A few weeks ago, Preston Manning asked me to contribute to the Alberta and the West Assembly by pulling together and explaining the case that a few organizations make for Alberta to remain in Canada. I learned that each of these groups was invited to the Assembly, but they declined for fear of legitimizing the same process they are engaging.
I was happy to volunteer, so here is the text I prepared for Alberta and the West Assembly · Delivered September 19, 2026 · Marco Navarro-Génie · written version, revised September 21, 2026
— * — * —
Good morning. Thank you, co-chairs Preston Manning and Gordon Campbell, for the opportunity to contribute to this Assembly. Thank you also to the delegates and to those watching.
My task is a narrow one. I have been asked to present what the principal organizations opposed to Alberta separation say about Question 10. On what grounds they say it. And what, if anything, they propose that Alberta do inside Canada instead. The organizers put it as a question: remain, and do what?
A word about terms
Before I describe anyone else’s position, I owe you an account of my own vocabulary. I do not call the people who will choose the second option on October 19 separatists. I call them autonomists, and the broader label is deliberate.
It includes those who want Alberta to become a new country. It also includes many Albertans who do not. They see in this referendum an opportunity for a robust conversation about what must change for Alberta to fulfill its aspirations.
That is why the proposals of those opposing separation matter so much. For many Albertans, the process is a demand for change, and a vote to remain answers only half the question. A Remain case that proposes nothing asks a frustrated province to accept the status quo as the price of staying. That’s no price at all.
That is the test I apply this morning, group by group, and as far as possible in their own words.
I will speak about four entries. The first joins the two Remain campaigns, Forever Canadian and Vote to Stay. The second is the policy group Lead. Not Leave. The third is the Canadian Chamber of Commerce's campaign, Alberta and Canada: Stronger Together. The fourth is the Canada West Foundation's report, Alberta in Confederation.
I will sketch their positions and their proposals, then provide a quick assessment. Finally, I’ll mention what they don’t address.
Part One: Where they stand, and what they propose
1. The campaigns: Forever Canadian and Vote to Stay
Forever Canadian is the province's largest Remain organization. Put plainly, it proposes that Alberta remain in Canada and that no referendum be held at all.
On its own website, the tagline reads “Keep Alberta in Canada.” Its page on Question 10, however, states that it “will not tell you which option to choose.” Its founder describes its purpose as Canadian unity and patriotism, rather than a position on the ballot.
The organization registered with Elections Alberta as a referendum advertiser on June 8. It has reported no contributions. Its donation page states that there are no limits on donation amounts.
Its position rests on belonging and numbers. Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Progressive Conservative deputy premier, led a citizen petition to keep Alberta in Canada. Elections Alberta verified 404,293 signatures in December 2025: 13.6 per cent of electors. The website’s headline reads “Half a Million Strong.” Mr. Lukaszuk inaccurately boasted that it was the biggest petition in Canadian history.
The organization reports 18,000 volunteers and 160 pop-up locations. It runs a touring vehicle. Tomorrow, it hosts a free Jann Arden concert in Calgary, whose registration page reminds guests that “every dollar goes to the movement.”
Throughout, the organization has said nothing about pipelines, equalization, the courts or the constitution. Its case is that Albertans belong to Canada, that most of them know it, and that the majority should be counted.
On First Nations, its references are symbolic: a Treaty 6, 7 and 8 land acknowledgment on its website, and a merchandise line that reads “We don’t own this land. We care for it.”
What it proposes is procedural. It proposes no change to the federation. Its remedy was first a decision by the legislature in place of a referendum, and then deferral of the referendum.
Vote to Stay is the conservative campaign. Its position is unambiguous: vote to remain. Monte Solberg, a Reform Party MP and later a Harper cabinet minister, launched it on May 21. Jason Kenney, Travis Toews and Jen Gerson are its named voices. Tyler Shandro is its chief financial officer. Brett Wilson has endorsed it.
