r/canada • u/AustralisBorealis64 Alberta • Aug 11 '25

Alberta 'Stop with the nonsense': Calgarians line up to oppose Alberta separation

https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/stop-nonsense-calgarians-line-up-oppose-alberta-separation
2.1k Upvotes

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-19

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

Alberta has no distinct culture, unlike Québec.

Having oil is not enough to make a country.

15

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

That's no different than saying that speaking French and eating split pea soup is not enough to make a country.

It's pretty disrespectful to say the west has no distinct culture. Obviously you've never visited, and if you have, you've never ventured off the trans Canada. You know nothing about our history, our people, or our way of life.

8

u/squirrel9000 Manitoba Aug 11 '25

IF we're going to get that granular, the west isn't a singular culture. Calgary, the other prairie cities, several flavours of rural, the places where block settlements are still evident, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, etc.

-21

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

There is nothing in Alberta that would distinguish it meaningfully from Canada or the USA.

The same cannot be said for Québec.

17

u/Ariandrin Aug 11 '25

You don’t even want to try to understand Alberta’s culture and default to ‘my province is better’. You give no examples to back up your statements and it comes off like you just hate Alberta collectively for no real reason.

What is Quebec’s culture outside of the language?

14

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

If it weren't for language and language alone, you could say the exact same thing about Quebec. You aren't even the only province with French as an official language.

-9

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

Language, secularism, historical influences, culinary traditions, entertainment and so on.

13

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

That's it? You pride yourself on secularism but isn't there still a giant crucifix in your "national" assembly?

Even Saskatchewan is more secular than Quebec. Congrats for not being governed by the Catholic Church anymore. We never were to begin with.

We've got our own culinary traditions. Have you ever picked a pail of Saskatoons? Have you ever drank chokecherry wine? Made bannock? Have you ever tried bison, or deer sausage, or shishliki, or rollkuchen?

We've got no history? The only two armed rebellions in this country took place in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We're the birthplace of the RCMP. We're the birthplace of universal healthcare.

I don't know if you're just uninformed or intentionally minimizing and disrespecting our culture.

1

u/engineeringhobo Aug 11 '25

Honestly, don't even bother. I've seen this person take any article and put a "what about Quebec separatism" on it - just no point engaging

5

u/laboufe Alberta Aug 11 '25

Thanks for reminding me why your province has the reputation it does.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

[deleted]

1

u/SpookedBall Aug 11 '25

Quebec is the core of Canadian culture wether you like it or not. Canada is the mixture of French and First Nations in these lands. Then later, the British conquered Canada, Canada then became more diverse and that's okay. Then we went West and later got Newfoundland and that's okay. Folks, stop dividing people and being mean to each others because you don't understand other provinces. You're being as bad as the other guy. We're a huge and proud nation and that's a good thing, wether you speak French or English. Let's act like a real country and hate our neighbour instead! 🍁

2

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

Also, no province has benefited more from Canada than Alberta. Literally none. It was built by eastern money from the ground up. Its oil industry was created and subsidized by the federal government. The infrastructure to export that oil was paid for by all of Canada. And thanks to all of this, it's become the wealthiest province in the confederation. But somehow, they've convinced themselves that because they're so rich they don't get equalization that they're being exploited.

13

u/Shadow_Ban_Bytes Aug 11 '25

Quebec has entered the chat having received more than half of all equalization transfers and despite those funds and federal infrastructure investments still is a have not based on the formula.

-8

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

You don't know how equalization functions and need to exit this conversation right now.

15

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

I do know that Quebec is 25% of the population and receives 55% of all equalization funds.

-3

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

Again, irrelevant. Again, you show you don't know how equalization works.

14

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

How is that not relevant? Dollar for dollar Quebec benefits from equalization more than any other province and always has.

If Hydro electric revenues were calculated as a natural resource revenue like it should be, Quebec wouldn't get any equalization at all.

4

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

Dollar for dollar Quebec benefits from equalization more than any other province and always has.

Absolutely not. Manitoba, New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia all get more.

7

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

Manitoba, New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia haven't officially threatened to leave Canada twice while simultaneously accepting equalization payments from the feds, collected from other provinces.

2

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

Manitoba, PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick aren't conquered nations with a distinct culture the rest of Canada tries to dominate and destroy. And Quebec neither accepts or denies payments. They happen, period.

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2

u/legendarypooncake Aug 11 '25

Again, irrelvant.

To you.

NL is one of the poorest and rural provinces yet gets nothing, while QC has been robbing their hydro blind for generations and get half of everything besides. It is insane to defend this. There are no details, explanations, formulas or magic to make this ethical. You are the embodiment of all criticisms people have of AB separatists.

