The "Alberta First" Dream: The Five Giant Walls We'd Have to Climb
The Independent Alberta movement is saying Alberta should be its own country.
They say we’d be richer, freer, and call all the shots.
It sounds good, almost too good to be true.
Medicine Hat - Jan 28 2026 - Photo Kelly Allard
The Owl takes a dive into the claims.
Leaving Canada isn’t like walking out of a room. It’s like deciding to build a new house in the middle of a highway. Before we could even start, we’d have to solve some huge problems. Canada would have to agree to help us with every single one.
The Alberta Prosperity Project seems to be spearheading the charge towards an Independent Alberta. They have said that these issues will have to be negotiated.
The APP is absolutely correct, they will have to be negotiated.
The APP has also said that if negotiations are unsuccessful, they would unilaterally declare Alberta to be independent. (That comes with a whole set of issues in itself but for now, we will put that aside. Suffice it to say it will be a nasty divorce.)
Here are the five walls we must overcome
Wall #1: The Job Wall (“Can I Still Work?”)
The Dream: “Everyone gets to keep their Canadian citizenship! You can work anywhere!”
The Problem: Canada has to give us that. What if they say no? If they’re angry we left, they could say, “You chose Alberta. You’re not Canadian anymore.”
If Canada Says NO: Any Albertan working elsewhere in Canada could lose their job. Companies would have to hire Canadians first. We’d be stuck looking for work only inside Alberta, with 4 million people instead of 40 million.
Even if Canada Says YES: Working in another province means figuring out which country’s healthcare covers you, and filing taxes in two places. It gets messy fast.
Wall #2: The Trucker’s Wall (“Can My Load Get Through?”)
The Dream: “Trade will be easy! We have what they need!”
The Problem: Every road out of Alberta becomes an international border like going into the USA. Think big delays, inspections, and mountains of new paperwork. (More details in an upcoming article.)
The Rules: Trucking regulations in place for decades prohibit foreign companies hauling interprovincial loads. There is little to no chance that Alberta trucking companies will be permitted special freedoms that American and Mexican companies do not get. This makes everything that is shipped more expensive.
Wall #3: The Grocery Store Wall (“Why is Everything More Expensive?”)
The Problem: It’s not just trucks. That can of soup, that bag of flour, the parts to fix a tractor - if it isn’t made in Alberta, it now has to cross a new border. Companies add a “border fee” to cover their new hassles.
The Result: Higher prices at the checkout. Even eggs and beef from Alberta farms will cost more, because the feed, vet medicine, and truck parts to produce them got more expensive.
Wall #4: The Pension & Healthcare Wall (“Is My Safety Net Gone?”)
The Dream: “We’ll have our own systems!” and Grandma’s CPP is safe
The Problem: Yes, anybody who paid into the CPP can get CPP paid in many foreign countries even if they are not a Canadian citizen. The OAS and GIS? Not so simple - the Owl already wrote about this. Analyzing The APP Claims - Is Grandma’s CPP Safe?
Jan 28 2026
The sign on the truck outside the signing event in Medicine Hat is misleading.
It says CPP contributions will drop from 9.8% to 5.9%.
Employee/ employer CPP contributions have always been equal. Currently the employee pays 5.95% and employer pays 5.95% for a total of 11.9%.
Healthcare: If you get sick while working in BC, would Alberta Healthcare pay? Would Canada’s system cover you? No one knows. You might need expensive cross-border insurance. If you're as old as dirt, you may not be covered at all.
Wall #5: The “Who’s In Charge?” Wall (Passports and Power)
The Problem: Right now, a Canadian passport is powerful. It lets you travel or work almost anywhere easily.
The New Reality: An Alberta passport would be brand new and weak. We’d likely need visas to visit the US, the UK, or even to go work in Saskatchewan. Our kids, born in the new Alberta, would get this weaker passport, not the strong Canadian one.
The Bitter Truth: Some parents might drive to BC or Saskatchewan to have their baby, just so their child gets a Canadian passport and a better future.
The Biggest Myth: “Canada Needs Us, So They’ll Give Us Everything.”
Sure, Canada likes our oil and wheat. But they also have laws, politicians, and voters in other provinces who would be furious if we got a sweetheart deal after leaving.
They could play hardball. They could say:
“Fine, take your oil. But your trucks can’t use our ports in Vancouver.”
“Okay, be independent. But your citizens are foreigners now. No automatic right to work here.”
“We’ll trade, but you have to pay a huge fee to use our highways to get your goods to the coast.”
The Bottom Line:
Going it alone isn’t a simple decision. It’s a list of a hundred incredibly difficult negotiations where we don’t hold all the cards. We’d be betting our jobs, our prices, and our children’s future on the hope that a country we just left will be nice to us.
The dream is of more freedom and control.
But the first, hard truth of independence is that you need your old neighbour’s permission for almost everything—and there’s no guarantee they’ll say yes.
It will not be an easy row to hoe.
