Roger Bablitz leans under the bonnet to fix his 1976 purple Chevrolet Stepside pick-up truck, while an American flag billows in the wind nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump, he\u2019s a good guy. I don\u2019t mind him,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Bablitz, a 54-year-old single manual labourer, is not in the US. He is in High River, a small town in southern Alberta.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecoming the 51st US state wouldn\u2019t hurt my feelings,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be better if we do join the States or just separate from Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separatist sentiments have been energised in Alberta<\/a>, the western Canadian province that is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the US and has always considered itself a little bit different than the rest of Canada. <\/p>\n Its independence movement poses a threat to Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s push for national unity and his ability to respond to the economic threats unleashed by Trump, the US president.<\/p>\n This turmoil has been amplified by premier Danielle Smith, the 54-year-old United Conservative party leader who regularly rails against Ottawa and has opened the door to an independence referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cAlbertans have had enough,\u201d she told the Financial Times in an interview. \u201cAlbertans can be pushed and pushed to a point, and then it just boils over.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith said she was against separating from Canada<\/a> or Trump\u2019s idea of joining the US. But she has turned up the heat on these simmering tensions. <\/p>\n The day after Carney won the national election in April, she introduced a law that lowers the threshold to hold a provincial vote on whether Alberta should breakaway from Canada. From next month, only 177,000 signatures are needed for a referendum petition, down from 600,000.<\/p>\n Dennis Modry, a retired heart surgeon and co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a \u201cpro-sovereignty, referendum movement\u201d, said a referendum could be held as early as next year. \u201cWe already have well over 250,000 people that will sign that petition,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the polls tell a different story. <\/p>\n Only 29 per cent of Albertans support the idea of Alberta becoming its own country, according to a May Leger survey,<\/a> while the Angus Reid Institute <\/a>reported that at least 36 per cent of Albertans wanted a vote to leave Canada while highlighting similar tensions exist in neighbouring Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n On Monday, the separatist Republican Party of Alberta came third in a by-election\u00a0dominated by Smith\u2019s United Conservative party.<\/p>\n However, support for independence has jumped by 5 points since 2021, back to levels seen during the pandemic when many voters chafed at Ottawa\u2019s tight Covid-19 restrictions, according to data from Janet Brown Opinion Research. <\/p>\n Smith is walking a fine line. \u201cI\u2019ll let the process play out,\u201d she said. \u201cMy job is to make the case for a strong Alberta within a united Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n This week, she launched the Alberta Next Panel, a group of elected officials and business and community leaders that will travel the province holding town hall meetings about how to \u201cstand up to Ottawa\u2019s over-reach\u201d and improve their economy.<\/p>\n Canada is no stranger to an identity crisis. French-speaking Quebec in the country\u2019s east held unsuccessful votes for independence in 1980 and 1995. <\/p>\n Now, it is the west that is voicing its frustration, particularly over how their abundant oil reserves pay for less prosperous provinces. <\/p>\n But even if a \u201cYes\u201d vote wins more than 50 per cent of the vote, independence could only happen after long negotiations with Ottawa and other provinces. It also has to contend with First Nations groups that are fiercely against the idea. <\/p>\n Since the first railway was built westwards more than a century ago, agricultural and oil-producing westerners have felt resentment towards the \u201cLaurentian elite\u201d who live in the eastern cities of Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto and tend to overlook western provinces\u2019 contributions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe continue to be a colony serving the interests of the East,\u201d said Modry. \u201cWe are pillaged and plundered for our wealth, we have values shoved down our throats that don\u2019t align with values of people here.\u201d<\/p>\n Albertans predominately vote conservative and regularly find themselves at odds with Ottawa, who they accuse of over-reach or unfair policies that cost them billions every year.<\/p>\n Smith said the anger today is the result of a decade of Liberal party rule under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose climate-focused agenda, such as the carbon tax, was \u201cdevastating to families\u201d and stifled industry.<\/p>\n![\"Alberta](\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fd747fe61-77d2-457b-b109-623237cb2152.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1\")
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