University of Alberta political science professor Jared Wesley is again characterizing Alberta’s independence movement as having racial and religious undertones, this time suggesting many supporters envision an independent Alberta as predominantly white and Christian.

But the evidence presented does not establish that this is what the broader independence movement wants.

In an interview with Global News, Wesley said his conclusions are based on two years of attending rallies and town halls, monitoring social media, and conducting surveys and focus groups.

“For a lot of folks, not everyone, but for a lot of folks in the separatist movement they have a very different view of what Alberta should be,” Wesley said.

He told Global that many within the movement see an independent Alberta as predominantly white and Christian and said discussions of so-called “white replacement theory” are not unusual at independence town halls.

Those are serious allegations.

But anecdotes from rallies, chat rooms and social media do not demonstrate that those views are representative of hundreds of thousands of Albertans supporting a referendum or independence.

In fact, Wesley's own previous research complicates that characterization.

Go Ad Free

Writing about research conducted with political scientist Lisa Young, Wesley acknowledged that Alberta separatists “tend to be driven more by economic than cultural motivations.”

Those motivations included perceptions of economic unfairness, unequal treatment by Ottawa and federal hostility toward Alberta's major industries.

Wesley also noted demographic differences among independence supporters, including that they were more likely to be Canadian-born, white, male, rural and religious.

But he then made an important qualification: “when you control statistically for multiple factors, demographics don’t do most of the explanatory work.”

That is considerably different from portraying the movement as motivated by a desire to create a predominantly white Christian Alberta.

Nor does holding Christian prayers at political gatherings establish a racial objective. Christianity is a religion, not a race, and Christian communities in Alberta include people from virtually every racial and ethnic background.

Likewise, concern about immigration levels is not, by itself, evidence of racism or “replacement theory.” Five of the October referendum questions deal with immigration policy, including reducing immigration to what the government describes as sustainable levels and determining eligibility for provincially funded services.

Premier Danielle Smith's office rejected the suggestion that those questions are racist.

“Any accusation that the referendum questions on sustainable immigration constitute racism is false and inflammatory,” spokesperson Sam Blackett told Global News.

There may certainly be individuals within Alberta's independence movement who hold racist or conspiratorial views, just as fringe views can exist within any large political movement.

But demonstrating that some people have expressed those views is not the same thing as demonstrating that they characterize the movement itself.

If survey or focus-group research demonstrates that a substantial portion of independence supporters actually want an Alberta defined by race or religion, that data should be published and scrutinized.

Until then, anecdotes about people encountered at rallies, town halls or online cannot establish what hundreds of thousands of Albertans believe.