Would you believe that support for Alberta independence is highest among individuals from province's First Nations? NDP MLA Brooks Arcand-Paul certainly couldn't accept this as being reality, taking his complaints to the legislature floor.

Arcand-Paul accused the Act For Alberta poll as being “misinformation,” despite being conducted by reputable pollsters Mainstreet Research. The MLA also falsely attributed the story to Rebel News boss Ezra Levant, despite it being covered by editor-in-chief Sheila Gunn Reid.

On this week's Western-focused Buffalo Roundtable livestream, Sheila, alongside co-host Lise Merle and panellists Keith Wilson and Cory Morgan, dug into this attack on the poll's findings.

“It's the same poll that found 30% are hardline separatists,” something the NDP are comfortable with frequently referring to, noted Sheila. “But they throw out the other data from the same poll because it's politically inconvenient for them.”

Pushing back against Arcand-Paul's claims of speaking to Indigenous Albertans who opposed separation, “is anecdotal” and “not scientific polling” like the one conducted by Mainstreet for Act For Alberta.

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The MLA's comments were an example of “confirmation bias,” asserted Western Standard columnist Cory Morgan, who said Arcand-Paul was attempting to dispute the poll's credibility because he did not like its findings.

The polling “turns the narrative around” regarding First Nations' views of independence, he said.

Presumptions put forward by the NDP and legacy media would suggest there's minimal support for independence, Cory continued, suggesting Indigenous Albertans were similarly fed up with the “status quo” because “they're suffering more than any other identifiable category in Western Canada.”

Rebel co-host Lise Merle said Arcand-Paul was presenting the issue as though “there was only one side to this story.” The poll revealed why independent media outlets were “imperative” to covering the topic because it “revealed the truth.”

Keith Wilson, a constitutional lawyer who has been involved in the independence movement, pointed out that a large number of canvassers collecting signatures for the Stay Free Alberta petition were from First Nations groups.

“Every canvasser I've talked to has remarked about how they had First Nations people sign,” he said.

“The most important point,” he added, was that a small number of First Nations leaders speaking out and bringing a legal challenge against the petition, “did so without the direction of their communities.”