It opens with a concession, followed by a statement of confidence. The concession is that people in Alberta “have felt ignored, dismissed, and treated unfairly by governments and institutions.” The statement of confidence is that Alberta can secure “a better deal, greater respect, stronger economic growth, and more national influence“ without separation.
Mr. Solberg’s essay in the National Post and the Calgary Herald supplies the theory. Reformers, he writes, fought for democratic reform, lower taxes, balanced budgets, Senate reform and a greater voice for the West. “Grievance is not an economic strategy,” he writes, and “anger alone is not a governing vision.” Wise words. Put plainly, the core argument is that Ottawa can be changed from inside, by electing the right people, as the West did between 1993 and 2015.
The campaign’s principal evidence is a poll it commissioned from Innovative Research Group. It surveyed 2,000 Albertans in June and found large majorities for staying in every region: from 80 per cent in Edmonton to 66 per cent in the north and in central Alberta.
What it proposes is a better deal, respect and influence. It does not specify any of them. Its implied mechanism is a future federal election.
2. Lead. Not Leave.
Lead. Not Leave. is a group of eight: Ken Boessenkool, Jim Dinning, Peggy Garritty, Jen Gerson, Andrew Leach, Travis Toews, Trevor Tombe and Jared Wesley. It is not a registered campaign. It publishes essays, invites sponsorships of $5,000 to $25,000, and does not disclose its funding.
Its position has two parts. It wants Alberta to remain. And it would rather the referendum not be held.
Its open letter of May 25 says: “The status quo is not desirable.” It then says that a referendum on separation “is even less desirable.” The version on the group’s website adds that no vote should be held under the “dark clouds” of the court rulings and the Elections Alberta data breach. Those rulings turned in part on the Crown’s duty to consult First Nations. Neither version says when a vote would be appropriate. The letter’s verdict on leaving is blunt: “Escape is not a solution. It’s a cop-out at best and a dangerous distraction at worst.”
Its basis also has two parts. First, reform inside Canada is possible and under way. The group points to the Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of November 2025 as a good start.
Second, a diagnosis: Professor Wesley compares the organized independence movement (autonomists included) to “far-right populist movements.” He adds: “think: MAGA and Brexit.” He describes its emotional pull as “nostalgic patriotism: affection for a Canada they believe has slipped away.” An essay by Wesley, Garritty, and Dinning borrows heavily from the vocabulary of clinical psychology: DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender), gaslighting, love-bombing, ultimatums, projection. And on August 30, Ms. Gerson referred on X to those she opposes as seppies: “The seppies always take America’s side against their own. Always.”
Lead. Not Leave. has, with the Canada West Foundation, one of the two written programs on the Remain side. It is assembled from four pieces of work.
The first is the memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and Alberta. The group asks Alberta to secure it and build on it. Its reason: the memorandum shows that Alberta can win concessions from Ottawa without leaving. The memorandum also provides for Indigenous co-ownership of the proposed pipeline, supported by federal loan guarantees and Alberta’s Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.
The second is a renewed Social Union Framework Agreement, proposed by Professor Wesley and Mr. Boessenkool. It would delete the clause in the 1999 agreement that endorses Ottawa’s power to spend in provincial jurisdictions. It would limit federal spending on provincially regulated sectors and on municipalities. It would require per-capita formulas for health and social transfers. Talks would begin at the Council of the Federation, with Alberta leading.
The third is Professor Tombe’s proposal to rebuild federal transfers on two pillars. One is an unconditional, equal per-capita “Canada Grant.” The other is a simpler equalization program based on each province’s economic size. Under his reform, equalization would shrink from about 27 billion dollars to 21.6 billion. Quebec’s share would fall from 13.9 billion to 5.3 billion. Ontario would receive 10.1 billion.
The fourth is the group’s essay on equalization. Its authors attribute 73 per cent of the gap between what Albertans send to Ottawa and what they receive to one fact: Alberta is “richer, younger, and having a stronger economy.” “To close that gap entirely,” they write, “would require making Albertans poorer.” They leave the rest of the gap unexplained, and promise to address it “in due course.”
