Alberta separatists buoyed by Quebec election result

By David Boles

Jeffrey Rath says Alberta’s independence movement has an ally in Quebec premier-designate Paul St-Pierre Plamondon

A prominent supporter of Alberta independence is taking notice of the results of the Quebec provincial election.

“We were very happy,” said Jeffrey Rath, a prominent lawyer in southern Alberta. “It’s actually a major thing from a constitutional perspective because this is the first time in Canadian history that we have an independence movement in Quebec that will openly support Alberta independence.”

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and his Parti Quebecois won the provincial election in Quebec with 59 seats, five seats short of the majority government it was seeking to lead in Quebec City. It marks a significant comeback for the party, which was reduced to three seats in Quebec’s 2022 election.

It’s a sea change that Rath hopes will be replicated in Alberta in less than two weeks with the support of premier-designate Plamondon.

“I’ve had a few conversations with him over the last year and I’m really looking forward to working with him to get Quebec and Alberta out of Canada,” said Rath.

Alberta will be voting on 10 referendum questions on Oct. 19, the most prominent of those questions regarding whether or not Albertans want to stay in Canada or seek a binding referendum on sovereignty.

The vote has garnered significant interest from the public, with Elections Alberta saying voters have requested more than 650,000 mail-in ballots.

In addition, both campaigns have launched social media blitzes in order to curry public favour, as well as erecting street signs throughout Alberta communities, small and large.

Premier Danielle Smith has said on several occasions that she will be backing Alberta’s place in Canada, while encouraging people to support the other nine questions regarding the Alberta government’s desire for constitutional and immigration reform.

While Smith has repeatedly said her party is supportive of Alberta remaining, that’s not necessarily true for all Alberta MLAs. Red Deer North MLA Jason Stephan recently told CBC News that he prefers voting in favour of the second option, the choice for a binding referendum, as a way to compel the federal government to address the changes Alberta seeks from Ottawa.

However, Smith’s actions don’t seem to be enough for Rath, who said he and many others are frustrated with her.

“Premier Smith could do anything she wants, any time she wants,” he said. “But by pretending this entire vote is under the Citizens Initiative Act gives her the legal excuse not to allow our referendum on independence in 2027. So that’s just going to redouble our efforts to remove Smith as the premier of Alberta the way we got rid of Jason Kenney.”

A major story in the Globe and Mail broke recently alleging that Republican Party operatives from the United States were in Alberta to aid the separatists, with those in the separatist campaign alleged to have offered up access to Alberta’s water and crude royalties.

Rath said the story is untrue.

“Nothing could be more ridiculous,” said Rath. “It’s ludicrous.”

In the meantime, Rath intends to keep pushing for people to see the value of independence, both in the short-term and the long term.

“I was just out on the weekend and a waitress overheard myself and my good friend David chatting at a breakfast table,” he said. “She wanted to know what we were talking about, at which point she volunteers that she and her entire family were voting for independence.”