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Just as Canada tries to exit one crisis, another one looms.
The country is finding its footing after a protracted political transition to a new leader, amid President Trump’s tariffs and sovereignty threats.
But now the western province of Alberta is laying the groundwork to hold a referendum asking voters whether they support seceding from Canada.
While the likelihood of such a divorce ever happening is slim — Canada’s Constitution would have to be amended, among other obstacles — the momentum to put the question on the ballot points to deep grievances bubbling to the surface. (Some Albertans actually prefer becoming a U.S. state).
Many Albertans have long felt disgruntled with their place in Canada’s federal system, which they see as unfairly limiting the province’s vast oil-and-gas resources while dutifully collecting taxes.
The province, often referred to as “Canada’s Texas” because its oil and politics, is home to a small but dedicated minority of separatists. Their voice has been amplified in part because of Mr. Trump’s calls to annex Canada and by the re-election of a Liberal federal government, which many in traditionally conservative Alberta view as hostile to their concerns.
(A longstanding secessionist movement in the French-speaking province of Quebec has lost steam in recent months. Its most recent referendum, in 1995, narrowly failed to win a majority in favor of breaking away from Canada.)