Their repairs are three. Base equalization on a broad measure of economic capacity, or bring provinces only three-quarters of the way to the average. Exclude or discount resource revenue. And remove the per-capita cap on the Fiscal Stabilization Program, which pays provinces in a sudden downturn.
3. Alberta and Canada: Stronger Together
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce launched Stronger Together on August 25. Its co-chairs are two former premiers: Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley.
Its position is to remain. Its basis is mainly the cost of uncertainty. The Chamber’s chief executive, Candace Laing, puts it this way: “Prolonged uncertainty around constitutional or political separation brings real risks for investor confidence, economic growth and Canada’s competitiveness.”
The campaign concedes “legitimate public policy concerns” about competitiveness, project approvals and economic opportunity. It then asserts that “Canada’s democratic system is strong enough to address those concerns constructively.”
Its purported evidence comes from business surveys. The Calgary Chamber reports that 48 per cent of its responding members would be likely to relocate if a separation process moved forward. The Alberta Chambers of Commerce reports that more than four in ten of 681 businesses say political uncertainty is affecting their operations.
Stated plainly, the Chamber’s position is warning-based: separation would hurt business, and the existing system can repair the rest.
It lays out a couple of proposals in an op-ed. Approval timelines short enough for projects to survive them. “Survivable regulation levels.” Competitive taxation. And a “yes, and” approach from Ottawa. The Alberta Chambers of Commerce add two more: removing internal trade barriers, and building pipelines to markets beyond the United States.
4. Alberta in Confederation: the Canada West Foundation
The Canada West Foundation published Alberta in Confederation on September 3. It runs 140 pages, with nine authors and an afterword by the Foundation’s board.
The foreword says the volume does not tell Albertans how to vote. Nonetheless, the board’s afterword reaches a conclusion: “The uncertainty is too great and the risks too significant for Alberta to pursue independence from Canada.” In the same passage, the board writes that its conclusion does not suggest “that Confederation is working as well for Alberta as it should. It is not.” Its position, then, is to remain, while conceding that the terms are unsatisfactory.
They offer the most complete statement of Alberta’s grievances that anyone on the Remain side has published.
Ted Morton sets out the ledger. By his accounting, Ottawa has taken a net $ 631 billion from Alberta since 1961. Half of that, 322 billion since 2007, and an average of 16 billion a year over the past decade. This is the closest account of what staying costs.
He then lists what he calls constitutional losses. Section 92A, the provincial control over natural resources that Peter Lougheed secured, was emptied by the courts. The amending formula, altered by the Regional Veto Act of 1996, which gave Quebec back its veto and grouped Alberta with Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The enlargement of Aboriginal rights by judicial interpretation, which he says has created “a de facto Indigenous veto over new resource development.” The federal effort, in the Bill 21 case, to restrict the notwithstanding clause. And the end of Senate reform.
A new government, he observes, can repeal a bad policy. Constitutional losses endure. Given that record, he writes, leaving “is not an unreasonable answer.” But its risks are almost impossible to know in advance.
Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, adds the plainest sentence in the volume: “Alberta has not been treated fairly by the federal government for decades.” In 2024, he notes, Alberta held 11.9 per cent of the national population. It generated 15.1 per cent of federal revenue. It received 9.8 per cent of federal spending.
Then the report prices separation. Its headline figures: over 200 billion dollars in setup costs, and nearly 58 billion a year in ongoing costs. Its chapters add more. Debt per Albertan would roughly triple. Health coverage and domestic tuition would no longer travel across the country with Albertans.
The volume is also the only Remain document to treat First Nations at length. Audrey Doerr writes that the treaties predate the province, and that First Nations would be central parties to any negotiation. Since 2021, the federal law implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples binds Ottawa at home. In the real world, she writes, these obligations “might be enough to prevent any negotiations from going forward.”
