Canada fielding economic assaults and threats of a takeover from the Trump Administration is now facing the possibility that a separatist movement may further complicate Mark Carney’s year. The Alberta’s premier Danielle Smith said she would hold a public vote on 19th October to decide whether to pursue a referendum for the province to separate from Canada. It would not directly trigger separation but would be the first step if successful towards holding a binding referendum.
Alberta is an oil-rich province, is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the US and home to the world’s third-largest reserve of crude. There are historic differences within Canada between Alberta and the central government, with Danielle Smith regularly blaming Ottawa for political and economic interference.
Canada, 1 July 1867 12 am Ottawa, does look edgy August to this October with tr Uranus square the Mars but relieved the following year with tr Uranus square the Jupiter. There is little to indicate a break up in immediate years. Tr Neptune will square the Sun Uranus in Cancer by 2029 but that is more of a drift and is repeated elsewhere in the UK and EU. When there might be a chance of major changes would be 2033/34 as tr Saturn Uranus in Cancer are conjunct the Canada Sun Uranus. But that has happened before without a fracture.
Relations between Alberta and Canada will be unsettled this year and undermined and facing major challenges towards the end of this decade, more so into the early 2030s. So the dissatisfaction will roll on.
Danielle Smith, 1 April 19071 Calgary, is an excitable, super-ambitious, hot-headed and rebellious Aries Sun opposition Uranus square Mars in Capricorn. That has moved by Solar Arc to hard aspect her overly optimistic Neptune Jupiter in Sagittarius over the next eighteen months. She could score some points but Jupiter Neptune tends to short circuit along the way. In October tr Saturn in Aries is hovering around her Sun opposition Uranus and square her Mars – so not ideal for a success.
Alberta, 1 September 1905, with be in the mood to take a risk with tr Uranus conjunct the Jupiter over the October date and then opposition Mars and Square the Virgo Sun in the two or three years after. There is likely to be unrest. But as above, Canada may not fragment immediately and even in the 2030s there may be other effects of the Saturn Uranus in Cancer conjunction.
The previous tr Uranus in Cancer conjunct the Canada Sun Uranus around 1950 saw rapid economic expansion and the integration of Newfoundland into the Canadian confederation.
Separatism is a red herring in Alberta. Only the most charitable of polls show support for independence as high as 30%, but the problem lies with the United Conservative Party, whose leader, Premier Danielle Smith, a true April Fool who is born on April 1, 1971, is beholden to separatists who have taken over the party. Smith, nicknamed “Donbas Dani” for getting involved with those traitors in the first place for supporting her leadership, has moved the goalposts by changing the law which dropped the number of signatures from Albertan voters required to force a referendum on secession from Canada.
Successive right-wing governments in Edmonton have blamed Ottawa for all of Alberta’s troubles despite the fact that other than a brief period of four years of the centre-left, social democrat New Democratic Party rule under former Premier Rachel Notley between 2015 and 2019, they have been in power since the Great Depression under the names of the Social Credit Party (1935-1971), Progressive Conservative Party (1971-2015) or United Conservative Party (2019-present). They have squandered a wealth fund derived from royalties earned from the exploitation and sale of fossil fuels with bad investments. and they allowed fossil fuel exploiters to drill without collecting funds necessary to cover the costs of cleaning abandoned wells. having waived them. They also repeatedly lowered the royalty rate that the province would receive from fossil fuels, allowing the predominantly American-owned oil patch to take more without having to give back to the provincial government.
The separatism movement in Alberta is funded by right-wing American interests. U.S. Trade Secretary Scott Bessent has spoken in favour of the separatists, who also have links to American Ambassador to Canada, the odious Pete Hoekstra, with whom the Dutch government clashed when he served as the American Ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term. A recent CBC report has uncovered the fact that foreign bad actors, notably ones based in the U.S. and the Netherlands, are involved in creating and posting misinformation in favour of separatism on social media such as YouTube.
@John, thank you for the (further) context! I have been following the separationist movement ecosystem for a while, and wonder about the funding from the Netherlands: Is that somehow related to Mathias Corvinus Collegium? Because if yes, that’s going to dry out that part of the the funding due to Orbán losing the power in Hungary. Obviously, with Canada bordering the US and their home crown conservative movements, the impact isn’t as immediate as with some European actors. But in general, it will be extremely interesting to see where these changes lead.
Well explained John. Having lived and worked all over Canada I can attest to the disgruntled, entitled, misinformed element in Alberta!
Respectfully John. Nebulous links to foreign interests, taint by association and ad hominem?
Laying it on pretty thick for dramatic effect, eh?
Perhaps we should be discussing the nature of the longstanding grievances and how they might be resolved?
Will this be a one hit wonder or might it be a Prairie counterpart to the seemingly perpetual threat of Quebec separation?
Interesting times ahead, that’s for sure.
I wonder if Pluto in Aquarius might see more national breaks for independence like this. In other areas, Pluto in Capricorn has seen empire building as TV/film studios merge or get taken over; same with banks/insurance companies etc merging. The voice of the smaller groups get lost and they feel they want out. Part of the drive within Alberta for separation is that they feel their natural resources contribute much to overall Canadian wealth but they don’t get as much back. It was often a similar argument for Scotland.
It is a similar story with Western Australia and their vast iron ore wealth.