The Albertans Counting on America to Help Break Apart Canada

To force a referendum on splitting from Canada, an organization of Alberta separatists has been taking its show on the road.

On July 17th, the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) brought its message to the town of Penhold, a community of about 3,700 people a short drive from Red Deer, and just one of many stops on its separatist campaign tour.

The essence of their message is not just that Alberta’s full separation from Canada is the only way for the province to escape the control of what they see as a corrupt eastern political establishment — but also that that can only happen through support from the United States. They say they are not interested in working within the confines of Canada’s Constitution to achieve independence.

It was the latest in a series of town-hall meetings hosted by the separatist group, in which they laid out their vision of a completely independent Alberta and gathered signatures, donations and contact information from attendees.

Their goal is to collect enough pledges to support a provincial referendum, and then officially trigger one before year’s end; Premier Danielle Smith recently lowered the required number of signatures to just 177,000.

APP co-founder and president Mitch Sylvestre claims they’ve already reached the target.

“We have hundreds of thousands already,” Sylvestre told PressProgress. “We’ve held dozens of these (events) in the last three months.”

He said several have filled to capacity, with people being turned away at the doors.

A trailer outside Penhold Memorial Hall. Photo by Stephen Magusiak.

While the Penhold town hall didn’t quite reach capacity, it did manage to nearly fill the room with about 200 people, almost entirely white and appearing to be over 40. Some drove in from nearby places like Red Deer.

The Alberta Prosperity Project event at Penhold Memorial Hall on July 17th. Photo by Stephen Magusiak.

Toward the beginning, organizers took a show of hands asking who was in favour of Alberta separation. Most went up.

Not surprisingly, the discussion was dominated by pipelines (they want more), immigration (they want less) and general antipathy towards Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ottawa more broadly.

The APP’s Penhold event was one of nine scheduled in July alone. In addition to Sylvestre, the movement’s leading figures include lawyer and rancher Jeffrey Rath and APP co-founder Dennis Modry, who frequently speak to the audiences.

Jeffrey Rath (photo by Stephen Magusiak)

Other prominent supporters include former MP Rob Anders, who once called Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

APP has been active since the height of the pandemic, but has been busier since the election of Carney. According to Modry, the group has organized 35 meetings since May.

Support for Alberta secession varies from poll to poll. Recent polling has placed support for sovereignty in the 30% range. Some have had the number much lower, closer to 18%. (Without elaborating, Modry blamed the low support on “cancel culture.”)

Modry doesn’t believe Alberta will achieve sovereignty by following procedure and is dismissive of Danielle Smith’s Alberta Next panel, which has been hosting its own town halls across the province in support of Smith’s vision for a “sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.”

While the panel’s surveys have been described as “push polls” intended to agitate Albertans against Ottawa, to the APP, Smith’s initiative doesn’t go nearly far enough.

“The framing of the questions is fine. It’s the impossibility of achieving its objectives. The opening and changing of the Constitution is a monumental hurdle. I don’t believe the east will ever give up control over the West,” Modry told PressProgress.

Rath said they’re pushing APP supporters to attend the Alberta Next meetings to tell the premier how they feel about Alberta independence, “instead of this stupid notion that the Constitution can be amended. The only way for Alberta is to vote for independence.”

(Under Canadian law, a province can’t unilaterally secede, but there are theoretically circumstances under which the results of a referendum could compel Ottawa to begin negotiations towards a province’s potential exit, which would require a constitutional amendment.)

“We’ve been bashing our heads against this for the last 30 or 40 years. The Preston Manning ‘The West Wants In’ show is getting pretty old,” Rath said.

Modry sees the path to sovereignty as being through support from the US.

Dennis Modry (photo by Stephen Magusiak)

In the spring, he and Rath organized a delegation to Washington to discuss US support for Alberta separatism. (This was shortly after Rath floated the idea that Alberta should become the 51st state in an interview with Fox News.)

“In our meetings with the US government senior administrative officials, we already know the US is very much in support of Alberta sovereignty.”

Modry said he met with US officials on April 22, but declined to say which officials, where the meetings took place or what specifically was discussed.

He maintained there are “other meetings planned, and we don’t want to jeopardize those meetings by divulging something we’ve been asked not to.”

(DeSmog reported this week that Modry had told attendees at a different event that they had discussed the prospect of the US extending a $500 million loan to a newly sovereign Alberta.)

“We want Albertans to send a message to Premier Smith that Alberta will be sovereign, not this nonsense that we’re going to be sovereign within Canada,” Rath told PressProgress.

Supporters at the Penhold town hall were for the most part very enthusiastic. Volunteers in the back sold APP merchandise.

One attendee told PressProgress that someone even brought what she called a “Freedom Horse” from the nearby area for photo ops, but that the owner had had to take it home before it had a chance to do any media appearances.

The night was emceed by Kerry Lambert, a business owner wearing a printed polyester Alberta flag for a shirt.

Kerry Lambert (photo by Stephen Magusiak)

Lambert, who worked the main stage and sound system at the 2022 Freedom Convoy occupation of Ottawa, told PressProgress he came around to Alberta separation after his Calgary bar went under during the pandemic.

The night opened with an AI-generated music video, “Sovereign Steel – The Anthem of Alberta.”

The video was produced by the Nevada-based James Coursey (aka “Full Metal Patriot” on YouTube), who makes MAGA videos along similar lines. He collaborated on it with a far-right UK social media influencer, Jim Ferguson.

In the video, a rugged cowboy, his eyes glowing with lightning, strums generic power chords on an electric guitar, against various backdrops of non-specific main streets, mountains, stormy prairies and a city skyline that doesn’t match any of Alberta’s urban centres (but which seemingly features the CN Tower).

Towards the end stands a determined-looking figure undeniably reminiscent of Premier Smith.

A screen grab from “Sovereign Steel – The Anthem of Alberta” via Full Metal Patriot on YouTube.

The video concluded to applause and some cheers.

In last month’s provincial by-elections, the separatist Republican Party of Alberta failed to secure a seat in the legislature, with leader Cameron Davies managing a third-place finish with 18% of the vote in a heavily conservative riding.