Political science professor Andre Lecours of the University of Ottawa said, “There are no significant secessionist movements that hinge only on fiscal and economic grievances,” and that he found Alberta’s movement puzzling.

The professor is flummoxed, confused and stumped as to how an independence movement has blossomed in Alberta.

He went further in stating “It’s unseen, unheard of, that people who don’t identify with a nation different from the country they live in would want independence,”

Perhaps the perplexed professor should consider actually spending some time in Alberta. It could ease some of his confusion.

Like many if not most Laurentians within the Canadian establishment, Lecours hasn’t paid close attention to Alberta, much less tried to understand it. If the colony is more than a day’s drive from Toronto, it can’t be of much significance.

The professor is correct in noting that significant secessionist movements have deeper underpinnings than just economic beefs with the country. Alberta is no exception to that rule.

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Alberta’s culture is distinct and an increasing number of Albertans are identifying as a nation apart from Canada. This is why the independence movement has been enduring and why it will take more than building a pipeline to defuse it.

In Quebec, the distinction between French and English makes the cultural differences starker. But culture is much more than simply language.

Professor Lecours echoed the same simplistic misunderstanding of Alberta’s movement that Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet did, when in 2025 he implied Alberta’s culture revolved around little more than oil and gas production.

Alberta’s culture is no less distinct than that of Newfoundland or Quebec.

It’s a culture built on individualism and personal freedoms. It has a sense of community, personal values and personal responsibility.

Albertan’s have a collective conscience, but it involves reaching out to help neighbours rather than expecting the state to do so.

The province was built by tough settlers in what was considered a frontier only a little more than a century ago. And it still is a figurative frontier as ambitious people choose to move to Alberta take a chance, make their fortune, and raise a family in a safe society with moral values.

All of those cultural trappings are being threatened by Canada’s central government.

Economic injustices light the flames of the independence movement in Alberta. But it’s the threats to Alberta’s culture that created the solid uprising in the province.

It’s ironic that in demonstrating such confusion over why Alberta isn’t content within the federation, a professor is doing exactly the sort of thing that fostered the discontent in the first place without even knowing it.