{"id":35534,"date":"2026-05-07T11:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/35534\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T11:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T11:43:05","slug":"kenney-calls-on-federalists-to-step-up-in-alberta-separation-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/35534\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenney calls on federalists to step up in Alberta separation debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite slow response, Mr. Kenney said he expects the federalist side will become more prominent in the coming weeks.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney said those in favour of keeping Alberta in Canada need to \u201cget their act together\u201d and be more vocal in the face of a separatist movement campaigning to leave the country.<\/p>\n

With separatists in Alberta pushing to hold a referendum on independence in October, Mr. Kenney said the pro-Canada side within the province hasn\u2019t gotten organized fast enough, and that the rest of the country has similarly been too complacent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federalist side, I would say it has been slow to gel,\u201d Mr. Kenney said in Toronto, speaking at an event on Canadian democracy hosted by Toronto Metropolitan University titled Sovereignty at Stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartly, I think, wishful thinking, that this will somehow go away \u2013 they won\u2019t get the signatures required and there will be a court decision that interrupts this. But the train continues to hurtle down the tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

RCMP found no evidence of foreign interference in Alberta separatist movement, minister says<\/a><\/p>\n

Separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre said this week that his group, Stay Free Alberta, had submitted the required signatures to force a referendum, which would be held Oct. 19 if it goes ahead. The vote however faces a court challenge from First Nations who argue provincial separation would violate treaties negotiated with the Crown and are challenging the constitutionality of the question. A Court of King\u2019s Bench issued an interim injunction last month blocking Elections Alberta from verifying the records. The documents are now sealed in the Elections Alberta offices while Justice Shaina Leonard deliberates her decision. <\/p>\n

Former Alberta Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk has been leading the \u201cForever Canadian\u201d campaign aimed at keeping Alberta in Canada.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Kenney said he expects the federalist side will become more prominent in the coming weeks as two organizations, which he did not identify by name, emerge in the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the next few weeks you can expect to see the launch of two broad well-resourced, pro-Canada campaigns, organizations, to support this,\u201d Mr. Kenney said. \u201cOne is more on the sort of thinking, policy, content side, and the other is more on the campaign side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked later to provide specifics on who those groups are, Mr. Kenney declined. He said he would also like to see more of a stance from corporate Alberta on the issue.<\/p>\n

Mr. Kenney criticized what he called the \u201cinfantilization of the separatists,\u201d saying people across the country need to start treating the situation with more urgency, even though polling suggests the independence push has less than 30 per cent support in various polls.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, don\u2019t criticize them, they\u2019re just frustrated people,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, first of all, at the core, these people want to rip up my country, so I\u2019m not going to infantilize them. Secondly, what about the vast majority of Albertans who don\u2019t want their lives being disrupted?\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinion: Here\u2019s the real scandal at the heart of the Alberta data breach<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Kenney said the rest of Canada has been quiet on the matter, compared to the 1995 Quebec referendum, which saw crowds of people from other provinces gather in Quebec for pro-Canada rallies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that the pro-Canada people get their act together,\u201d he said, noting that he is frustrated by comments he reads and hears elsewhere in the country, which he characterized as calling Albertans whiners for harbouring long-held economic and political grievances with Ottawa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas that the attitude we had in 1995? No, half of us got on busses, we went to Montreal to say, \u2018We love you. Even though you keep talking about leaving us, we still love you.\u2019 So how about throwing around a little bit of love,\u201d Mr. Kenney told the Toronto audience.<\/p>\n

Imagine the situation in 1995, he said, \u201cand apply the same warm feelings and efforts to reaching out to your fellow Canadians in Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recent data breach in Alberta, where a separatist group posted records online containing the personal information of millions of voters in the province, resulting in his address being made public, bothered him, Mr. Kenney told the audience.<\/p>\n

He said he is concerned about elements of the separatist movement knowing where he lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these crazies now have my personal information,\u201d Mr. Kenney said, adding that he was concerned about the broader context of the data leak, which affects many other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a victim of domestic violence and your abuser has access to that list, knows where you live now, this is a really serious problem,\u201d Mr. Kenny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RCMP is investigating it, and I hope you can go to jail as a result of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Despite slow response, Mr. Kenney said he expects the federalist side will become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-35534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}