Calgary mayor suggests independence petitioners are "deranged" as Quebec sends Ottawa a message

Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle compare how the media treats Quebec's "sovereigntists" and Alberta's "separatists."

On Tuesday's live stream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle reacted to the Parti Québécois minority win in Quebec, drawing parallels between that province's push for sovereignty and Alberta's upcoming independence referendum.

Sheila pointed to a new AlbertaFactCheck.com column by Cory Morgan arguing that the Federation is strained from east to west. Quebec's grievances with Ottawa may differ from Alberta's, Morgan writes, but both provinces see the federal government as the root of their problems.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has promised a third sovereignty referendum, though not before 2029 and not without opposition votes in a minority legislature.

Sheila said Quebec's vote will be read as a message to Ottawa, while Alberta's push is dismissed as a fringe movement. She noted that CTV News described Quebec's incoming government as "sovereigntist" while repeatedly labelling Alberta's movement "separatism" — language that emphasizes breaking the country apart rather than self-government.

"We can't even be treated the same when we're talking about doing the exact same thing," she said.

The hosts then reacted to comments from Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas on CBC, where he told Albertans who want independence to move to the United States and suggested some petition signers are "deranged" and "useful idiots."

Sheila asserted that Farkas was pandering to Ottawa elites while denigrating the hundreds of thousands of Calgarians who signed the petition to trigger a referendum — a number she suggested exceeds the votes he received to become mayor.

She added that Albertans have legitimate grievances over immigration, stalled pipelines and strained hospitals, and that recognizing those problems is not deranged.

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COMMENTS

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  • Bernhard Jatzeck
    commented 2026-10-07 14:16:17 -0400 Flag
    Farkas sounds like he has so many screws loose that he could keep Rona well-supplied. Rod Sykes and Ross Alger, please come back—all is forgiven.
  • Bernhard Jatzeck
    commented 2026-10-07 14:02:41 -0400 Flag
    JF: Edmonton isn’t much better.
  • Jamie Fuller
    commented 2026-10-07 13:44:53 -0400 Flag
    Mayor Farkas calls himself queer and calls independence supporters deranged. Sounds like he’s a childish name-caller, not a serious person. Why do these flakes keep getting elected in Alberta?