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Editor's Note: This article argues for the upcoming Alberta referendum. To read an argument against the Alberta referendum, click here.
Whether one is politically engaged or has opinions on the Alberta independence movement, it is worth considering that a large number of people in two Canadian provinces want a different relationship with Canada. Even if one does not agree, it is important to understand the grievances or frustrations that have led to a significant breakdown in this national project called Canada.
In Alberta, there are five common arguments that are presented in laying out the case for a sovereign Alberta.
There is the historical argument beginning with the founding of our province, its roots, its people, and the constant battles with Ottawa. “The Milch Cow” image, a political cartoon first published in 1915, has become iconic. The cow represents Canada. The farmers of Alberta are feeding the cow and the leaders in Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal are milking the cow. For more than 100 years people in Western Canada have felt treated like a colony, existing for the wealth of Upper and Lower Canada. Michael Wagner’s books are essential reading to learn more about the history of Western alienation, the National Energy Program, and the failed efforts to address grievances.1 A key part of the historical argument is that Alberta has sent the best and brightest to Ottawa to fix Canada, but they couldn’t do it; concluding that it simply cannot be done.
Next is the economic argument, based on imbalances in the Federal Equalization Program. Studies show that $20–$40 billion is transferred from Alberta to the provinces of Central and Eastern Canada each year. From 2000–2023, $544 billion has been transferred out of Alberta. Quebec, one of the greatest critics of Alberta’s industry and culture, receives $13.9 billion a year through the Federal Equalization Program—over 50% of total equalization funds. The province of PEI is now reliant on equalization as payments make up 20% of their annual budget. Since 1965, even in years of recession, Alberta has received a total of $0 through equalization. Therefore, many contend that equalization disadvantages Alberta for the sake of Central and Eastern Canada.
There is also the political argument. Federal laws continue to hurt Alberta’s primary industries like oil, gas, and beef. Federal laws, like the Carbon Tax, Bill C-69 (the Impact Assessment Bill or “no more pipelines bill”), and Bill C-48 (the Oil Tanker Moratorium Actn, banning Alberta’s exports on the west coast while still allowing tankers on the east coast as Central Canada imports foreign oil) stifle development, block energy projects, and prevent access to global markets, all of which represents the potential of hundreds of billions in lost projects for Albertans. Studies show that investment in Alberta has dropped 61% in the last ten years.2
Next is the federal or constitutional argument. Canadian federalism was designed to divide power between the federal government and provincial government. Alberta is supposed to have sovereignty over its natural resources, but that is not being honored in practice. Alberta has a dozen matters before the courts, fighting the federal government over matters of jurisdiction. Alberta’s voice in Ottawa is faint, since it is Ontario and Quebec that decide elections. Senate reform was proposed as one way to increase Alberta’s influence in Ottawa—although these efforts were stopped by the Supreme Court in the Harper era. Alberta has six senators compared to Ontario and Quebec who have twenty-four each—those numbers being fixed in the constitution and not based on population. PEI has four senate seats for a population less than 200,000. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia each have ten seats with populations smaller than either the city of Edmonton or Calgary. For this reason, Albertans feel as if they have little say over the future of their country and decisions that affect them and their livelihoods.
Finally, there is the cultural or moral argument. Many people in Alberta feel as if the culture and values of Central Canada are out of step with the culture and values of Alberta. Alberta was formally Canada’s Bible belt, and it remains a place where many hold traditional values. It is not uncommon to drive through rural Alberta and see pro-life billboards and banners. The conservatives in Alberta are not just fiscal conservatives, but many are social conservatives who desire to see traditional values preserved while our federal government promotes a new vision of society and the family. For this reason, Albertans want off the moral train that is careening off the tracks.
For all these reasons, one wonders that if Alberta were presently independent from Canada, would Albertans vote to join Canada under these circumstances? If not, why should Albertans vote to stay?
Biblical Values and Alberta Independence
These historic, economic, political, and constitutional arguments make a compelling case for Alberta’s independence. What must be recognized is that biblical values are foundational to each of these arguments. That is, it can be argued that many who long for an independent Alberta are longing for a way of life that matches biblical principles. What people are longing for—and don’t realize it—is the fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a Christian vision of society, and the truth of his word manifest in his world.
1. Liberty
When people speak of independence or sovereignty or self-determination, what they really mean is liberty or freedom. It cannot be denied that liberty is a biblical value. Sin enslaves. The work of Jesus liberates us from sin and leads us to do what is right without external constraints. Without God's grace, sin must be constrained by force, and you end up with a police state with no liberty. In history, where the Bible has been believed and honored, freedom follows. The Protestant Reformation was not just a theological movement but a movement of liberation that built the West and all the freedoms that we enjoy and seek to preserve. Why is the Bible key to freedom? The Bible promotes personal responsibility, personal rights, property rights, family rights, and a limited and local government.4
Consider the biblical idea of a local government where leaders are chosen from the people they represent and serve (Deut. 1:13; Acts 6:3). Some of the most consequential decisions affecting Albertans are not made by a local government. Contrary to biblical principles, for much of their history, Albertans have been represented by people foreign to Alberta and even those openly opposed to their industries, culture, and values. Albertans desire a local government more in tune with the needs of the people.