Dwight Newman adds that the courts have already weighed treaty rights in this referendum. He faults the May ruling that quashed the separatist petition for putting the duty to consult “in major tension with democratic principles.” He notes that the constitution already commits governments, in principle, to invite Indigenous representatives to constitutional talks that affect their rights.
Adam Legge’s chapter lays out its proposals in four parts. A fairer equalization formula, one that recognizes Alberta’s resource economy and electricity market. A faster and more predictable system for approving major projects. Federal representation that better reflects Alberta’s growing population. And a fairer share of federal spending on defence, research, innovation and the arts.
He writes that “choosing to remain in Canada does not mean accepting the status quo.” On how to achieve the changes, he offers one sentence: “the ball, to a large extent, is in Ottawa’s court.” The board closes by placing Alberta’s opportunity in “staying at the table, not leaving it.”
Part Two: Remain, and do what? An assessment
I now turn to the question the organizers asked, and to a quick assessment of the answers.
Of the four, two have written down what they would change: Lead. Not Leave., in four essays, and the Canada West Foundation, in one chapter of nine. The Chamber offers Ottawa a list of requests. The two campaigns don’t offer much.
The campaigns
Vote to Stay does not explain why Alberta has not secured that better deal, that respect and that influence they highlight in the years since the Reform movement. And one of its best-known voices has been here before. Under Premier Kenney, 61.7 per cent of Albertans voted to remove equalization from the constitution. Ottawa ignored it. The campaign has not said why it would be different this time.
Its poll measures attachment. It does not measure satisfaction. An Albertan can love the country and still judge that it treats her province unfairly. The numbers cannot tell those two dispositions apart. Reading attachment to Canada as proof that Canada works for Alberta is taking the West’s loyalty for granted. That is basically the Laurentian habit of mind that the West has endured for over a century.
What unites the two campaigns is that each treats the vote as the thing to be won. Neither has published systematically what it would change.
Lead. Not Leave.
Take the memorandum first. Recall what the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan, and ninety-five oil and gas chief executives, asked of Ottawa last year. Four requests were common to all three lists. Repeal the emissions cap on oil and gas. Repeal or amend the tanker ban on the northern British Columbia coast. Return carbon pricing for heavy emitters to the provinces. Scrap the Clean Electricity Regulations. The lists asked Ottawa to withdraw.
The memorandum has Ottawa step back a bit, but on conditions. Ottawa has confirmed that it will not introduce the emissions cap. That is an undertaking, but it stops short of repealing it. Alberta keeps its own industrial carbon pricing, on a schedule agreed with Ottawa: 95 dollars a tonne this year, 115 in 2030, 130 in 2035, and 140 by 2040.
The Clean Electricity Regulations are paused while Alberta’s constitutional challenge is before the Court of Appeal. If the court strikes them down, Ottawa will repeal them. If the court upholds them, the two governments will negotiate an equivalency agreement.
The northern pipeline application Alberta filed in July now follows a southern British Columbia route. In Ottawa’s words, that route “will not require any adjustment” to the tanker ban. The ban stands. The pipeline is tied to a large carbon-capture project, subject to toll payments, and the agreement with industry on that project, signed in July, is not yet binding. Both governments commit to net zero by 2050.
In short, the memorandum keeps the federal goals and changes who administers them. It is an executive agreement without the force of statute. Any future federal government can amend it or abandon it at will. The MoU is not great victory.
The memorandum’s answer to First Nations is financial: co-ownership and loan guarantees. That finances a pipeline. It does not settle the consultation question on which western pipelines have repeatedly stalled.
Two facts bear on a renewed social union agreement. Health and social transfers are already paid equally per capita: the social transfer since 2007, the health transfer since 2014. And the 1999 agreement, which Quebec never signed, was never repealed. It simply fell into disuse. An accord of this kind has no force of law. Its fate depends on Ottawa’s willingness.
