Podcast by The Hub
July 24, 2025
What would it take for an independent Alberta to join Canada today?
It’s been 120 years since Alberta joined Confederation. Now, some Albertans wrestle with the idea of separation following another election where the federal Liberals formed government but were almost entirely shut out of the province.
What if we wiped the slate clean and placed Alberta back outside of Confederation? What could the federal government offer to bring Alberta into the fold?
Gary Mar, the President and CEO of the Canada West Foundation, joined The Hub Canada’s Alberta Edge podcast for a thought experiment probing what the province would want to negotiate to join Confederation in a modern context.
Read some of the key takeaways from the conversation below.
Key takeaways
Gary suggested a few ideas for what Alberta might ask for, including:
Improved access to ports: “For example, in British Columbia, one of the things that they insisted on was a railway line that would connect British Columbia with central Canada. So maybe right off the top, perhaps a province like Alberta would say, ‘We want guaranteed access to tidewater for the things that we produce in our province.’”
An Alberta time zone: “(Former Premier) Joey Smallwood wanted (Newfoundland to have) its own time zone. So that you would say, 10:00, 10:30 in Newfoundland. I guess you could say maybe Alberta would want its own time zone.”
Clearer provincial vs. federal jurisdiction: “Really, at its core, I think that a lot of people here in Alberta would be looking for clear delineation of federal and provincial jurisdictions. There has been a creep of federal, through taxing power largely, into the jurisdictions that really reside with the provinces, perhaps most notably in the area of natural resource development.”
Rebalanced Senate: “Looking historically at what other provinces have asked for, the province of PEI asked for four senators. There are 150,000 people who live there, and so each senator represents fewer than 40,000 people. The asymmetry of how Alberta is represented in our House of Commons and in our Senate is striking in my view.”
Revised transfer payment structure: “I don’t think that the province of Alberta is interested in providing things like transfer payments to large provinces like Ontario and Quebec. I don’t think there’s any complaint that you would have in helping support Atlantic provinces, smaller provinces, PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador … that’s the sort of thing that the premier is looking for a different deal and I think she’s reflecting the views of a significant number of Albertans who have grief over a topic like that.”
Listen to the full conversation with host Ryan Hastman and University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley on The Hub.