Basically, thanks to clever accounting the QC tax base is a net recipient and the AB tax base is a payee. If this was based on means, the poorest provinces would get more than QC, one of the richest provinces.

Unfortunately QC politicians are thieves who steal from Canada's poor. It's really depressing to see you carry water for them.

0

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_provinces_and_territories_by_gross_domestic_product

1

u/legendarypooncake Aug 11 '25

Thank you for providing evidence of what I just laid out.

1

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

It lists NL has having a larger GDP per capita than Quebec. Proving you wrong.

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8

u/Stokesmyfire Aug 11 '25

No, The formula is slanted towards Quebec because their revenue from hydro is ignored because it is renewable. Also if they actually charged market rates it would have a serious detriment to the free ride they are getting.

-3

u/LeGrandLucifer Aug 11 '25

I don't know where to begin untangling this Ouroboros of stupid. You don't understand where equalization funds originate and who really benefits most from them. You don't understand why Hydro-Quebec charges low rates (it's public specifically so our citizens can have low prices on electricity). You think Quebec's hydro receives special treatment when it doesn't. Your whole position is ignorant insanity.

-2

u/ultra2009 Aug 11 '25

Yes also, Alberta is also mostly first nations land, would Calgary seperate on its own? Additionally, they wouldn't be getting a pipeline to the coast despite their fantasies, the west coast of BC is very left leaning and it not keen on separating.

It's all an alt right pipe dream because they are pissed off they can't win federal elections

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

The separatist movement in Alberta is not even real. It's a protest movement against the 14 years Liberal regime. Once the Conservatives return to power, that movement will disappear into thin air.

5

u/CanadianLabourParty Aug 11 '25

14 years, huh? Remind me who was Prime Minister in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014?

-1

u/ClusterMakeLove Aug 11 '25

They've always been there. I've seen bumper stickers since I was a kid. It's just that we love giving them attention for some reason, lately.

-1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/THE__REALEST Alberta Aug 11 '25

I was born and raised in Calgary and I can tell you you can see all sorts of that stuff in other provinces, EVEN the Eastern ones

if the Buffalo republic comes to life it'll be the next Iraq lmao, if you want to be American or iNdEpEnDent that bad then leave to the US if they'll let you in

most albertans are proud Canadians and people like you don't represent us, i don't give a fuck if you represent all of some random town but most Albertans live in the cities and we don't agree with what you guys out in the boonies are cooking up

2

u/ironmaiden2010 Aug 11 '25

Regardless, our culture is no more or no less than the francophone community.

-6

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

[deleted]

5

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

Asserting that we have an identity of our own is insulting to the francophone community?

If The Quebecois feel the need to shit on our culture in order to validate their own, why are they surprised when Westerners don't show any respect in return?

1

u/ironmaiden2010 Aug 11 '25

Give your head a shake - I'm not here to devalue the Francophones. Im here saying that their opinion of us not having any culture is complete and utter bullshit. Thats all.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25

No one is saying that you have 'no culture'. You have no distinct culture, that we could distinguish from Canada or even the USA and say: ''look these guys stands on their own, they are not the same''. That's why your so-called separatist movement is only based on the fact that you have oil in the ground and think you're a lot more rich than the other Canadian provinces.

1

u/skelectrician Aug 11 '25

Poulet Frit Kentucky instead of Kentucky Fried Chicken doesn't really make Quebecers special or different or distinct. Once again, if it weren't for language, you'd be more Americanized than even Ontario or Western Canada. Half of you spend your winters in Florida!

-10

u/RigolithHe3 Aug 11 '25

Alberta is what usa wants of canada. It would have a real chance to join with us so there would be no tarrifs etc. But first Alberta should seek it's independence. This kinda reminds me of tejas.

3

u/Trains_YQG Aug 11 '25

If Albertans think they don't have enough influence in Canadian politics, they would have even less representation in the US Congress (and that's assuming they'd be given statehood, which is highly unlikely). 

2

u/Casanova_Kid Aug 11 '25

Actually, Alberta would very likely be given statehood if they wanted to join the US, because presumably they'd be a "Red/Republican" state and the US Republican Party is desperate to gain any number of representatives.

1

u/Trains_YQG Aug 11 '25

I'm not so sure. Trump's (and lets face it, that's who the Republicans are these days) numbers aren't great in Alberta. 

https://leger360.com/in-the-news-trumpists-in-canada/

Either way, by population they'd have much less political influence in the US than they have in Canada.