Professor Tombe’s paper does not say how large the Canada Grant would be, or what it would replace. Alberta receives no equalization now, and would receive none under his proposal. On my own rough estimate, the saving to Albertans through their federal taxes would be under a billion dollars a year. Professor Tombe himself measures Alberta’s net outflow to Ottawa in 2024 at 5.9 per cent of the provincial economy: about 28 billion dollars.
On the equalization essay, the consolation offered is that only a quarter of the dagger is policy. Of its three repairs, the stabilization change would matter most. Alberta claimed about 2.4 billion dollars for the 2015-16 downturn. It received about 248 million. About 10 per cent. Ottawa raised the cap in 2023. It did not remove it. An uncapped stabilization program is the element of this whole program most likely to put money in Alberta’s hands. And only in a very bad year.
Taken together, their program would secure the memorandum, add procedural limits on federal spending, trim equalization and improve insurance against downturns. By its authors’ own reckoning, it would not materially reduce Alberta’s net contribution. Every element depends on federal consent, given through accords or statutes that a later federal government can reverse. And it leaves untouched the Senate, the allocation of seats in the Commons, the appointment of judges and the notwithstanding clause.
One more observation, about the group’s diagnosis of its opponents. The diagnosis runs in one direction only. Even the letter’s word for leaving, “escape,” belongs to the same clinical register. It casts Albertans as patients to be managed rather than citizens weighing a legitimate choice. Yet the group concedes that the status quo is undesirable, and that Alberta’s grievances have substance.
Grievances that persist for decades leave a mark on a people’s habits of mind and action. The aggregate of those habits is what we call a culture. A serious account would ask where the discontent comes from. Calling it populism, or dismissing it as a syndrome, describes it without explaining it. It also invites the question of what treatment the diagnosticians have in mind. And a label such as “seppies” diminishes fellow Albertans. It does not persuade them.
Stronger Together
The Chamber’s requests overlap with the premiers’ lists on approvals and market access. The campaign says the democratic system is strong enough to address Alberta’s concerns. It does not say how. It names no mechanism beyond advocacy. And it says nothing on equalization, the Senate, representation, the courts or the other nine questions.
Its evidence also warrants caution, as all polls do. The Calgary figure comes from 137 respondents, and it records an intention, not a decision. The decline in business confidence that the Chamber cites began before Question 10 was placed on the ballot. It also overlaps the tariff dispute with the United States.
The silences are instructive. In 2020, Mr. Kenney’s own Fair Deal Panel made twenty-five recommendations. Among them: an Alberta pension plan, a provincial police service, representation by population in Parliament, and democratic selection of senators. Ms. Notley’s government introduced Alberta’s consumer carbon levy. The two co-chairs disagree on exactly what their campaign omits.
The Canada West Foundation
The Canada West Foundation’s requests are reasonable requests. Measured against the volume’s own diagnosis, they are not small. Mr. Morton documents five key constitutional losses. None of the four requests addresses a constitutional matter. The request on representation does not say whether it means the House of Commons or the Senate. The volume cites the memorandum as proof that Alberta can achieve change without leaving. It leaves the rest to Ottawa’s goodwill.
Its costs also need careful reading. The 206.8 billion dollars in setup costs already includes 174.2 billion of Alberta’s existing population share of the federal debt. Albertans already carry that debt through their federal taxes. The new one-time costs come to about 33 billion. The annual figure is a gross outlay. The same model credits an independent Alberta with 82.7 billion dollars in recovered federal revenue in its first year. None of that makes separation cheap.
The volume prices Alberta leaving line by line.
On First Nations, the volume argues from one side. Treaty rights and the duty to consult appear as barriers to leaving. Yet Mr. Morton’s own chapter shows the same law constraining Alberta inside Canada, on the very resource development the Remain side promises. The volume does not reconcile the two.
Who counts the cost of staying?
That brings me to a question none of the four has answered. What does it cost Alberta to remain on present terms?
None of them tallies it. (Yet the figures are on their own pages. Mr. Morton’s net outflow of 16 billion dollars a year. Professor Tombe’s 28 billion in 2024. Mr. Legge’s gap between Alberta’s share of federal revenue and its share of federal spending. The losses Mr. Morton lists in the constitution itself, which he calls deeper and more enduring than any policy). The cost of leaving is estimated to the decimal point. The cost of staying is left uncounted.