Consider also the biblical idea of a limited government where leaders have a narrow jurisdiction, depending upon a responsible and free people to govern themselves. The antithesis to limited government that promotes freedom and responsibility is a big humanist government that promises security and welfare from the cradle to the grave. However, when you have a big, overreaching government, responsibility is necessarily removed from the family or individual, resulting in loss of choice and therefore a loss of freedom. With more power consolidated in Ottawa year after year, the provincial government is now elected based on its promises to protect Albertans from Ottawa’s encroachment.5 When you have a big government and a foreign government, you have the ingredients for totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism is not necessarily a dictatorship that throws people into the gulag. Totalitarianism is when the government grows to manage every facet of life, like education, healthcare, welfare, and the economy. In Canada, the number of federal employees increased by 43% in the last decade. What do these people do? Regulate the lives of Canadians—the opposite of liberty. We are currently living in a soft-totalitarian state where regulations and laws are suffocating the livelihoods of many, and the people long for liberty. They want self-determination. Alberta is known for a spirit of self-determination—a “get’r done” people. Albertans do not want handouts. They do not want money from the East. They just want freedom to build, work, live, play, and have hope for a future.
What they want—what we all should want—is a society built on personal responsibility, personal rights, property rights, family rights, with a limited and local government. In other words, many Albertans want the blessings of a society built on God’s word.
2. Justice
As Albertans long for independence or self-determination, the political and economic arguments rest on the principle of justice. Many in Alberta are grieved about injustices like the equalization program, federal laws that harm their industries, and having little say over the direction and future of our country. They want justice. But what kind of justice do they want? Albertans clearly have become bitter by a social “justice” influenced by Marx, which defines “justice” as an equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. The entire equalization program or federal transfer system is built on Marxist or socialist theories of redistribution of wealth—taking from the “haves” and giving to the “have-nots.”
Biblical justice is contrary to Marxism. It promotes fairness with equal treatment of the rich and poor. Neither should receive special treatment, but all are equal under the law. Biblical justice is about equal weights and measures. The native and sojourner are under the same law. The king and peasant answer to the same standards. True justice is judgment of right and wrong with no partiality; Lady Justice, drawn from the biblical portrait of justice, is blind.
It is also biblical justice and fairness that undergird the idea of “no taxation without representation.” When socialism leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Albertans it is because they have a taste for justice according to God’s standards.
3. Vocation
When people long for independence or self-determination, they are not asking for money or special treatment, they just want to work and enjoy the fruit of their labor. The Bible says much about work. From the beginning God made Adam and Eve, placing them in the garden and calling them to work it, cultivate it, and nurture its fruit. Your work is your livelihood; it provides the necessities of life. Albertans have no desire to live off the fruit of another’s labor, but to be free to work and have that work sustain their lives. The Bible speaks of the dignity of work—it values effort, building, engineering; taking the raw elements and making something ordered and structured for the honor and glory of God.
Christians view this “dignity of work” as a calling. It is more than what a person does, it is part of who they are. The word for this calling is vocation. Your work is worth something. It has purpose. There is honor in it. It is a stewardship.
This past year, people in Central Canada viewed Trump’s tariffs on the steel and auto industry as an existential threat. This was not just a trade war; this was an attack on Canada—an attack on the people whose livelihoods depend upon those industries. While the light bulb never went on, this is the identical scenario of what Ottawa does to Alberta—crippling its industry, blocking its development, refusing its exports, and taking its wealth. When Trump does it, it’s unfair. When Ottawa does it, it’s equity. When Central Canada shouts, “Elbows up!” and boos the American anthem, they are viewed as patriots. When Alberta objects to the same treatment, we are viewed as whiners and un-Canadian.
To attack the work of Alberta, whether to end the oil industry, to ban fertilizer, or to say cows are causing climate change, is an attack on the workers of Alberta. These policies affect people, real people who recognize the dignity of work to secure a future for their families. Let us never forget people as we discuss policy.
People in Alberta want independence because they want to work, they have a vocation; a biblical calling. We are a working province and that is a biblical value established from the very beginning.
4. Belonging
People in Alberta can feel as if they don’t belong in Canada when voices in the East speak of phasing out the industries sustaining Albertans or speak of Canadian values as essentially Liberal party values at odds with the conservative values that dominate much of Alberta’s political scene. The desire for belonging is a powerful one. When you come into a new city or a new school or a new environment and feel like an outsider, it’s a very uncomfortable feeling. We long to belong. We don’t just want to live here, we want to belong here. This, again, is a biblical theme.
