lives in Alberta. He is a retired lawyer who practiced for 44 years, and a past President of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (now King’s Counsel) in 2013.

Alberta Voices is a Edmonton Journal/Calgary Herald project that amplifies Albertans’ thoughts on separation-related issues. Send your opinion, to be considered for publication, to edm-feedback@postmedia.com with the subject line Alberta Voices.