The burden runs one way. The Remain side asks autonomists to answer every risk of leaving, from pensions to currency to the price of a border crossing. It does not answer, one by one, the demands and appeals for reform that Albertans have made for decades.
What prevails if Remain wins
Every published poll expects Remain to win. If it does, the only program both governments have signed is the memorandum, with its carbon-pricing schedule, tanker ban and pipeline conditions.
Everything else requires Ottawa’s consent. The social union. The transfer redesign. The stabilization fix. The Chamber’s requests. The Foundation’s four asks. No one on the Remain side has explained how it would secure that consent once the pressure of a live referendum is gone. The 2021 equalization referendum is the precedent. It was readily ignored.
Part Three: What none of them addresses
Six matters receive no concrete proposal from any of the four.
The first is the Senate. Question 7 on this ballot asks whether Alberta should seek to abolish the unelected Senate. About 39 per cent of Albertans say yes. Alberta has elected Senate nominees five times: in 1989, 1998, 2004, 2012 and 2021. The last elected nominee took his seat in March 2013. The three nominees Albertans elected in 2021 are still waiting. Mr. Solberg’s essay recalls that Reformers fought for Senate reform. No Remain group proposes it now. The Canada West Foundation comes closest. Mr. Morton records the defeat of Senate reform, and Mr. Legge notes that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick each have more senators than Alberta. Neither proposes a comprehensive remedy.
The second is representation. Ontario and Quebec together hold 200 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons. That is well over the 172 needed for a majority. The Foundation’s own author calls this a structural defect. Mr. Legge asks for representation that better reflects Alberta’s population but does not say how. No group proposes a remedy.
The third is the courts. Question 6 asks whether provinces should select the judges of their own superior courts. In the Bill 21 case, the federal government has asked the Supreme Court to restrict the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause. A decision is expected this fall. Mr. Morton warns of the consequences. No Remain group addresses either matter.
The fourth is the other nine questions: four on immigration, one on proof of citizenship to vote, and four on the constitution. None of the four entries takes a position on the constitutional questions as a group. Professor Wesley, writing for himself, urges a No. The only participants to address the whole ballot are the Alberta government, which urges Yes on the nine, and a campaign called Alberta’s Voice, which urges No.
The fifth is the place of First Nations. Only the Canada West Foundation addresses it seriously, and mainly as an obstacle to leaving. Forever Canadian offers a land acknowledgment. Lead. Not Leave. cites the court rulings as a reason to delay the vote, and endorses a memorandum that offers co-ownership. Vote to Stay and the Chamber say nothing. No Remain group proposes how Alberta, inside Canada, should reconcile treaty rights and the duty to consult with the approvals and pipelines it promises. Co-ownership is a financing tool. It does not answer a constitutional question.
The sixth is culture and what Mr. Solberg calls respect. The one sentence in all this material that speaks to it is Mr. Legge’s: “Canada may have been born in the central provinces, but Alberta helped raise it.” Four in ten of those who intend to vote to commence a process tell pollsters they are sending a message. A message is a demand to be heard. A demand for respect cannot be exclusively met with an unrealized transfer formula.
Most of the Remain side treats Alberta’s discontent as an economic problem. It answers with pipelines, equalization, approvals and investment. That’s good. But that answer does not account for Alberta’s cultural distinctiveness, and economic rewards cannot satisfy it. This is in part why the Remain side fails to address the constitutional questions.
Why the silence? The Remain coalition joins Harper-era conservatives, progressive academics, a former Progressive Conservative who campaigns for the NDP, the national business lobby, and a former NDP premier. Economics unites them. The courts, the constitution and culture would divide them. So they build their campaign on what they agree on, and they leave the rest alone, or recast it as the other side’s pathology.