The theology of land or place is central to the Bible’s story. I believe the idea of the land is a unique part of Alberta’s desire for independence. The land under our feet is Alberta’s wealth and industry. Whether its oil and gas, its vast pastures for cattle, its big sky and fields for grain, or its stunning mountains for tourism, Alberta’s wealth is tied to the land. It is our livelihood and for that reason, it is not long before people living here feel a connection to the land, knowing its importance for sustaining life here. This is different from the manufacturing or banking industries that dominates Ontario’s economy—they are not dependent on geography like the industries of Alberta.
It cannot be denied that the values of Central Canada seek to replace Alberta’s local culture—local ties to the land and the stories of its history—with a new national identity. This new national identity pushes the values of the World Economic Forum about not owning property. It imposes language laws foreign to this place. This new national identity is foreign to Alberta and so it is unsettling to a local culture rooted and planted in time and place. When people in Alberta long for independence, they have a sense that they just don’t belong in Canada. Canada has changed. The communism that we once sent men to fight against is now espoused by the people Central Canada votes for. Alberta’s identity, stories, industry, and culture seem out of step with the rest of Canada.
People long for rootedness, belonging, for home, a place to call their own, to identify with its past and its people, to build a true community with real connections. This idea of belonging, a biblical ideal, also undergirds the independence movement.
5. Ethics
The final Christian virtue that needs attention is that of ethics. Traditional values present in Alberta, and especially present in the independence movement, are founded on Christian ethics derived from Scripture and embodied by Jesus.
Recently, Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act, beefed up Canada’s hate crime legislation while removing religious exemptions. Marc Miller, who put forward the legislation, said on X, “There should be no defense to the crime of publicly inciting hatred because, for example, someone relied on Leviticus 20:13 or Deuteronomy 22:22 which prescribe death to homosexuals and adulterers. It’s as simple as that.”6 Which province wanted this? Not Alberta, but Quebec.
Consider MAID, or “Medical Assistance in Dying,” a euphemism for euthanasia or state-sanctioned suicide or murder. This is a great social evil, clearly against Scripture and being pushed by anti-Christian secularism to the east. In 2024, 16,499 Canadians were killed by their doctor under legislation that made it legal in 2016. Since that time, more than 76,000 people have been killed. Is this pleasing to God? Studies show that religious values are the primary driver of lower rates of euthanasia. Quebec, the area where gospel hope is dimmest, has the most people killed year over year. Alberta is well below the national average.
Then there is transgenderism, with its chemical castration drugs and surgeries to remove functioning body parts to efface the image of God and transform people into their own self-perception. Laws from Ottawa make this more permissive but laws in Alberta have been passed to restrict it. There is a clash of ethics in our country.
Whether it is gay marriage, abortion, transgenderism, or MAID, there are real differences across our country and it seems social conservatives are concentrated in Alberta. I commend our current Alberta government who has pushed back on some of these ethical issues, but the problem is that these policies are pushed at the federal level. Albertans lack of a voice in Ottawa does not just affect pipelines, equalization payments, or the carbon tax. Alberta’s money flows east while radical secularism, woke ideology, and laws that undermine traditional values flow west.
People see independence as an opportunity to protect traditional values—these values, like faith, freedom, and family, are Christian values. Presently Ontario and Quebec control the policies, the laws, and the cultural influence of the entire nation. If Alberta gains her independence, a moral reformation is possible and traditional values—biblical values—can be preserved.
Conclusion
The discussion on independence is not just a discussion about dollars and cents. It is a discussion about religious ideas that express themselves in society. The antichristian ideas of Marxism, socialism, globalism, totalitarianism, and a host of other “isms” are promoted and pushed by the intelligentsia of Central Canada. Alberta is not free from these ideas, but there is a legacy here of a biblical commitment to liberty, justice, vocation, belonging, and traditional values.
The Puritans crossed an ocean to build a Christian society of liberty, justice, vocation, and belonging for themselves and their progeny. We have a chance to do the same here and now without any travel. I encourage you to join the independence movement, but don’t just join it for economic prosperity. Join the movement for a chance to see Christian principles promoted. Join to fight for a future for our children and children’s children so they can live in a province that doesn’t provoke the Lord’s displeasure but pleases the Lord. We want a land where Jesus is acknowledged, adored and loved.
Let me be clear, Alberta’s independence is not the answer. It’s not the ultimate hope. Our ultimate hope is the person and work of Jesus Christ. However, the underlying values of independence are aligned with the values of Scripture more than the current direction of Canada. Therefore, as many are longing for Christ and his principles worked out in the world: Let’s work to give it to them.
“All the cultural amenities that we enjoy are ours because we live in a land that has felt the impact of Christian civilization.” — Ernest Manning, Premier of Alberta, 1943-1968
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