That is no recipe for meeting the aspirations of Albertans who refuse to see themselves as lesser citizens. Or as “seppies,” as Ms. Gerson condescendingly calls them.
Closing
Let me return to the Albertans I described at the outset: the autonomists who will vote to commence the process, many of them not to leave, but to be heard.
To them, the Remain side has so far replied as follows. From the two campaigns: belonging, and a turnout drive. From Lead. Not Leave.: a signed energy agreement with federal conditions attached, and a set of fiscal repairs. From the Chamber: a request for faster approvals and lighter regulation, and no interprovincial barriers. From the Canada West Foundation: the most complete account of Alberta’s grievances any federalist organization has written, followed by four requests, and the hope that Ottawa will act on them.
None of them offers constitutional or representational repair. None deals with the Alberta identity. None reconciles treaty rights with the development it promises.
A Remain vote on October 19 would settle whether Alberta stays. It would not settle on what terms. That question will remain open after the count. It falls to Albertans, and to assemblies such as this one, to answer it.
Thank you.
Sources
Every figure and quotation in the text was checked in the fact-checked brief of September 18. The estimate of Albertans’ saving under the Tombe reform is my own calculation. The passages on First Nations were added after delivery, on September 21, 2026.
Question 10 and the other nine questions: Elections Alberta, elections.ab.ca/elections/referendum
Polls: Angus Reid Institute (Aug. 10–13); Abacus Data (Sept. 4–7, released Sept. 15); Research Co. (Aug. 24–26); Innovative Research Group for Vote to Stay (June 4–12, released late July)
Forever Canadian: forever-canadian.ca (About, Question 10, Donate, Concert pages); Elections Alberta petition results (Dec. 1, 2025) and third-party advertiser register (to Sept. 10); Elections BC report on the 2010 HST initiative; Global News (Oct. 28, 2025); UCP caucus statement and Medicine Hat News (May 21, 2026); Calgary Herald (Aug. 27); Canadian Press (Sept. 11); Rebel News (Sept. 10 and 14)
Vote to Stay: votetostay.ca (About; launch release, May 21); Elections Alberta registration; Monte Solberg, National Post (May 28) and Calgary Herald (May 29); Western Standard (July 31); Elections Alberta, 2021 referendum results
Lead. Not Leave.: open letter, The Line (May 25) and leadnotleave.ca; Wesley, Garritty and Dinning, “Abuse? Really?”, The Line (June 15); Wesley, The Line (Aug. 19) and Substack (June 14); Gerson on X (Aug. 30); Wesley and Boessenkool, Policy Options (June 23); Tombe, “Rebalancing Canada”, Macdonald-Laurier Institute (July 2026); Wesley, Boessenkool, Tombe and Garritty, The Hub (July 7); Finance Canada on transfer history; Canada Gazette (Mar. 29, 2023); Fairness Alberta on Fiscal Stabilization
Canada-Alberta memorandum: Implementation Agreement (May 15, 2026) and pipeline release (July 2, 2026), Government of Canada; List Option summary (Smith, Moe and Build Now lists); memorandum provisions on Indigenous co-ownership and loan guarantees (MLT Aikins summary, November 2025)
Stronger Together: Canadian Chamber of Commerce launch release (Aug. 25) and council page; Laing and Feth, Globe and Mail (July 31); Calgary Chamber survey release (June 24); Feth, Edmonton Journal (June 26); Alberta.ca, Fair Deal Panel
Canada West Foundation: Alberta in Confederation (Sept. 3, 2026), chapters by Morton, Newman, Doerr, Kaplan (with appendix tables) and Legge, and the Board’s Afterword
What none addresses: Elections Alberta, Senate nominee elections; Research Co. (Aug. 24–26); Carter launch post for Alberta’s Voice; Wesley, Substack (Sept. 14)
I am so pleased to read this objective and thorough presentation of the Remain side. Like many other autonomists I have been asking for arguments to justify remaining in Canada and receiving the equivalent of "it's obvious". It isn't.